RU2813572C2 - High-performance device for direct capture of co2 from air and method of its operation - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: gas separation.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to gas separation by means of adsorption. A separation unit for separating at least one gaseous component from a gas mixture containing that component, in particular for direct air capture, including CO₂ capture from air, wherein the separation unit comprises at least one adjacent and sealing element surrounding a wall enclosing circumferentially at least one cavity, said at least one adjacent and sealing element of the surrounding wall defines an upstream opening and an opposite downstream opening of at least one said cavity, said cavity containing at least one gas adsorption structure (4) for adsorption of said at least one gaseous component, preferably under conditions of pressure and/or ambient temperature, wherein the separation unit further comprises a pair of opposing sliding doors for sealing the upstream opening and the downstream opening, respectively, of the at least one cavity in closed state, and wherein each of the pair of opposing sliding doors for opening the closed cavity is configured to move in a direction substantially parallel to the plane of the corresponding sliding door to open the upstream opening and the downstream opening, respectively, and allow the passage of the gas mixture through a gas adsorption structure.

EFFECT: creation of an improved structure for gas separation processes.

15 cl, 8 dwg, 1 tbl, 1 ex

Description

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY TO WHICH THE INVENTION RELATES

The present invention relates to a new high-performance gas separation device, in particular for direct air capture, for example CO ₂ capture from air, providing, in particular, high cross-sectional flow, low pressure drops, low thermal mass, a small number of small structural elements and high efficiency. A method for operating such devices and parts of such devices, such as new movable door systems for sealing gas separation structures, is also proposed.

BACKGROUND OF THE ART

Gas separation by adsorption has many different industrial applications, such as the removal of a specific component from a gas stream, where the desired product may be either the component removed from the stream, the remaining lean stream, or both. Thus, the adsorption process can be aimed at both microcomponents and the main components of the gas flow. One important application is the capture of carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) from gas streams, such as flue gases, exhaust gases, industrial waste gases or atmospheric air. Capturing CO ₂ directly from the atmosphere, called direct air capture (DAC), is one of several means of mitigating anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and has attractive economic prospects as a non-fossil, location-independent source of CO ₂ for the commodity market. and production of synthetic fuels.

In particular, one approach for DAC is based on a cyclic adsorption/desorption process on solid, chemically functionalized sorbents. For example, patent documents WO-A-2016005226 and WO-A-2017009241 disclose processes based on cyclic adsorption/desorption using, respectively, steam and a suitable amine functionalized sorbent for recovering carbon dioxide from ambient air. In addition, patent document WO 2019/092128 discloses another class of sorbents based on potassium carbonate functionalization, also suitable for cyclic CO ₂ adsorption/desorption processes.

The adsorption process typically occurs under atmospheric conditions, where air is passed through the sorbent and a portion of the CO ₂ contained in the air is chemically and/or physically bound/adsorbed on the surface or within the adsorbents.

In subsequent CO ₂ desorption, the adsorbent is usually heated and, in some cases, the partial pressure of carbon dioxide surrounding the sorbent can be reduced (pressure swing adsorption (PSA)) using a vacuum or exposing the sorbent to purge gas flow, such as, but not limited to, steam. Thus, previously captured carbon dioxide will be removed from the sorbent and obtained in concentrated form.

One of the major challenges for energy- and cost-effective implementation of DAC arises from the low concentration of CO ₂ in the ambient air (nominally around 400 ppm as of 2019) and the delivery of the correspondingly large volumes of ambient air required to a suitable gas separation structure. Suitable gas separation structures containing an enclosed sorbent have been presented in patent documents US 2017/0326494 and WO-A-2018083109 and can be used in adsorption/desorption processes of gas batches in which the said sorbent-containing structure requires alternating exposure to high-volume air flow (adsorption/contact), and then desorption conditions characterized by elevated temperatures and/or vacuum pressure, for example up to 10 mbar (abs). This requires chamber-type structures that, on the one hand, allow the sorbent to be exposed to high-volume atmospheric air flow for CO2 adsorption, and on the other hand, can properly isolate the sorbent from the surrounding air during desorption and withstand sorbent temperatures up to 130°C, a mixture of CO ₂ , air and water in the form of vapor and liquid, and, in some cases, a vacuum pressure of up to 10 mbar (abs) or lower (if vacuum is necessary for desorption). One such suitable structure is the apparatus disclosed in patent document WO-A-2015185434. In general, an infrastructure that, firstly, minimizes the pressure drop across the adsorption stream and, secondly, allocates the largest portion of said pressure drop to the portion of the plant that actually captures the CO ₂ is particularly advantageous.

There are many examples of cyclic adsorption/desorption processes in the prior art, which typically occur in long, narrow, thick-walled columns with small flow cross-sections. These devices are used to separate gases based on pressure and/or vacuum fluctuations and typically operate with very short cycle times of a few seconds to a few minutes, during which their thermal mass or thermal inertia plays little role. In addition, the devices are typically exposed to high-pressure flows with high adsorbate concentrations and can therefore use orifices and flow channels that are significantly smaller than their cross-sectional area because the pressure drops across these elements are relatively small. For example, US 8,034,164 relates to multiple parallel swing adsorption columns and discloses column design and assembly details, flow control details and cycle optimization. US 6,878,186 relates to a method and apparatus for pure vacuum short-cycle desorption in a classical adsorption column, as well as to methods and apparatus for classical adsorption columns. Some prior art systems, such as WO-A-2013117827, disclose a gas separation structure based on parallel passages that do tend to reduce pressure drop while being contained within a cylindrical pressure vessel for PSA processes.

If a vacuum is used for the desorption step, there is a problem of pressure drop in the inlet and outlet gas control structures. A number of prior art systems use large motorized rotary bonnets, hereinafter referred to as dampers or dampers, which are typically not rated for pressure drops greater than 0.2 bar. Some check valves are specially designed for vacuum applications, but they must have a significant thickness of material and limited dimensions to withstand the high forces encountered in vacuum applications. As a consequence, such valves have a high thermal mass during alternating heating/cooling stages and cannot provide the required flow area. In addition, some prior art systems may have drive mechanisms. EP-0 864 819 discloses a rotating hood valve built into the duct for ventilation applications, but not suitable for vacuum applications. US 2005/005609 relates to a wastegate/diverter valve for use in gas turbines, but not suitable for vacuum. GB-A-621195 discloses a curved vacuum cap that tends to reduce material thickness but is inconsistent with the minimum cross-flow pressure drop requirement due to the effective thickness of the cap in the duct. FR-A-1148736 and US 3,857,545 offer actuated vacuum caps and valves that can evacuate air from a container, but they are not suitable for the air flows used in DACs since they are many thousands of times larger.

A particular solution for a DAC with a hinged lid can be found in WO-A-2015185434, however here flow restrictions may reduce the throughput. Some prior art systems for contacting and regenerating solid sorbent in DAC applications involve moving the sorbent and gas separation structure between a first airflow region for adsorption and a second chamber-like region for regeneration, as shown in US 2012/0174779, US 2011Z0296872 and WO -A-2013166432.

