Thursday: Open Source Direct Air Capture

Thursday is a prototype direct air capture (DAC) machine developed by Nairobi-based Octavia Carbon that removes carbon from the air.

AdvancedWork in progress890

Thursday: Open Source Direct Air Capture

Things used in this project

Hardware components

10 inch inline fan (AC Infinity S10 model)

Dampers 250 mm diameter by 350 mm length

Story

Overview

Thursday is a direct air capture (DAC) prototype that removes carbon from the ambient air. It was developed by the engineering team at Octavia Carbon, Africa's first DAC startup based in Nairobi, Kenya.

The Octavia Carbon Team (l-r) Martin Freimüller, Mike Bwondera, Duncan Kariuki and Fiona Mugambi.

First constructed in summer 2022 the Thursday prototype is rated to remove approximately 1 metric ton of CO2 from the air per year. It's 'thermal-swing' amine- based sorbet absorbs and desorbs CO2 using thermal energy that is produced through electrical resistance.

The OpenAir Collective aims to continuously improve, optimize and evolve the Thursday design to enable creators of all kinds around the globe to experiment with and deploy DAC for a variety of applications.

Prototype Walkthrough and Designs

A 3-minute walkthrough of the Thursday prototype by Octavia's lead engineer, Mike Bwondera, Nov 22.

Thursday component diagram.

View Webinar (Nov 2022)

Thursday Workshop recorded during COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, Nov 2022.

Indepth 1-hour tour of prototype (March 2023)

Mike Bwondera, Lead R&D Engineer, Octavia Carbon, covers the design details in this zoom walking tour.

Schematics

Code

Credits

Mike Bwondera, Duncan Kariuki

Posted by

Chris Neidl

Thanks to Octavia Carbon.

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Thursday: Open Source Direct Air Capture