Direct Air Capture in support of a Circular Carbon Economy
Our current liquid fossil fuel infrastructure is a linear progression from well to wheel to atmospheric CO2. This infrastructure is very efficient, globally interlinked and has developed over a century of practice. How can we leverage this infrastructure in the context of the energy transition from fossil resources to renewables? Where does it provide distinct advantages relative to infrastructure that moves electrons rather than hydrocarbons? In this talk I will address some of the challenges and opportunities with the integration of renewable energy and direct air carbon capture to produce synthetic hydrocarbons that circularize our technological carbon cycle.
Biography
Professor Realff (BChE, Imperial College, U.K., Ph.D. ChE, MIT, U.S.A) is the David Wang Senior Faculty Fellow in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech where he has been a faculty member since 1993. Professor Realff’s overall research interests are in process and sustainable systems engineering. His primary research foci are process modeling for CO2 capture processes and biomolecular systems engineering to produce biochemicals and biofuels. He is co-director of the Georgia Tech center on Direct Air Capture – DirACC. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