JP-A-2009172479 proposes a carbon dioxide remover that can effectively adsorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and remove it only under low heating. The proposed carbon dioxide removal device is equipped with a corresponding adsorption film with a perovskite type structure and a surface exposed to an atmosphere containing carbon dioxide molecules, a heater for heating the carbon dioxide adsorbing film, and an exhauster for pumping out the space around the carbon dioxide adsorbing film. The adsorption film chemically adsorbs carbon dioxide molecules from the atmosphere, and the heater causes the carbon dioxide molecules adsorbed by the corresponding adsorption film to be released.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved structure for gas separation processes, in particular for DAC processes, which has minimal components/minimal components, is easy to operate, provides efficient gas separation processes and is highly reliable for long-term use.

Thus, the present invention provides a separation plant and a separation plant arrangement according to the claims, as well as a method for operating such a separation plant or a separation plant arrangement and the use of these elements, in particular for DAC processes.

More specifically, the present invention provides a separation apparatus for separating at least one gaseous component from a gas mixture containing that component, preferably suitable and adapted for separating carbon dioxide and/or water vapor from ambient air.

The proposed separation installation contains at least one adjacent and sealing element of the surrounding wall, surrounding the circumference of at least one cavity and defining an upstream opening and an opposite downstream opening of this at least one cavity. The device is designed in such a way that the gas mixture in the adsorption phase passes through the upstream hole, then in the transverse direction through the interior of the cavity and through or bypassing the gas adsorption structure located in the cavity, and again exits through the downstream hole, with the entire air flow is preferably substantially linear, except for turbulences and deviations in/on the gas adsorption structure.

The at least one cavity may preferably have a rectangular or square cross-section, in which case a set of four adjacent and sealing surrounding wall elements, a bottom wall element, an opposing top wall element and two opposing side surrounding wall elements are provided connecting the respective ends of the top and lower wall elements and surrounding the circumference of the cavity. Said set of four adjacent and sealing elements of the surrounding wall defines an upstream opening and an opposing downstream opening of the cavity.

If adjacent cavities of the separating installation are located in one group, then adjacent walls of adjacent cavities can be formed by common elements.

When defining a lower wall element and an opposite upper wall element, this does not mean that the corresponding cavity must be oriented in the horizontal direction of flow. It can also be oriented at an angle to the horizontal direction or the flow direction can be vertical. The bottom wall element and the opposing top wall element are generally understood, looking in the direction of the main flow through the cavity, as two elements connecting two side elements of the surrounding wall.

The at least one cavity may also have a polygonal cross-section, for example it may comprise a set of eight adjacent and sealing surrounding wall elements, at least one bottom wall element, at least one opposing top wall element and at least two opposing side walls. surrounding wall elements connecting the respective ends of the upper and lower wall elements directly or through inclined additional wall elements, preferably in this case forming a preferably hexagonal structure, and circumferentially enclosing the cavity, said set of eight adjacent and sealing surrounding wall elements defining the upstream hole and the opposite downstream hole of the cavity.

The proposed principle can be applied to any polygonal or circular cross-sectional shape defined by a substantially cylindrical adjacent and sealing surrounding wall element or a set of wall elements defining a corresponding cavity. Possible, for example, triangular, rectangular, quadrangular, pentagonal, hexagonal, octagonal cross-sectional shapes.

Round structures are also possible. In this case, at least one cavity contains one single round or oval surrounding wall element.

Said at least one cavity contains, or at least allows to contain, at least one gas adsorption structure for adsorption of said at least one gaseous component, preferably at ambient pressure and/or temperature. If the separation unit contains more than one cavity, for example in one group, then each cavity contains or may contain at least one separate gas adsorption structure of this type.

According to the present invention, the separating apparatus includes a pair of opposing sliding doors for sealing the upstream opening and the downstream opening, respectively, of at least one cavity in a closed state. If there is only one cavity, a pair of opposing sliding doors seals the cavity. If more than one cavity is provided, then a pair of opposing sliding doors can simultaneously seal more than one of these cavities (but not necessarily all).

Typically, a pair of opposing sliding doors are mounted in such a way as to synchronously open and close the cavities depending on their operating state.

If more than one cavity is part of a separation arrangement, for example a group of cavities, then a pair of opposing sliding doors are mounted to alternately close only one cavity at a time and then move on to the next cavity and so on, preferably cyclically, as will be detailed. below. In such an array, a pair of opposing sliding doors may also be mounted in a selectable position wherein no cavity is sealed, and preferably all cavities are accessible for flow or other functions not requiring sealing by said pair of opposing sliding doors, as will be discussed in detail below. .

To open at least one cavity, a pair of opposing sliding doors may be slid in a direction substantially parallel to the plane of the corresponding sliding door to open the upstream and downstream openings, respectively, and allow a gas mixture to pass through the respective cavity and located therein. gas adsorption structure. To release the associated sealing mechanism, the sliding movement of the door may include phases in which the door is lifted from the corresponding opening in addition to or simultaneously with the sliding.

Sliding seal door mechanisms as such are known from other applications, but not from the field of gas separation processes, and have never been used for this special equipment, where there is not one door, but a pair of opposing parallel sliding doors acting as seal doors for a cavity having upstream and downstream openings. Indeed, from these other areas and applications, doors of sealing mechanisms are known, for example in US 2015/0157030, GB-A-2420711 and KR-A-20110095014, in each case a single sliding door can alternatively isolate and provide access to the vacuum cavity , and when open, leave a completely free cross-section. However, these systems are not designed to allow gas flow to flow transversely through a vacuum cavity and, accordingly, do not have a second such door or means for directing the gas flow.

The proposed separating installation, in particular, allows the provision of a group of cavities, as will be disclosed below, in which one single pair of sliding doors is used to alternately close and open adjacent cavities containing adsorption structures, and allows cyclic operation of adjacent cavities. An appropriate number of cavities can be combined into such a group, depending, among other things, on the time distribution between adsorption and desorption. If, for example, the ratio between the two phases is 2:1, then a structure in the form of a separation unit containing a group of three cavities and one pair of opposing sliding doors is mounted so as to alternately close one of the cavities in the group during the desorption stages, while how in the other two cavities of the group a transverse through flow of air and/or gas mixture passes and the adsorption process occurs.

In another embodiment of the invention, the sliding doors can be moved to a position outside the group of cavities containing absorbent structures. With such a “neutral” position, the time distribution in the adsorption/desorption process is not related to the geometric structural arrangement of the cavities and the group, since the doors can be installed in this position if there is no need to close the cavity, which allows you to set any desorption and adsorption time. Placing this "neutral" position at the bottom or side of such a group of cavities further provides a safe position for holding the doors during commissioning, maintenance or other work carried out on the adsorption structures within the group.

