Direct air capture (DAC) is a technology that filters out carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere at extremely low concentrations (below 400 ppm). A KAIST research team has now succeeded in capturing more than 95% high-purity carbon dioxide using only low power at the level of smartphone charging voltage (3V), without hot steam or complex facilities.
While high energy cost has been the biggest obstacle for conventional DAC technologies, this study is regarded as a breakthrough demonstrating real commercialization potential. Overseas patent applications have already been filed, and because it can be easily linked with renewable energy such as solar and wind power, the technology is being highlighted as a game changer for accelerating the transition to carbon-neutral processes.
Professor Dong-Yeun Koh’s research team from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, in collaboration with Professor T. Alan Hatton’s group at MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering, developed this world-first ultra-efficient e-DAC (Electrified Direct Air Capture) technology based on conductive silver nanofibers.
Conventional DAC processes require high-temperature steam (more than 100℃) in the regeneration stage, where absorbed or adsorbed carbon dioxide is separated again. This process consumes about 70% of the total energy, making energy efficiency crucial, and requires complex heat-exchange systems, which makes cost reduction difficult.
The joint research team solved this problem with fibers that heat themselves electrically, adopting Joule heating, a method that generates heat by directly passing electricity through fibers, similar to an electric blanket. By heating only where needed without an external heat source, energy loss was drastically reduced.
This technology can rapidly heat fibers to 110℃ within 80 seconds with only 3V—the energy level of smartphone charging. This shortens adsorption–desorption cycles dramatically even in low-power environments, while reducing unnecessary heat loss by about 20% compared to existing technologies.
The core of this research was not just making conductive fibers, but realizing a breathable conductive coating that achieves both electrical conductivity and gas diffusion. The results are published in the journal Advanced Materials.
The team uniformly coated porous fiber surfaces with a composite of silver nanowires and nanoparticles, forming a layer about 3 micrometers (µm) thick—much thinner than a human hair. This 3D continuous porous structure allowed excellent electrical conductivity while securing pathways for CO₂ molecules to move smoothly into the fibers, enabling uniform, rapid heating and efficient CO₂ capture simultaneously.
Furthermore, when multiple fibers were modularized and connected in parallel, the total resistance dropped below 1 ohm (Ω), proving scalability to large-scale systems. The team succeeded in recovering more than 95% high-purity CO₂ under real atmospheric conditions.
This achievement was the result of five years of in-depth research. Remarkably, in late 2022, long before the paper’s publication, the core technology had already been filed for PCT and domestic/international patents (WO2023068651A1, countries entered: US, EP, JP, AU, CN), securing foundational intellectual property rights. This indicates that the technology is not only highly advanced but also developed with practical commercialization in mind beyond the laboratory level.
The biggest innovation of this technology is that it runs solely on electricity, making it very easy to integrate with renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. It perfectly matches the needs of global companies that have declared RE100 and seek carbon-neutral process transitions.
Professor Dong-Yeun Koh of KAIST said, “Direct air capture (DAC) is not just a technology for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, but a key means of achieving ‘negative emissions’ by purifying the air itself. The conductive fiber-based DAC technology we developed can be applied not only to industrial sites but also to urban systems, significantly contributing to Korea’s leap as a leading nation in future DAC technologies.”
More information:
Young Hun Lee et al, Design of Electrified Fiber Sorbents for Direct Air Capture with Electrically‐Driven Temperature Vacuum Swing Adsorption, Advanced Materials (2025). DOI: 10.1002/adma.202504542
Provided by
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Citation:
Fiber technology achieves high-purity CO₂ capture with smartphone-level power consumption (2025, August 25)
