On Carbon Entrainment in the Wind Turbine Wake

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from dispersed sources, such as ground vehicles and airplanes, are difficult to eliminate and play a significant role in global warming. A potential solution, Direct Air Capture (DAC) of CO2, is currently uneconomical due to the low relative concentration of CO2 in the air. It has been shown in previous studies that turbulent energy fluxes play a major role in horizontal axis wind turbine's (HAWT) energy entrainment. We demonstrate that there are conditions where this mechanism may not only increase power generation, but also the local concentration of CO2 in the wake of the turbine. Mass transport equations are incorporated into NREL's SOWFA LES solver to simulate a series of 5MW HAWT under a neutral Atmospheric Boundary Layer with several CO2 profiles; including uniform, logarithmic, and empirical. The mass entrainment fluxes are calculated in the wake to identify what conditions result in increased CO2 concentration, and where - to be utilized to increase economic viability of DAC technologies.