That is, in a group of cavities, a pair of sliding doors can be located adjacent to it or in the gap between the cavities so as not to seal any cavity and so that all cavities are open to the through flow of the gas mixture, and then the sliding doors can be moved into the cavity where adsorption of the gas mixture has occurred for the longest period of time to seal this next cavity, after which this cavity is conditioned to desorb and extract the gaseous component requiring desorption as needed, or the sliding doors remain in position nearby to carry out commissioning , maintenance or other work on an entire structure or group of cavities.

Preferably, the separation unit allows air to be evacuated from the cavity, which then becomes a vacuum cavity, to a pressure of less than 700 mbar(a) or less than 500 mbar(a), preferably to a pressure of less than 300 mbar(a) or less than 150 mbar(a), or not more than 100 mbar(abs). Preferably, the separation unit, when closed, allows air to be pumped out of the cavity to a pressure in the range of 500-10 mbar(abs).

Preferably, the separation apparatus allows the cavity to be subjected to overpressure (typically relative to normal external pressure of 1.01325 barg to +0.1 barg) or to +0.2 barg or +0.5 barg.

According to a preferred embodiment of the proposed separation installation, the upper and lower wall elements of at least one cavity are arranged parallel to each other, the side wall elements are arranged parallel to each other, and preferably a pair of opposing sliding doors are also arranged parallel to each other.

In addition, the separation unit may comprise, at the upstream opening of at least one cavity containing adsorption structures, or if there is more than one cavity, a plurality of cavities containing adsorption structures, an inlet gas collector in which an upstream sliding door is located, and on downstream of the hole is an exhaust gas collector in which a sliding downstream door is located.

Preferably, if there is more than one cavity containing adsorption structures, the inlet gas collector and/or the outlet gas collector are common to all cavities.

Preferably, one or more preferably movable louvres and/or at least one device for driving gas or air are provided upstream of the inlet gas manifold or as an entrance to the inlet gas manifold, and/or downstream of the outlet gas manifold or as at the exit from the exhaust gas collector, preferably in the exhaust pipe, at least one device for driving gas or air is mounted, preferably in the form of a fan, and/or a set of preferably movable louvres is provided.

One or both sliding doors can be mounted on a pair of top and bottom tracks, or on a pair of tracks on opposite sides of the unit. The guides can be C-shaped. Preferably, the doors are moved in or along these guides by means of rollers, and means are preferably provided which can press the respective door against the corresponding axial surface of the corresponding opening in the closing position, in particular to create a seal, and again move the door away from this position seals to allow the door to slide to clear the corresponding opening, and in addition, the top and bottom tracks along which the door moves (or side tracks if the doors move up and down) may extend beyond the dimensions of the group to allow the door to move into the above neutral position.

The sliding door and/or the corresponding opening of the cavity(s) may be equipped with at least one sealing element around the circumference, preferably in the form of at least one sealing ring and/or sealing layer.

The means for pressing the corresponding door against the corresponding axial surface and releasing the corresponding opening for the door to be retracted may, for example, be equipped with a pair of upper and lower guides mounted on the frame or surrounding walls with the possibility of sliding in the axial direction, preferably using a pneumatic drive.

Preferably, the pair of sliding doors is driven individually or together by a belt, for example mounted on a pair of pulleys.

The axial length of the surrounding wall, i.e. the length of the wall in the through flow direction of the at least one cavity is preferably less than the minimum distance between opposing elements of the surrounding wall.

The surrounding wall may have a rectangular or square cross-section, and the sliding doors in a pair will be rectangular or square respectively.

The drive for shifting a pair of doors can be configured with the possibility of (only) synchronous pairwise-parallel movement of the doors.

In addition, the separating apparatus may contain at least one stabilizing element, preferably in the form of at least one stabilizing strut, in at least one or preferably in all cavities, to ensure sufficient structural strength and, if necessary, withstand vacuum or overpressure conditions. For the same purpose, at least one, preferably both, sliding doors can contain stabilizing elements, preferably in the form of stiffeners, preferably on the outer side relative to the cavity.

As indicated above, according to another particularly preferred aspect of the invention, it relates to a separation unit with not one but more than one cavity, preferably a group of cavities, i.e. comprising at least two, preferably at least three, or at least four, or within 2-8 or 2-6 cavities with surrounding wall elements enclosing the cavities, each cavity containing corresponding gas adsorption structures. Typically, said pair of opposing sliding doors is mounted with the ability to alternately seal one cavity of the separation installation, as well as sequentially another cavity (other cavities). Preferably, said pair of opposing sliding doors is mounted in a selectable position in a group in which no cavity is sealed, and preferably all cavities are accessible to through flow or other functions not requiring sealing by said pair of opposing sliding doors.

The cavities in such a group may contain any of the structures disclosed above, i.e. may have a rectangular, triangular, square, hexagonal, octagonal or circular cross-sectional shape, and preferably all cavities of the separation apparatus have the same cross-sectional shape and size, allowing each of the cavities to be sealed in turn with the same pair of opposing sealing doors.

One advantage of this solution over the state of the art is that the infrastructure of a pair of opposing movable seal doors can be used for many cavities, resulting in cost savings and increased reliability compared to using multiple doors or covers. Additionally, compared to prior art inventions in which the gas separation structure moves in and out of regeneration chambers, the complexity and sensitivity of the moving element is significantly lower, reducing risk. Additionally, in regeneration methods using thermal cycling processes, the doors remain hot as they move between regeneration cavities, thereby reducing the effective thermal mass of the regeneration and therefore energy consumption. Another surprising advantage of the present invention compared to prior art devices used in processes with cyclic fluctuations in pressure and temperature is the amount of structural material of the cavities per unit of enclosed volume, which, due to the common dividing walls, common door and mutually stabilizing surrounding walls in the present invention significantly less than any device in the prior art, resulting in significant reductions in cost, complexity and energy consumption in thermal cycling processes. Finally, compared to prior art devices used to convey flow, an obvious advantage of the invention is the availability of the full cross-section of the cavity as flow area without the obstruction of baffles, caps, valves or other flow restrictors. Accordingly, given the allowable pressure drop "budget", this full value can be applied to the gas adsorption structure held in the cavity through which the gas flow must pass, thereby increasing the volume of gas flows and, in the case of gas separation, the rate of absorption of the relevant substances.

In such a group, the cavities can be located adjacent to each other in one or more rows, and the elements of the surrounding wall of adjacent cavities can be formed by common dividing walls. Preferably, the cavities of the group are located in one single horizontal or vertical row and are directly adjacent to each other.

Such a group of cavities preferably connects or contains only one common pumping unit, and/or only one common heating unit, and/or only one common gas component manifold unit, and/or only one common drive for the upstream and downstream doors. downstream side, and/or only one set of louvers on the upstream side, in each case common to all cavities, preferably each cavity having an individually controlled device for driving air from the upstream side and/or from downstream side.

Typically, such a group of cavities contains one single frame that forms the surrounding wall elements for all cavities.

