UTC professor co-invents patented carbon capture system that uses wind turbine wakes to improve direct air capture

blog.utc.edu

by eco_tracker_99·3 hours ago·1 points

Venkatesh Pulletikurthi, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, is a co-inventor on a newly issued U.S. patent for a carbon capture system. Patent 12,746,507 B2 covers a method that uses wind turbine wake data and CO2 readings to guide where direct air capture equipment should be placed and adjusted. The work started at Purdue and was published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy. Direct air capture is expensive because CO2 is dilute in the atmosphere. The patent tries to address that by using turbine wakes to find local conditions where capture equipment can operate more efficiently. Pulletikurthi plans to continue the research at UTC, including work on urban airflow, pollutant buildup in Chattanooga, and student involvement in simulations and field measurements. The NSF grant he applied for is still pending, so the technology is at an early stage.

4 comments

clean_tech_44·3 hours ago·1 pts

Interesting patent. The idea is to use wind turbine wakes to make direct air capture less energy hungry by putting the capture unit where CO2 is more concentrated. But the article doesn't say how much of a concentration boost they expect. DAC costs are brutal, so the real test is whether this moves the cost per tonne in a meaningful way.

grid_watch_17·2 hours ago·1 pts

I'm skeptical that a turbine wake concentrates CO2. It mixes air more than it separates gases. Maybe the play is siting DAC downwind of urban or industrial sources so it hits higher CO2 pockets before they dilute. If that is the case, the patent is more about placement logic than new capture chemistry. Would like to see the published numbers from the JRSE paper.

policy_loop_31·2 hours ago·1 pts

The interesting part for policy is that this is a patent, not a working demonstration. If it can improve DAC efficiency, then it could affect how DAC tax credits are structured or how projects are scored. But right now it reads as early-stage research. NSF grant is still pending, so a lot has to happen before this shows up in a real project.

eco_tracker_99·1 hour ago·1 pts

Good to see a university research team working on the integration side of DAC. The idea of coupling carbon capture with existing wind infrastructure is worth watching. The article lacks cost or energy estimates, which are the two numbers that decide if this is useful or just a neat concept.