Climate change and rising concentrations of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide (CO$_2$), pose one of the greatest threats to the environment and humanity. While the global community is committed to reducing CO$_2$ emissions, it is becoming clear that additional strategies to remove existing CO$_2$ from the atmosphere will also be needed to meet the Paris Agreement targets. One of the key technologies being developed for this purpose is direct air capture (DAC). In this thesis, I conducted a comprehensive review of the publicly available literature on the subject of DAC in order to present the latest technology. I explained the fundamental chemical and physical principles necessary to understand the operation of DAC. Furthermore, I described, compared and evaluated potential sorbent materials, detailing the properties that require investigation in experimental studies. Aditionally, I examinated the influence of thermodynamic parameters on sorbent performance. The assignment also provides an in-depth overview of existing DAC technologies and processes. A technical, energy, and economic analysis of the technology is presented to assess its feasibility for potential commercial application.
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