As stated above, according to a particularly preferred aspect of the invention, it relates to an arrangement of two separation units as explained in detail above, the two separation units being arranged in a V-shape, with respective upstream openings facing downward or obliquely downward/sideways, and corresponding downstream openings the downstream openings face upward or obliquely upward/sideways and are oblique to each other, and at least one or a pair of devices for driving gas or air are preferably arranged to drive the gas mixture passing through the separation units in the direction vertically up.

Thus, the separating installation can be oriented in a downward direction, typically with the front surface at an angle of 30° and 60°, and in some cases, adjacent separating installations are adjacent to each other in a mirror image horizontally. Thus, the gas separation structure is, in particular, protected from precipitation and falling atmospheric impurities - leaves, snow, etc. In addition, with an angled orientation, the diagonal formed by the axial depth and the maximum overall height can be best used to obtain the largest possible flow area.

Additionally, the present invention relates to a method of operating a separation unit or arrangement as disclosed above, wherein a pair of sliding doors are positioned to seal one cavity of the group or are positioned in a neutral position outside the group while the other cavities of the group are open to allow cross flow to pass through. gas mixture, conditions are created in the compacted cavity for desorption and extraction of the gaseous component, while in other cavities devices are provided for driving air to adsorb the gaseous component from the passing gas mixture, and as soon as desorption in the compacted cavity is completed, a pair of sliding doors are shifted into the next cavity, preferably the one from the group in which the gas mixture has been adsorbed for the longest period of time to date, to seal this next cavity, and then in this next cavity conditions are created for desorption and recovery of the gaseous component, while while in the other cavities, devices are provided for driving air to adsorb the gaseous component from the gas mixture, wherein preferably the sequence of steps continues in a similar manner to sequentially seal and extract all cavities in the group and to cyclically repeat this sequence of adsorption and desorption steps, equivalent the number of cavities in the group at least once, preferably at least 100 times, or at least 500 or 1000 times.

Last but not least, the present invention relates to the use of a separation unit, or arrangement, as disclosed above, or a method in accordance with the previous section, for separating carbon dioxide and/or water vapor from ambient air.

Thus, it is an object of the present invention to preferably provide a DAC system based on flow blocks that provide the largest possible flow area, are individually sealed for gas separation processes, have minimal thermal mass, and are efficiently grouped into repeating blocks.

Thus, a gas separation plant is provided comprising at least one, preferably a plurality of, enclosed spaces, designated as cavities, said cavities being separated from each other by dividing walls and further enclosed by transverse surrounding walls, and in addition having at least one pair of axial doors, one door of each pair located on the gas inlet and gas outlet surfaces of the installation, respectively, and said doors can move in pairs and in a transverse direction between the cavities, sealing the space they close and allowing gas to pass through the cavities they cover are not isolated, and the space inside the cavities can be occupied by a gas adsorption structure through which a gas flow passes to adsorb the component to be separated. With a single cavity, the separation device and the cavity essentially form a device.

If the separation unit must be capable of pumping out a cavity to sub-atmospheric pressure, this means that the structure, if placed in an atmospheric pressure environment (about 1 atm, i.e. about 101325 kPa), is capable of withstanding an internal pressure below 1000 mbar(abs). ), preferably 700 mbar (abs), or 500 mbar (abs), or 100 mbar (abs), or more preferably less than 10 mbar (abs). Thus, it is envisaged that the structure is capable of withstanding, for example, pressures in the range of 5-350 mbar(a) or 5-200 mbar(a), or even lower, for example 10 mbar(a) or 5 mbar(a). Thus, the structure is able to withstand vacuum with a difference between the outer and inner spaces in the range of -0.3 bar(g) or -0.5 bar(g), preferably -0.95 bar(g), or -0.99 bar (g), or even -0.9999 bar(g), that is, close to or even about -1 bar(g), as well as an excess pressure drop of up to +0.1 bar(g) or up to +0.5 bar( hut).

In the above disclosure, by axial is meant the global direction of gas flow through the separation plant, which can flow in any direction passing through the depth of the separation plant, including in the direction from bottom to top or from top to bottom, as well as all other options, regardless of whether it changes flow is locally a direction in the apparatus, and transverse means a direction substantially perpendicular to the global flow of gas through the separation apparatus and cavity, regardless of local variations in the direction of flow, and therefore can mean substantially horizontal or vertical, or virtually any direction in between. In addition, in the above disclosure, gas separation should be understood as the separation of a miscible gaseous substance from a gaseous mixture, that is, this concept covers gaseous streams, for example, air, flue, biological or geothermal gases, or, in fact, any gaseous mixture.

Sliding doors can have characteristic dimensions (width, height and thickness) from 0.6 × 0.6 m × 0.05 m to 12 m × 3.8 m × 0.3 m, preferably 2 m × 2 m × 0, 14 m, and may, as the surrounding wall forming the cavity, be made of metals (in particular aluminum, iron, steel, stainless steel, carbon steel), composites, ceramics, plastics or combinations thereof. Similarly, a cavity that is not closed from the gas flow by a movable door, i.e. open to gas flow, characterized by a flow area of characteristic size from 0.55 × 0.55 m to 11.75 m × 3.8 m and depth - axial elongation of the cavity from 0.1 m to 1.8 m, preferably from 0. 2 m to 1.2 m. In general, the overall dimensions of a separation unit containing doors can be limited mainly to the dimensions of a tall ISO 668 shipping container, allowing standardized, cost-effective transport. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that such separation units can be combined into larger systems by co-locating multiple separation units and operating them as a single unit.

Sliding doors and cavities may have a circular, hexagonal or rectangular cross-section, and in some cases, the doors may have reinforcing ribs to prevent excessive deformation under pressure loads, such ribs may be 50-500 mm pitched and 2-20 mm thick.

In particular, for rectangular doors and cavities, the plane of the axial surfaces at the inlet and outlet of the separating installation can be strengthened by transverse tensile struts, such as, but not limited to, cables, chains, rods or slats, passing through the flow area and fixed to the supporting structure - the surrounding and dividing walls of the cavity - wherein the reduction in transverse flow as a result of this feature compared to the total cross-section of the cavity is less than 10%, preferably less than 1% of the flow area of the cavity. In this way, as is known from experience with truss structures, it is possible to prevent the separating plant from tipping over laterally under pressure or dead weight loads. In another preferred embodiment of the same aspect of the invention, the gas separation structure can be attached to the cavity along its surrounding and dividing wall, and in some cases the inner circumference of the cavity is additionally equipped with a non-load-bearing wire or plastic mesh or a substantially gas-permeable material with pores within 0.5 -10 mm. In this way, the gas separation structure can accommodate overturning loads without the need for an additional stabilizing structure, which prevents deformation of the entire separation apparatus and allows the depth of the gas separation structure in the cavity to be increased since additional depth is not required for the stabilizing structures.

The doors can be moved in pairs laterally using various types of drive systems, including, but not limited to, belts, gears or winches with stepper or other motors, the position of the doors being controlled to stop in the cavity to be insulated.

