Display omitted •The vapor–liquid equilibria and absorption kinetics of CO2 in GlyK are evaluated.•GlyK is identified as a viable solvent for use in direct air capture applications.•A model simulates the performance of GlyK in commercial scale HFMCs.•GlyK can remove up to 83 % of the CO2 in ambient air.•Solvent regeneration temperatures can be kept well below 100 °C. Current direct air capture (DAC) technology is largely cost-prohibitive for large scale implementation due to the excessive energy required to operate a combined absorption–desorption cycle. As the desorption process consumes much of the supplied energy, there is a demand to find more sustainable sorbent materials that maintain high absorptive capacities yet can be regenerated at lower working temperatures. This work evaluates potassium glycinate (GlyK) as one such alternative absorbent. Through conducting vapor–liquid equilibria and wetted wall column kinetic studies, GlyK is found to have comparable working capacities and liquid mass transfer coefficients to those reported for the industrial standard, monoethanolamine (MEA), yet outperforms it with regards to its distinctly low regeneration temperature. To further understand how GlyK would perform in an industrial scale DAC system, an Aspen Custom Modeler® (ACM) model is developed that integrates the experimentally obtained equilibria and kinetic data with the performance characteristics of a gas-solvent hollow fiber membrane contactor (HFMC). Full-scale simulations show that via implementing a 20°–90 °C absorption–desorption cycle, GlyK can capture up to 83 % of the CO2 in atmospheric air and be 55 % regenerated within a single membrane contactor pass. As these low working temperatures vastly outperform the conventional ∼ 40°–140 °C temperature swing currently implemented in industrial CO2 processing, GlyK is concluded to be a viable and sustainable option for use within energy-efficient DAC technology whereby renewable heat sources can be used.