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MSc Thesis: Cyclic operation of indirect mineral carbonation
To limit climate change and global warming to below 2°C; substantial emission reductions will be needed
to reach net-zero anthropogenic CO2 emissions by 2050 at the latest. Carbon capture and storage (CCS)
will be a key instrument for mitigating hard-to-abate point-source emissions. Another environmental
challenge of this century is the large amounts of waste materials produced by industry, which are often
landfilled or used for low-value applications and have a detrimental environmental impact due to the
leaching of heavy metals. For industrial waste management and small-scale CCS, a solution is offered
by ex-situ mineral carbonation: an accelerated form of natural rock weathering, i.e., the formation of
stable carbonates by the reaction of CO2 with naturally occurring oxides or silicates of magnesium, iron,
and calcium. Many industrial residues have been studied for mineralization, including iron and steel-making
slags, fuel combustion ashes, mine tailings, alkaline paper mill wastes, cement kiln dusts, and recycled
concrete aggregates. Mineralization of these industrial residues has the potential to permanently
store up to 360 Mt of CO2 per year in the form of carbonated minerals and generates value through the
use of the resulting products. One mineralisation pathway involves using a solvent, aqueous ammonium salts,
to accelerate the process. However, for economical and environmental reasons, the solvent must be recycled
multiple times. This aspect is often forgotten or not investigated in the literature. A novel experimental setup has
been developed to perform multiple cycle experiments, and this setup will be used to assess the process
stability and performance over multiple recycling cycles of the solvent.
The student will assess experimentally the recyclability of ammonium salt solvents and the impact of co-leached impurities for indirect mineral carbonation.
The student will assess experimentally the recyclability of ammonium salt solvents and the impact of co-leached impurities for indirect mineral carbonation.
Please feel free to reach out for more information, we can then organise a meeting.
Antonio Gasos (agasos@ipe.mavt.ethz.ch)
Please feel free to reach out for more information, we can then organise a meeting.