Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Petroleum Engineering, Mahabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mahabad 59135-433, Iran. omeid.rahmani@iau-mahabad.ac.ir
  • 2 560 Yishun Avenue 6 #08-25 Lilydale, Singapore 768966, Singapore. James03@singnet.com.sg
  • 3 Department of Petroleum Engineering, FCEE, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Skudai 81310, Johor, Malaysia. radzuan@petroleum.utm.my
  • 4 Mineral Industry Research Organisation, Wellington House, Starley Way, Birmingham International Park, Solihull, Birmingham B37 7HB, UK. m.tyrer@mtyrer.net
  • 5 Geoscience and Digital Earth Centre (Geo-DEC), Research Institute for Sustainability and Environment (RISE), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Skudai 81310, Johor, Malaysia. a.beiranvand@utm.my
Molecules, 2016 Mar 16;21(3):353.
PMID: 26999082 DOI: 10.3390/molecules21030353

Abstract

In this work, the potential of CO₂ mineral carbonation of brucite (Mg(OH)2) derived from the Mount Tawai peridotite (forsterite based (Mg)₂SiO4) to produce thermodynamically stable magnesium carbonate (MgCO3) was evaluated. The effect of three main factors (reaction temperature, particle size, and water vapor) were investigated in a sequence of experiments consisting of aqueous acid leaching, evaporation to dryness of the slurry mass, and then gas-solid carbonation under pressurized CO2. The maximum amount of Mg converted to MgCO₃ is ~99%, which occurred at temperatures between 150 and 175 °C. It was also found that the reduction of particle size range from >200 to <75 µm enhanced the leaching rate significantly. In addition, the results showed the essential role of water vapor in promoting effective carbonation. By increasing water vapor concentration from 5 to 10 vol %, the mineral carbonation rate increased by 30%. This work has also numerically modeled the process by which CO₂ gas may be sequestered, by reaction with forsterite in the presence of moisture. In both experimental analysis and geochemical modeling, the results showed that the reaction is favored and of high yield; going almost to completion (within about one year) with the bulk of the carbon partitioning into magnesite and that very little remains in solution.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.