Direct Air Capture Plant | mysimulator.uk

Plant Controls

Fan speed (airflow) 1.0x

Ambient CO₂ 420 ppm

Regeneration temp 900°C

Sorbent capacity standard

Plant Output

CO₂ captured

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Capture rate

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Energy used

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kWh / ton CO₂

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Bank A

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Bank B

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How it works

A DAC plant does not chase a smokestack — it pulls CO₂ straight out of ordinary outdoor air, where it sits at only ~420 parts per million. Fans push ambient air through a honeycomb contactor coated in a solid sorbent. CO₂ molecules stick to the sorbent surface (adsorption); everything else passes through. Two contactor banks alternate: while Bank A is capturing, Bank B is sealed off and heated to drive the CO₂ back off the sorbent (desorption / regeneration) as a concentrated stream ready for storage or use, then it swaps back. That heat is the dominant cost of DAC — roughly 200–800 kWh per tonne of CO₂ depending on sorbent chemistry and regeneration temperature.

capture rate ∝ airflow · [CO₂]ambient · (1 − saturation)
d(saturation)/dt = k_ads·rate  (capturing)  −  k_des·f(T)  (regenerating)
energy (kWh) ≈ Σ regen_time · T · const

Fan speed — more airflow means more CO₂ molecules reach the sorbent per second, but a saturated bank still can't absorb more.
Ambient CO₂ — the real atmospheric concentration DAC fights against; a higher value models a stack-adjacent or enclosed-space application rather than open air.
Regeneration temperature — higher heat drives desorption faster but burns more energy per tonne; this is the central engineering trade-off in DAC design (liquid-solvent plants run hotter and faster, solid-sorbent plants run cooler and slower).
Sorbent capacity — how much CO₂ a unit of sorbent can hold before it saturates, a proxy for sorbent material quality.

Real-world relevance: this two-bank swap (capture / regenerate) is exactly how commercial solid-sorbent DAC plants like Climeworks' Orca operate, continuously alternating banks so the plant never fully stops capturing.

CO₂ (ambient) Bank capturing Bank regenerating Released CO₂ → storage

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