Modeling and control of heating and heat circulation in direct air capture system

Direct air capture (DAC) is a critical technology for mitigating climate change. However, the high heat consumption of temperature vacuum swing adsorption (TVSA)-based DAC processes hinders its widespread deployment. This study focuses on developing a control strategy to optimize the energy efficiency of the TVSA heating phase. A novel adsorbent temperature estimation method, validated through experimental data, was integrated into a cascaded PI controller with a fuzzy gain scheduler (FGS). Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed control strategy effectively regulates the heating process, achieving a potential energy saving of up to 14%. This work contributes to enhancing the feasibility and sustainability of DAC technologies. • More responsive heating dynamics with PI-Controller fuzzy gain scheduling. • Precise and stable adsorbent temperature estimation with virtual sensor. • Energy savings with additional process phase in direct air capture system. • Process improvement for the TVSA direct air capture process.