The inlet surfaces may be equipped with a gas collector having dimensions corresponding to the characteristic dimensions of the separation unit and a depth only slightly greater than the depth of the movable door, and a different set of inclined plates (louvres) extending along the entire transverse length of the separation unit or group on the side of the inlet gas flow , with the main plane inclined at an angle of 30-60° down from the horizontal or, in some cases, adjustable from a horizontal to a completely vertical position. In this way, the louvers can effectively close the gas inlet into the separation unit.

A fan for driving gas, preferably atmospheric air, can be placed in the axial wall of the gas collector, preferably on the gas outlet side of the separation unit, with the minimum flow area of the gas collector being at least 20%, preferably at least 50% of the flow area of the uninsulated cavity, and said gas collector is impervious to gas flow, but not to a pressure drop greater than 1000 Pa, wherein no further separation of the gas flow occurs, and said gas collector may be made of a material such as metals, plastics, composites or ceramics, and in some cases reinforced on the inside to withstand external loads such as snow, ice, rain, wind, etc.

One or both of the movable doors may be equipped with a slip ring having the same shape as the cavity, but with a characteristic dimension only slightly larger than the size of the cavity, and when insulated, said ring is in axial contact with the axial surface of the separating device. Said slip ring can be equipped on its axial surface with an elastic sealing element around its entire perimeter, for example an O-ring, a profile seal on an edge profile, an adhesive sealing profile or any of the usual profiles for gas seals. The elastic sealing element has a cord diameter of 2-25 mm, preferably in the range of 3-15 mm. In addition, the entire axial surface of the door or parts thereof axially opposite to the axial surface of the cavity may be coated with an elastic material. The advantage of this preferred embodiment of the invention is that it is not necessary to manufacture the sealing structure explicitly (ie the annular groove), thereby saving costs. Another advantage of this preferred embodiment of the invention is the thermal insulation provided by such a coating, which allows the effective thermal mass of the door to be reduced in the temperature swing adsorption/desorption cycle.

The movable doors may be provided with at least one movable door seal actuator on the axial walls of the cavity that interacts with latches, levers or guides on the separating apparatus to move the doors axially toward the outer axial walls of the separating apparatus, thereby acting on a gas-tight seal . Preferably, these devices may contain, but are not limited to, pneumatic or hydraulic actuators or solenoids, and preferably each cavity can be evacuated by any conventional vacuum system to achieve a pressure of less than 1000 mbar (abs), preferably less than 200 mbar (abs), and in another preferred embodiment of the device, the initial rapid application of the vacuum system can provide sufficient suction to effect initial compaction and further pumping.

The separation unit may contain additional inlet/outlet elements for connecting at least one vacuum pump and/or for extracting gases and/or liquids from the cavity, and/or for introducing additional process media, in particular water and/or steam, into the separation cavity installations isolated by a door, and two inlet/outlet elements per cavity of dimensions DN40-DN500 can be fixed to the surrounding horizontal walls of the separation installation, and in some cases, said inlet/outlet elements are additionally connected to manifolds running along the entire length of the single separation installation, connecting all its cavities.

In another embodiment of the invention, manifolds extending the entire length of a single separation unit are formed by first upper and lower surrounding horizontal walls, wherein a second surrounding horizontal wall spans said space between the two surrounding walls with additional openings in the first surrounding wall providing access to the individual cavities . According to another embodiment of the invention, at least one or preferably at least two of the wall elements or sections thereof forming the above-mentioned adjacent and sealing surrounding wall are double-walled, so that the space between these two walls can be used as inlet/outlet elements for introducing or extracting a medium from a cavity. Preferably, if the surrounding wall is made of rectangular structures, the upper and/or lower wall element or, preferably, both are made as double-walled structures, with the gap between the two walls being accessible for this function. This gives an advantage because the space between the double-walled elements of the upper wall of adjacent cavities and the space between the double-walled elements of the lower wall of adjacent cavities can be connected to form one single channel in the upper and/or lower space of the cavity.

As stated above, the separator can be used to directly capture carbon dioxide associated with a cyclic process between the adsorption of carbon dioxide at ambient temperature and pressure and the desorption of carbon dioxide at subatmospheric pressure, preferably not more than 1200 mbar(a), and at elevated temperature sorbent 60-130°C, preferably 80-120°C.

Additional embodiments of the invention are set forth in the dependent claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Preferred embodiments of the invention are described below with reference to the drawings, which are provided to illustrate the present preferred embodiments of the invention, but not to limit them. On the drawings:

In fig. 1 shows a cross-section of a separation unit/arrangement in two possible orientations: (a) a single, vertically aligned separation unit, and (b), an arrangement of two inclined, symmetrically adjacent separation units;

In fig. 2 is a perspective view of a separation unit containing a group of six cavities and one pair of horizontally moving doors (only the front one is shown) and without gas adsorption structures to show the position of the moving door, cavities and louvers;

In fig. 3 shows a perspective view of a separation installation containing a group of six cavities and one pair of horizontally moving doors (only the front one is shown) without gas adsorption structures and with various stabilizers in/on individual cavities;

In fig. 4 shows the pressure drop distribution along the air flow direction for the DAC installation of the prior art and the present invention;

In fig. 5 shows details of the mechanism for the transverse movement of the sliding door between the individual cavities of the group inside the separation installation;

In fig. 6 shows details of the mechanism for providing a gas-tight seal between the door and the axial surface of the separation device;

In fig. Figure 7 shows the increase in pressure in the cavity of a separation plant with movable doors operating with repeated vacuum pumping and withstanding more than 1000 cycles; And

In fig. Figure 8 shows the use of double surrounding horizontal walls as collectors for transporting media into and out of the separation plant cavity.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INVENTION

In fig. 1a shows a vertical cross-section of a separation plant 1 used, for example, for direct capture of atmospheric CO ₂ , in which the passing air flow 2 is substantially horizontal. The air flow 2 passes through the louvers 9, through the first inlet gas collector 6, through the upstream hole 31 on the axial surface 13a and enters the cavity 3 containing the gas adsorption structure 4 before passing through the downstream hole 32 located on the axial surface 13b , into the second outlet gas collector 7 and exit the separation unit in the form of an outlet air flow 2 ⁺ driven by a fan 8 mounted in or on the outlet pipeline 33.

The inlet and outlet collection pipelines 10 are connected by the inlet and outlet pipelines 11 to the inlet/outlet elements of the separate cavity 3 and in this example are built into or attached to the lower surrounding wall 5a of the separation unit 1.

It is also possible to tilt the separation unit shown in FIG. 1a, by 90°, so that the air flow through the separation unit 1 is substantially vertical, either in the upstream direction or in the downstream direction.

Another possible orientation of the separation unit 1 is shown in FIG. 1b. Here, the outlet air flow ²⁺ is substantially vertical and the separation unit 1 is oriented at an angle relative to the vertical direction (inclined). Such a separating installation 1 can be combined with another, horizontally mirror-image and adjacent separating installation 1'.

