A novel microbial-assisted method for sodium bicarbonate production – Cleaner production, safe and facile synthesis

Abstract

The human tendency to new, cleaner, and safer methods for the production of materials has led to extensive eco-friendly studies. Herein, urea ((NH2)2CO) was exposed to bio-catalyzed urease enzyme from Sporosarcina pasteurii (formerly known as Bacillus pasturii). After hydrolysis of urea, the gassing of CO2 led to the production of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3). The final product was validated for its crystallographic, microstructural, and elemental properties through X-ray diffraction (XRD), carbon-hydrogen-nitrogen (CHN) elemental analysis, field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy. These results, along with the chemical evaluation of chloride ion, proved that NaHCO3 was the major compound with a purity of > 76 %. This finding confirmed that cleaner and facile production of NaHCO3 is possible by our defined novel enzymatically-modified Solvay method. Besides removing hazardous materials before and after the process (raw materials and residues), this method simultaneously highlights the potential for converting CO2 captured from the environment or gases released from different industries to NaHCO3 a highly applicable material for pharmaceuticals, food, and other industries.