Conversion of CO2 from power plant into CaCO3 nanoparticles

Li, Qingyang; Sowers, Alexa; Zhang, Lihua; Stueckle, Todd A.; