Mineral carbonation as a design project for green chemical engineering education

Abstract

Accelerated mineral carbonation is a promising CO2 sequestration technology that is strongly linked to concepts of sustainability and Green Chemistry, and its process requirements apply principles of reaction kinetics, transport phenomena, and materials characterization. The present work aimed to develop educational tools for including accelerated mineral carbonation in chemical engineering curricula. To this end, an experimental investigation laboratory procedure and a design project outline have been conceived. As a way to further engage students in this learning experience, the process conditions for the laboratory work are varied between groups of students, and the experimental data obtained are pooled to be used by every group for the subsequent design exercise. This is meant to give students motivation to generate accurate data that they knew would be useful for the entire class and, at the same time, provide students with the opportunity to use data generated by colleagues, much in the same way the design work is done in the industry. In the design project, students use the experimental data obtained by themselves and classmates on the accelerated mineral carbonation of wollastonite, to determine if this is a feasible process for industry to sequester carbon dioxide, in view of mitigating climate change. Also, they use the experimental data, acquired using a range of process conditions, to study the effect of the process variables (CO2 pressure and mixing rate) on the carbonation kinetics and mass transfer rate. The focus of our previously published article was on the experimental investigation, while the focus of this conference paper is on the design project.