The possibility of direct air capture of CO$_2$ in Antarctica is discussed. Because the concentration of H$_2$O in the atmosphere during the Antarctic winter is extremely low, an installation for direct air capture could employ a physisorption-based process, allowing, in principle, a very short adsorption/desorption cycle time. The lower required binding allows more options for materials for the sorbent. With a shorter cycle time, more resource could be spent on structuring the sorbent to improve energy efficiency, for example by improving its mass efficiency if desorption is driven thermally.
Comment: This paper is built around a hypothesis that a one-second adsorption/desorption cycle time is possible. A justification for this hypothesis is not provided, and without it this paper should not be used as a basis for further work. I have been working to describe how such a cycle time might be achieved, and find that it is a difficult problem. This paper was posted prematurely