Aqueous-based carbon dioxide sequestration

Abstract

The world’s prime need demands the reduction of the increasing amount of anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide (CO2), being the leading component of the global warming. Amongst the various technologies adopted for CO2 sequestration, the aqueous-based mineral sequestration route is a promising approach in which CO2 can be chemically stored in the thermodynamically stable solid carbonate residue permanently and safely. Although the mineral CO2 sequestration method possesses the adequate fundamental advantages, such as the high sequestration capacity because of the large availability of the feedstock (rock) worldwide, the sequestration occurred spontaneously in nature because of the exothermic process and CO2 stored permanently and safely because of the formation of the thermodynamically stable product. However, the mineral carbonation reaction rate at the atmospheric condition is very slow that, in turn, limits the technology to be implemented industrially. Therefore, the attention of researchers focuses on influencing the rate of the mineral CO2 sequestration process. Mineral carbon sequestration is a lengthy option as compared with that of other sequestration routes, but its fundamental advantages justify the necessity for further research. In this chapter, prime issues, such as chemistry, processing conditions, engineering aspects, environmental impact, and life cycle of the aqueous-based mineral CO2 sequestration method, have been discussed appreciably to enable the process to be implemented practically. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.