2024 R&D 100 Award for MBE-DAC: Multifunctional Building Equipment for Direct Air Capture

MBE-DAC turns existing rooftop air-conditioning and ventilation equipment into direct air capture, or DAC, platforms to capture carbon dioxide from the air and the building’s ventilation airstreams. The technology collects carbon dioxide directly from air that passes through it by utilizing existing commercial and domestic air-handling systems without adding significant cost and energy consumption. The carbon dioxide is collected on a solid sorbent developed at ORNL and is pure enough to be recycled in chemical processes. The sorbent can also be regenerated and reused. MBE-DAC is designed to be fitted to heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, or HVAC, and other air-handling systems using a modular approach for installation in residential and commercial buildings.

The research was funded by DOE’s Fossil Energy and Carbon Management.

The technology was developed by ORNL staff Kashif Nawaz, Brian Fricke, Costas Tsouris, Michelle Kidder, Chris Janke, Xin Sun, Josh Thompson, Kai Li, Cheng-Min Yang, Steve Kowalski, Keju An, Jamieson Brechtl and Tugba Turnaoglu.