(290a) Creating a New Materials Circularity with Negative Emission Technologies
AIChE Annual Meeting
2023
2023 AIChE Annual Meeting
Particle Technology Forum
Honorary Session: Ray Cocco's Special Topics
Tuesday, November 7, 2023 - 3:30pm to 3:55pm
With the increase in the global population and the growth of the world economy, global energy consumption has been increasing rapidly. Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies are one of the approaches to decarbonize the power and industrial sectors, and create a new circular carbon economy. Among various options, mineral carbonation, which mimics the natural weathering of silicate minerals, has potential at scale relevant to climate change mitigation. As CO2 reacts with silicate minerals, carbon is stabilized in the form of insoluble solid carbonates for CCUS with permanence. In addition to natural minerals and mine tailings, a wide range of primary and secondary sources (e.g., alkaline industrial wastes (e.g., iron and steel slag), electronic wastes, waste PV and wind power systems etc) can be used as feedstock for carbon mineralization. Carbon mineralization using their own solid wastes and CO2 leads to multifaceted environmental benefits including CCUS and solid waste management. Furthermore, these technologies can be employed to recover energy-relevant critical materials such as rare earth elements (REEs), Li, Co, Ni and Cu while sequestering carbon. The challenge is that silicate minerals and solid wastes are chemically complex and their dissolution kinetics are very slow and the recovery of metals from these feedstocks require multi-step separation technologies. In order to address these challenges and opportunities, we have focused on the fundamental understanding of dissolution and carbonation behaviors of unconventional resources and the integration of step-wise separations of energy-relevant critical materials creating a new materials circularity for our sustainable future.