Open AccessScaling Up of Continuous Mineral Carbonation Reactor for the Production of High Value PCC Products
Author(s) -
M N M Ghaddaffi,
O M Syazwan,
Muhammad Syazwan,
I M Aimen
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of physics. conference series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.21
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1742-6596
pISSN - 1742-6588
DOI - 10.1088/1742-6596/1349/1/012081
Subject(s) - carbonation , supercritical fluid , raw material , materials science , calcium carbonate , chemical engineering , carbonatation , volumetric flow rate , carbon dioxide , waste management , chemistry , composite material , thermodynamics , organic chemistry , physics , engineering
The concept of supercritical CO2 mineral carbonation reaction was firstly proven and demonstrated in the laboratory scale using a 100cc high pressure PVT recombination chamber. Successful proof of concept led PETRONAS to scale up this reaction by developing a working prototype mineral carbonation reactor with the intention of demonstrating the continuous operation of the supercritical CO2 mineral carbonation process. The setup comprising of a feedstock tank, a high pressure liquid pump, a 0.8L high pressure tubular reactor, injector spray nozzle was thoroughly tested to understand the feasibility and robustness of the prototype reactor design and configuration. Another purpose was to study the effect of varying parameters such as reactor pressure, feedstock injection flow rate and compositional effect of methane in carbon dioxide gas reactant to the properties of the precipitated calcium carbonate produced from this process scheme. In summary, the setup was successful to demonstrate the concept of continuous supercritical mineral carbonation reaction up to 1.5 litre/min feedstock injection flow rate. The effect of reactor working pressure and feedstock injection flow rate was the main factors determining the properties and quality of precipitated calcium carbonate produced. Particle size distribution of the calcium carbonate precipitates produced from this setup averaged approximately 6 microns in size. Other parameters such as gas composition and recycling of carrier fluid sucrose have less effect on the properties of the product.