SESACOO

Selective carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere using electrochemical swing adsorption on sustainable carbon materials.

SESACOO addresses the need for scalable, sustainable carbon dioxide removal technologies by advancing supercapacitive swing adsorption as a fully electric direct air capture method. The consortium designs novel carbon-based adsorbents, studies and models interfacial processes, engineers a demonstrator reactor, and evaluates the process with life-cycle and techno-economic analyses based on industrial requirements.

Project management

Prof. Dr. Martin Oschatz
University of Jena

Projekt duration

01.03.2026 – 28.02.2029

Project partner

Prof. Dr. Stefan Kaskel, Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden)|Prof. Dr. Thomas D. Kühne, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf e.V. – Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (HZDR-CASUS)|Dr. Benjamin Schumm, Fraunhofer-Institut für Werkstoff- und Strahltechnik (Fraunhofer IWS)|Antje Bulmann, Airbus Operations GmbH|Dr. Tilmann Neubert, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena|, Helmholtz-Institut für Polymere in Energieanwendungen Jena (HIPOLE Jena)

Project goals

Direct air capture (DAC) of carbon dioxide (CO₂) is a concept that addresses the manmade rising level of the main greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. In DAC, CO₂ is filtered selectively from the air and concentrated into a pure gas stream. After capture, the CO₂ is available for further steps, like storage or utilization. The current technological solutions for DAC are expensive and consume a lot of energy. Therefore, new and improved DAC technologies are required. The SESACOO project advances such an innovative technology utilizing supercapacitive swing adsorption (SSA). SSA operates with electricity, which makes the capture/release-cycle inherently more efficient than comparable processes that rely on heat or pressure.

In SSA, a supercapacitor – a device, that stores energy by forcing two electrodes connected by an electrolyte into oppositely charged states – is used. What makes it special is that at least one electrode is open towards the atmosphere to allow the CO₂ in the air to interact with the supercapacitor. Under certain conditions, the CO₂ prefers to enter the supercapacitor, while it is released from the supercapacitor under others.

Some of the most interesting advantages of this concept are the required materials: The electrodes can be made from biochar, while the electrolyte is made from water and salt. Therefore, SSA could be developed into a very environmentally friendly DAC concept.

The aim of SESACOO is to understand the capture and release processes in detail and to turn it into a practical, fully electric DAC technology. A small demonstrator plant will show that CO₂ can be removed at real atmospheric concentrations and that the process is robust enough for later scale up. The consortium also checks environmental impacts and costs through life cycle and techno economic analyses, to see whether this method can truly provide scalable, climate friendly carbon dioxide removal.