In this case, the louvers 9 can be passed through, and the inlet air flow 2 can flow directly through the inlet gas collector 6, the upstream hole 31 of the axial surface 13a, and the gas adsorption structure 4 inside the cavity 3.

A substantially triangular exhaust gas manifold 7 originating from the downstream axial surface 13b and located at the downstream opening 32 is provided to provide the required exhaust area, and a driving device - in this case fan 8 - is located at the outlet of the exhaust gas manifold 7 in the exhaust pipe 33.

In fig. 1b shows two outlet gas collectors 7 and 7'; which can also be combined into one common exhaust gas collector, i.e. without a dividing wall between them, and instead of two drive devices (8, 8') or two corresponding rows of drive devices (8, 8'), there may be one single centered drive device (or a number of devices for driving in the direction of view).

As in FIG. 1a, the separation unit 1 is connected by inlet and outlet collection pipelines 10, connected by inlet and outlet pipelines 11 to a cavity 3 in or on the lower surrounding wall 5a.

It should be understood that the pair of sliding doors 12 are not shown in these views of FIGS. 1, since they are not in the cutting plane. They move within the input 6 and output 7 gas collectors, are oriented perpendicular to the direction of the input air flows 2 and 2 ⁺ , and when arranged according to FIG. 1b, upstream sliding doors are located in the inlet gas collector 6 and 6', and downstream sliding doors are located parallel to the upstream sliding doors in the region 27 of the outlet gas collector 7, substantially to the right downstream of the gas adsorption structure 4.

In addition, in FIG. 1a and 1b show the separating installations and 1,1' each with only one single cavity 3, but usually in each separating installation there are at least two adjacent cavities located one behind the other in a direction parallel to the direction of view. The concept can further be extended to any number of separation units in the case of stacked units in a vertical arrangement or in the case of adjacent units in an inclined arrangement.

In particular, when arranged according to FIG. 1b, if at least two cavities are used in each separation apparatus, then the gas outlet manifolds 7 and 7' (or a common gas outlet manifold as disclosed above) may be formed into one common gas outlet manifold (or two parallel ones) above each separation apparatus, and in this case, the individual air driving devices need not be assigned each to one cavity, and the number of air driving devices in each separation unit need not correspond to the number of cavities in that separation unit.

In fig. 2 shows a perspective view of a possible separating installation 1 containing a group 28 of six adjacent cavities 3 formed by the surrounding walls 5a, 5b and 5c, the latter in the case of adjacent cavities being formed by the dividing walls 14, while, as shown in the drawing, the second cavity on the left is sealed by a pair of square-shaped movable doors (only the upper door 12a is shown) located in the inlet gas collector, and the remaining five cavities are exposed to the gas flow 2, passing in this case through the louvers 9 attached to the side wall 29, and driven by the fan 8 A door 12b (not shown) is located in the downstream gas collector 7. At the base of the separation unit in or on the lower surrounding wall 5a there is a pair of inlet and outlet collection pipes 10 for transporting the medium to or from the individual cavities 3.

In this particular preferred embodiment, the side walls of each of the cavities 3, as shown in the drawing, are made of steel, stainless steel or carbon steel with a thickness of 8 mm and have an axial length (in the direction of flow) within 1.8 m. In this case, the cavities are usually have an internal height of 2.1 m and an internal width of 2.1 m. The sliding door can be made with height and width dimensions of 2.2 m × 2.2 m from steel, stainless steel or carbon steel 8 mm thick, with stiffeners 0.16 m deep and 5 mm thick, with these stiffening ribs welded to the door leaf with a pitch of 0.2 m along both axes of the door plane.

The separation unit 1 shown in Figure 2 can operate as follows: In the situation shown in this figure, the second cavity from the left is sealed by an upstream sliding door 12a and a downstream sliding door 12b. The inlet pipe 11 is closed by a valve, and the outlet pipe 11 is used to pump air out of this cavity. At the same time, this cavity can be heated by introducing a heating liquid into the corresponding pipelines located in the cavity and/or in the gas adsorption structure 4, and/or by introducing hot steam through the inlet pipeline 11.

Also, during or after, or instead of pumping and/or heating, it is possible to introduce steam or other gases as a purge gas stream, and to extract carbon dioxide, an outlet pipe 11 is used and the carbon dioxide is removed from the cavity. Thus, carbon dioxide recovery can be carried out with or without vacuum depending on the process configuration. While this process is occurring in the second cavity on the left, the fan 8 of the second cavity on the left is not operating or, preferably, operating at a reduced speed, as disclosed below, while the other fans are operating and the first cavity on the left and the four cavities on the right are open to flow passage and for carbon dioxide adsorption.

After the carbon dioxide extraction step in the second cavity on the left has been completed and, in some cases, after the second cavity on the left has again reached ambient temperature and/or pressure, a pair of sliding doors are moved, for example, to close the first cavity on the left and manipulated to seal this first cavity on the left. The performance of the fan of the first cavity on the left decreases, and the performance of the fan of the second cavity on the left increases. Such a reduction in the power of adjacent fans in the actively adsorbing cavity without completely stopping is preferable, since otherwise air through the stopped fan will be sucked into the exhaust gas collector 7, reducing the absorption of adsorbate.

Now, the operations disclosed above for the second cavity on the left are performed on the first cavity on the left, while a flow is passed through the remaining cavities to adsorb carbon dioxide from the surrounding air. In the next cycle, usually a pair of sliding doors is moved to seal the cavity shown in the drawing at the rightmost position, since it is assumed that this cavity has been exposed to the ambient air flow for the greatest amount of time at that time.

The cycle continues so that after sealing the first cavity on the right, the sliding doors move to the second cavity on the right and seal it, then to the third cavity on the right, and so on. Thus, a cyclic process occurs in which a minimum of structural elements are present to operate the maximum number of adsorption cavities, optimally taking into account that the adsorption stage usually takes longer than the desorption stages. In fact, the number of cavities located in such a group can be adapted to the time ratio for adsorption and desorption. If, for example, adsorption and desorption take the same amount of time, then a group of two adjacent cavities may be most suitable. The optimal workflow as shown in FIG. 2 is ensured if the ratio of adsorption and desorption time is 5:1.

This optimal time ratio can be waived or relaxed by holding the doors or placing them in a neutral position outside the group, which allows the process time to be decoupled from the configuration of the cavities and the group, since the doors can be set to this position if the cavities are not required to be closed, allowing set any time for desorption and adsorption.

In fig. 3 shows details of an embodiment of the frame element 30 of a possible separation installation 1 comprising a group 28 of six cavities 3 with separation walls 14, that is, each cavity is enclosed by surrounding walls 5a, b and c with a pair of movable doors 12a and b (only the top door is shown), adjacent to the upstream and downstream surfaces 13a and b, respectively, to seal, in this case, the second cavity from the left. In or on some of the cavities, various embodiments of stabilizers 15 are shown based on truss structures formed by various combinations of transverse struts attached in cavity 3 to surrounding walls 5 and dividing walls 14, or, as in the first cavity on the left, a gas-permeable sheet spanning the cross-section cavity, which can also be an element of the gas adsorption structure. In some cases, depending on the required pressure range and the size of the separation unit 1, stabilizers may not be required, as in the rightmost cavity.

