A Scalable Process for Upcycling Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Coal Combustion Residues into Construction Products
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
Anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide are generated from a number of sources, but the key among these are ordinary Portland cement (OPC) production and combustion of fossil fuels. Cement production is the largest global CO2 source from the mineral decomposition of carbonates. Combination of the limestone decomposition and thermal requirements of the clinkering process causes cement production to contribute 8-9% of annual global CO2 emissions. Combustion of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) was shown to contribute a much larger portion of global CO2 emissions. As of 2018, combustion of fossil fuels accounted for 65% of global CO2, where 41% was derived from stationary sources for electricity and heat generation and the other 24% was related to transport. To reduce these contributions, key steps forward in CO2 utilization technologies are required. The purpose of this project is to demonstrate the feasibility of the Reversa process evolving from a TRL-3 technology at the bench-scale up to TRL-6 technology at the pilot-scale. The reliability of the Reversa technology was tested to prove the effective production of concrete masonry units (CMUs) at bench scale, where the units exceeded the required 13.8 MPa compressive strength requirements. The overall goal of this project was to accelerate the development of a CO2 mineralization process that synergistically utilizes CO2 in flue gas and coal combustion residues (CCRs) to synthesize carbonated concrete, a functional replacement for traditional concrete. The culmination of this work resulted in 12 successful production runs at the Integrated Test Center (ITC), Gillette, WY using coal flue gas as a CO2 source. This was followed by 6 production runs which were completed at the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC), Wilsonville, AL, using coal-fired and natural gas (NG) flue gas as the CO2 source. Over the course of the production runs at NCCC and ITC, the CO2 utilization as a function of time, 24-h CO2 uptake, electricity usage, and 28-d net area compressive strength recorded for each run. The ITC and NCCC demonstrations achieved an average of 0.19 and 0.1 g CO2/g reactant, respectively. Both demonstrations exceeded the project’s target goals of uptake > 0.05 g CO2/g reactant. Average compressive strength of the ITC blocks was 18.24 MPa at 28-days. This exceeded the target strength of 13.8 MPa specified by ASTM C90. ITC and NCCC produced an average CO2 utilization efficiency of 74.9 and 57.9%, respectively. Both demonstration averages were within the target range of 50 to 90% utilization efficiency. For some production runs the NCCC demo did exceeded the a CO2 utilization efficiency of 75%. An LCA of the Reversa process compared to an industry standard product revealed a net CO2 reduction of 39% to 42%. This exceeded the target requirement of >25% net CO2 reduction. Collection of this data was used to determine that the project was successful as the demonstration goals were achieved: (1) achieving in excess of 75% CO2 utilization efficiency, (2) utilizing greater than 250 kg of CO2 per production batch/run, and (3) ensuring compliance of carbonated blocks with industry standard specifications (ASTM C90).
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FE0031718
- OSTI ID:
- 1811705
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-UCLA-FE0031718
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Slipstream pilot-scale demonstration of a novel amine-based post-combustion technology for carbon dioxide capture from coal-fired power plant flue gas
Algae Production CO2 Absorber with Immobilized Carbonic Anhydrase