Abstract
CO2 mineralization (aka mineral carbonation) is a promising method for the chemical sequestration of CO2 via reaction with oxides of alkaline or alkaline-earth metals to form carbonates. It has documented advantages over similar technological solutions to climate change. The huge amount of industrial solid waste, as a serious environmental issue confronted by China, can provide additional alkalinity sources for CO2 mineralization. In this study, we present an overview of the latest advances in the emerging technologies of CO2-mineralization via industrial solid waste in China, from the perspective of both theoretical and practical considerations. We summarize the types of industrial solid waste that are used (mainly coal fly ash, steel slag, phosphogypsum, and blast furnace slag) and the technological options available in the literature, with an emphasis on the discussion of the involved process-intensification methods and valuable chemicals produced. Furthermore, we illustrate the current status of pertinent policies, and research and development activities in China. Finally, we identify the current knowledge gaps, particularly in understanding the overall sustainability performance of these CO2-mineralization technologies, and indicate that the technical, economic, and environmental challenges of promoting and commercializing these technologies for the co-utilization of industrial solid waste and carbon resources call for, amongst other things, more joint efforts by chemists, chemical engineers, and environmental scientists, and more feedback from the energy and industrial sectors.
Highlights
Carbon dioxide (CO2) mineralization, first proposed by Seifritz [1], is an important part of the CO2 capture, storage, and utilization (CCUS) technologies that are considered one of the effective ways to curb atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions for climate change mitigation [2]
Industrial solid waste (ISW) that is rich in CaO and MgO provides additional alkalinity sources for CO2 mineralization, and its environmental impacts are mitigated via improved environmental stability after carbonation [11]
China has incorporated CCUS into its Nationally Determined Contributions. All these commitments to the international community will bring forth more policies related to CCUS, such as the Administrative Measures for Carbon Emission Trading (Trial) which will be implemented in February 2021, to speed up the construction of the carbon emissions trading market in China, and facilitate a carbon pricing system for industrial sectors to lower their costs in applying CO2 mineralization via ISW compared to other CCUS technologies
Summary
The chemical properties of carbonates produced during the carbonation process are stable, resulting in almost permanent storage of CO2 [4]. The application of CO2 mineralization can facilitate an industrial ecology approach in the ISW sector, recover valuable metals, and produce valuable chemicals; in the case of waste produced near a large number of CO2 point sources, it is helpful for factories to adopt CO2 mineralization technologies [21]. With the accelerated process of industrialization, China’s ISW has increased year by year, reaching 4.41 billion tons in 2019 [25]; and China has become one of the world’s largest solid waste producing countries. Technologies of CO2 mineralization via ISW can fix CO2, reduce and recycle ISW, and utilize ISW and waste CO2 streams as secondary resources They are an inevitable choice for China to achieve the dual goals of climate change mitigation and a circular economy and will have a significant contribution to global sustainable development. We present an overview of the latest advances in emerging technologies of CO2-mineralization via ISW in China from the perspective of both theoretical and practical considerations, to make them understood by a broader international audience, as such an overview has notbeen reported so far
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