I am a chemical engineer. I have optimized more than 26 processes before I was medically retired by 1991 Gulf War Illnesses. So, I thought I should attempt to practice my chemical engineering on Direct Air Capture. It is a very complicated process--adsorption and absorption.

It will take me probably 2 years before I have reviewed much of my 4-year degree in chemical engineering. At the same time, I have to learn very detailed knowledge about adsorption, fixed beds, and fluidized beds.

I will first learn about sorbents so that I can choose a few to use in my analysis. Then, I have to find data and do some excel calculations for linear diving force, loading, etc. This will let me use the 1-D axial dispersion fixed bed plug flow reactor to produce comparison effectiveness graphs. Just for fun. I am not expecting to be able to optimize a real system, but more of an ideal system. During this period, I will be learning MatLab Essentials[1] and numerical methods for chemical engineers using MatLab[2]. The latter is crucial for my graph production.

The above will take me a year. Then, after I have some experience with numerical methods, I plan to learn fluidized beds and membrane separations. Fluidized beds are VERY difficult for me. They are challenging for most chemical engineers, and they require multiple stages. To do this, I will have to relearn my mass transfer modelling again, but II have some good books for that. I hope I can do it.

Although Chas, a mechanical engineer with 30 years of experience designing cooling towers for oil and gas but is now designing carbon capture systems, has asked me to help him when I am up to speed. I feel incapable toddy. We'll see where I am in 8 months--I told him 6 months.  

I slept until 10 am today. I guess I needed it. So, I didn't have an opportunity to do my MatLab work. That means I must do it tomorrow, but I have two one hour meetings. I hope to get up early enough to get some work in before the first meeting.

As a medically retired chemical engineer, I long to do what I used to do and more. So, I shoot for the stars. There are times when I have to take months off because of my mental illness, so don't hold your breath that I will succeed in 8 months to a year.

References:

[1] Attaway, D. C. (2022). MATLAB: A Practical Introduction to Programming and Problem Solving. Netherlands: Elsevier Science.

[2] Mostoufi, Navid, Constantinides, Alkis. (2022). Applied Numerical Methods for Chemical Engineers, Academic Press