In fig. 4a and b show the corresponding positions (O-iv) for taking into account the pressure drop under the condition of the air flow 2 for the DAC installation of the prior art and the separation installation of the present invention, respectively. In fig. 4c) shows the resulting pressure profiles for two installations operating with the same fans 8 and the same gas adsorption structures 4. Both installations begin to suck air at atmospheric pressure at point 0, however, the introduction of air ducts into the prior art installation a) immediately causes a drop in pressure, while While the installation according to the present invention maintains the pressure level practically unchanged up to point i, where air enters the gas adsorption structure 4. Above the gas adsorption structure (points i-ii) the main pressure drop occurs before the fan 8 again increases the pressure to atmospheric pressure. Since the fan 8 of installation a) must overcome the pressure drop created by the gas adsorption structure 4 and the air ducts, including any covers, drives and flow restrictions, the resulting air flow is determined by the complex pressure drop and accordingly becomes greater than in case b), where the fan must overcome essentially only the pressure drop of the gas adsorption structure. Accordingly, the air flow in case b) and the CO ₂ absorption rate are higher than in case a).

In fig. 5 shows details of a possible drive mechanism for a separation unit 1 for transverse movement of a door 12 between, in this case, three cavities 3 of a group 28, each of the two outer cavities 3 being exposed to an air flow 2 driven by a fan 8. Direction and movement of the door 12 occurs in the upper and lower guides 16, attached to the frame 30 of the group 28 to limit the movement of the door only in the transverse direction, in addition, the door is attached to the drive belt 18 using one or a pair of latches 20. The belt 18 moves on two pulleys 17, and along at least one pulley is driven by an electric stepper motor 19. The door 12, as indicated, can move either left or right.

In fig. 6 shows details of one possible mechanism for sealing the movable door 12 relative to the upstream surface 13 of the frame of the separating installation 1. In this drawing, the installation is depicted from the side and only the upper movable door 12a is shown, having upper and lower rollers 21 located in C-shaped guides 16, attached by means of a rod 22 to a pneumatic actuator 23 and, in addition, attached by means of an L-shaped bracket 24 to the surrounding wall 5 of the separating installation 1, while the compression of the pneumatic actuator 23 pulls the C-shaped guide 16 and, accordingly, the upstream door 12a to the upstream surface 13a, while the sealing ring 26 (shown in section) comes into contact with the upstream surface 13a and provides a seal to the cavity 3 inside the separation unit 1. The movement of the C-shaped guides 16 is additionally supported and directed by a pair of rods 25 , forming a four-bar hinge. Although only one door is shown (only on one side of the separation apparatus, eg, in this case, the upstream gas inlet side), it should be understood that the same mirrored mechanism could be used on the other side of the separation apparatus.

In fig. Figure 7 shows the results of long-term tests of one of the possible layouts of a separation plant, containing a movable door measuring 2.2 × 2.2 m and a group of two vacuum cavities. A pair of doors was repeatedly moved between cavities using a belt drive and sealed on the axial surfaces of the separation unit using a set of pneumatic actuators. The cavity was then evacuated from atmospheric pressure to 100 mbar(a) followed by holding under pressure for 15 minutes, after which the cavity was evacuated again, and then the door was moved into the second cavity and the procedure of evacuating and holding under pressure was repeated. The separation unit was operated under ambient atmospheric conditions for more than 1000 cycles as shown in FIG. 7 by the final increase in pressure during the final holding time under pressure, that is, air leakage into the evacuated vacuum cavity. Firstly, it can be seen that this rise for all cycles is less than 10 mbar and is within the limits established for the system, and secondly, the rise remains practically unchanged between the first and last cycle, ensuring cyclic stability and reliability of the separation plant.

Example 1. Amount of material and material consumption of a short-cycle vacuum device for direct air collection

Table 1 shows the amount of material and material consumption of one of the possible embodiments of a separation installation containing a group of six adjacent cavities with one horizontally sliding pair of doors. It is compared with a separating device comprising six separate state-of-the-art units according to WO-A-2015185434. Both options in this example are implemented within the overall dimensions of a 40-foot ISO 668 shipping container.

It can be seen that the present invention has a 40% lower material intensity (where material intensity describes the specific amount of mass of structural material required to enclose a specific volume that can be used for an adsorption structure), resulting in significant manufacturing cost savings. Additionally, especially for direct air capture processes that exploit temperature fluctuations, the associated reduced thermal mass creates significant energy savings.

In fig. 8 shows one of the possible variants of a separating installation 1 containing a cavity 3 formed by surrounding walls 5. The lower and upper surrounding walls 5a and 5b form with the second lower and upper surrounding walls 5a' and 5b', respectively, in the form of double-walled elements, a space which, in turn, forms a manifold 10, where the medium can flow into the cavity 3 and out of it through the inlet or outlet 11. Thus, the structure of the separation plant can be used in a dual way - to carry structural loads and contain the medium.

Claims (28)

