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Direct gas–solid carbonation of serpentinite residues in the absence and presence of water vapor: a feasibility study for carbon dioxide sequestration

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Abstract

Mineral carbonation of serpentinite mining residue offers an environmentally secure and permanent storage of carbon dioxide. The strategy of using readily available mining residue for the direct treatment of flue gas could improve the energy demand and economics of CO2 sequestration by avoiding the mineral extraction and separate CO2 capture steps. The present is a laboratory scale study to assess the possibility of CO2 fixation in serpentinite mining residues via direct gas–solid reaction. The degree of carbonation is measured both in the absence and presence of water vapor in a batch reactor. The gas used is a simulated gas mixture reproducing an average cement flue gas CO2 composition of 18 vol.% CO2. The reaction parameters considered are temperature, total gas pressure, time, and concentration of water vapor. In the absence of water vapor, the gas–solid carbonation of serpentinite mining residues is negligible, but the residues removed CO2 from the feed gas possibly due to reversible adsorption. The presence of small amount of water vapor enhances the gas–solid carbonation, but the measured rates are too low for practical application. The maximum CO2 fixation obtained is 0.07 g CO2 when reacting 1 g of residue at 200 °C and 25 barg (pCO2 ≈ 4.7) in a gas mixture containing 18 vol.% CO2 and 10 vol.% water vapor in 1 h. The fixation is likely surface limited and restricted due to poor gas–solid interaction. It was identified that both the relative humidity and carbon dioxide-water vapor ratio have a role in CO2 fixation regardless of the percentage of water vapor.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank INRS-ETE, Québec, FQRNT, NSERC CRSNG, Carbon Management Canada, and Sigma Devtec for the funding and support for this project. The authors would also like to thank the department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering of The University of Melbourne, Australia, for providing moral and lab support for the fulfillment of this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INRS-ETE, 490 Rue de la Couronne, Québec, Québec, Canada, G1K 9A9

    Sanoopkumar Puthiya Veetil, Louis-César Pasquier, Jean-François Blais, Emmanuelle Cecchi & Guy Mercier

  2. Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Sandra Kentish

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  1. Sanoopkumar Puthiya Veetil
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  2. Louis-César Pasquier
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  3. Jean-François Blais
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  4. Emmanuelle Cecchi
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  6. Guy Mercier
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Correspondence to Guy Mercier.

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Responsible editor: Bingcai Pan

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Veetil, S.P., Pasquier, LC., Blais, JF. et al. Direct gas–solid carbonation of serpentinite residues in the absence and presence of water vapor: a feasibility study for carbon dioxide sequestration. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 13486–13495 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4580-x

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