COMET: Carbonation Of Metal-oxide Engineering Techniques

The COMET project utilises both chemistry and engineering perspectives to investigate the effectiveness of different types of metal oxide materials and gas-liquid contactors for passive sorption of ambient CO2 and subsequent mineralization. The project uses aqueous systems to explore the carbonation extents of various metal oxide sorbents hydrated by liquid water to determine the material types and sorbent solid to liquid ratios that present the highest rates of carbonation under natural atmospheric conditions of temperature, pressure, relative humidity, and partial pressure of CO2. Additionally, the project considers the challenge of raising gas-liquid contact surface area and lowering sorbent layer thickness to facilitate high levels of CO2 mass transfer while adhering to necessary contactor size and energy constraints. The goal of COMET is to develop an optimised contactor for direct air capture (DAC) reliant on aqueous metal oxide sorbents with high carbonation efficiencies.