1. A separation unit (1) for separating at least one gaseous component from a gas mixture containing this component, in particular for direct air capture, including CO ₂ capture from air, wherein the separation unit (1) contains at least one adjacent and sealing element (5) surrounding the wall, circumferentially enclosing at least one cavity (3), said at least one adjacent and sealing element (5) of the surrounding wall defines an upstream opening (31) and an opposite downstream opening (32) of said at least one cavity (3), said cavity (3) contains at least one gas adsorption structure (4) for adsorption of said at least one gaseous component, preferably under conditions of pressure and/or ambient temperature, wherein the separation installation (1) additionally contains a pair of opposite sliding doors (12) for sealing the upstream opening (31) and the downstream opening (32), respectively, of at least one cavity (3) in the closed state, and wherein each of the pair of opposing sliding doors (12) for opening the closed cavity (3) is movable in a direction substantially parallel to the plane of the corresponding sliding door (12) to open the upstream opening (31) and the downstream opening holes (32), respectively, and ensuring the passage of the gas mixture through the gas adsorption structure (4). 2. Separation unit (1) according to claim 1, configured to pump out the medium from at least one cavity (3) in a closed state to a pressure of not more than 700 mbar (abs) or to a pressure of less than 500 mbar (abs), preferably to pressure less than 300 mbar (abs) or up to a pressure less than 150 mbar (abs), or not more than 100 mbar (abs); and/or the separation unit (1) is configured to transfer at least one cavity (3) to a closed state at an excess pressure of up to 0.1 bar(g) or up to 0.2 bar(g) or up to 0.5 bar (hut). 3. A separation unit (1) according to any of the previous paragraphs, comprising at least one set of four adjacent and sealing surrounding wall elements (5), a lower wall element (5a), an opposing upper wall element (5b) and two opposing side elements (5c) surrounding wall connecting the respective ends of the upper and lower wall elements, and circumferentially enclosing said at least one cavity (3), wherein said set of four adjacent and sealing surrounding wall elements defines an upstream opening (31) and an opposite downstream hole (32); or the separating installation contains at least one set of eight adjacent and sealing elements (5) of the surrounding wall, at least one lower wall element (5a), at least one opposing upper wall element (5b) and at least two opposing side ones element (5c) of the surrounding wall, connecting the respective ends of the upper and lower wall elements directly or through inclined additional wall elements, forming preferably a hexagonal or octagonal structure, and circumferentially enclosing said at least one cavity (3), wherein said set of eight adjacent and sealing elements of the surrounding wall are defined by an upstream hole (31) and an opposite downstream hole (32), or the separating installation contains at least one single circular or oval element (5) of the surrounding wall, surrounding the circumference of at least one cavity (3). 4. The dividing installation (1) according to claim 3, in which the upper and lower wall elements are arranged parallel to each other, the side wall elements are arranged parallel to each other, and preferably also a pair of opposing sliding doors (12) are arranged parallel to each other. 5. The separation unit (1) according to any of the previous paragraphs, comprising, at the upstream of the opening (31) of at least one cavity (3), or in the case of more than one cavity (3) of a plurality of cavities (3), an inlet gas collector ( 6), in which the upstream sliding door (12a) is located, and at the downstream opening (32) there is an exhaust gas collector (7), in which the downstream sliding door (12b) is located, preferably in the case of more than one cavities (3) the inlet gas manifold (6) and/or the outlet gas manifold (7) are common to all cavities, and preferably one or more preferably movable louvres are provided upstream of the inlet gas manifold or as an entrance to the inlet gas manifold (6) (9) and/or at least one device (8) for driving gas or air, and/or downstream of the outlet gas collector, or as an outlet from the outlet gas collector (7), preferably in the outlet pipe (33) at least one device (8) for driving gas or air is mounted, preferably in the form of a fan, and/or one or more preferably movable louvers (9) are provided. 6. The partition installation (1) according to any of the previous paragraphs, in which one or both sliding doors (12) are mounted on a pair of upper and lower guides (16), preferably C-shaped, and preferably the doors are movable in these guides (16) or along them by means of rollers (21), and preferably means are provided so as to press the corresponding door against the corresponding axial surface (13) of the corresponding opening (31, 32) in the closing position, and again retract the door from this seal position to allow the door to slide to release the corresponding hole (31, 32). 7. Separating installation (1) according to claim 6, in which the sliding door and/or the corresponding opening (31, 32) of at least one cavity (3) is equipped with at least one surrounding sealing element (26), preferably in the form of at least one sealing ring and/or in the form of a sealing layer, and/or means configured to press the corresponding door against the corresponding axial surface and release the corresponding opening for re-retraction of the door, equipped with a pair of upper and lower guides (16) mounted on the frame (30) or surrounding walls (5) with the possibility of sliding in axial direction, preferably by hydraulic or pneumatic drive (23) and/or a pair of sliding doors is configured to be driven by a belt (18) on a pair of pulleys (17). 8. The separation installation (1) according to any of the previous paragraphs, in which the axial length of the element(s) (5) of the surrounding wall is less than the minimum distance between opposing elements (5) of the surrounding wall, and/or the surrounding wall has a rectangular or square cross-section, and the pair of sliding doors (12) has a corresponding rectangular or square cross-section, and/or the sliding door drive of the pair of doors (12) is configured to provide synchronous pairwise movement of the doors. 9. The separation device (1) according to any of the previous paragraphs, containing at least one stabilizing element, preferably in the form of at least one stabilizing post (15), on or in at least one cavity (3), and/or at least one, preferably both sliding doors (12) contain stabilizing elements in the form of stiffeners. 10. Separating installation (1) according to any of the previous paragraphs, containing a group of at least two, preferably at least three, or at least four, or within 2-8 or 2-6 cavities with surrounding wall elements , covering cavities (3), each of which contains corresponding gas adsorption structures (4), and the specified pair of opposite sliding doors (12) is mounted with the ability to alternately seal both one cavity of the separation unit (1) and the other cavity (other cavities). 11. Separating installation (1) according to claim 10, in which the cavities of the group are located adjacent to each other in one or more rows, and the elements (5) of the surrounding walls of adjacent cavities are formed by common dividing walls (14), and preferably the cavities of the group located in one single horizontal or vertical row and directly adjacent to each other. 12. Separation installation (1) according to any one of paragraphs. 10-11, connected to or containing only one common pumping unit, and/or only one common heating unit, and/or only one common gas component manifold unit, and/or only one common drive for the upstream side doors and on the downstream side, and/or only one set of louvres on the upstream side, in each case common to all cavities (3), preferably each cavity on the downstream side being provided with an individually controlled device (8) for bringing into the movement of gas or air, and/or containing one single frame (30) forming the surrounding wall elements for all cavities. 13. Arrangement of two separation units (1) according to any of the previous paragraphs, in particular for direct air capture, including the capture of CO ₂ from air, wherein the two separation units (1, 1') are arranged in a V-shape, corresponding upstream openings (31) facing obliquely downwards/sideways, and the corresponding downstream openings (31) facing obliquely up/sideways, and the corresponding downstream openings (31) facing obliquely towards each other, and at least one device (8) for bringing the gas or air movement is preferably arranged to drive the gas mixture passing through the separation units in a substantially vertically upward direction. 14. Method of operation of the separation unit (1) according to any one of claims. 1-12 or the arrangement of separation units according to claim 13, containing a group of cavities, in particular for direct air capture, including the capture of CO ₂ from the air, wherein a pair of sliding doors (12) are located with the possibility of sealing one cavity of the group, while how other cavities are open to the passage of a gas mixture, and in the compacted cavity conditions are created for desorption and extraction of the gaseous component, while in other cavities devices are provided for driving gas or air to adsorb at least one gaseous component from the gas mixture , and once desorption in the compacted cavity is completed, a pair of sliding doors (12) are moved into the next cavity, preferably that of the group in which the gas mixture has been adsorbed for the longest period of time, to seal that next cavity, and then into that next the cavities provide conditions for desorption and recovery of the gaseous component, while the other cavities provide the operation of devices for driving gas or air to adsorb at least one gaseous component from the gas mixture, preferably the sequence of steps being continued in a similar manner for sequential densification and extracting in all cavities in the group and cyclically repeating this sequence of adsorption and desorption steps, equivalent to the number of cavities in the group, at least once, preferably at least 100 times or at least 1000 times. 15. Use of a separation plant according to any one of paragraphs. 1-12, the arrangement according to claim 13 or the method according to claim 14 for separating carbon dioxide and/or water vapor from ambient air, in particular for direct air capture, including CO ₂ capture from air.

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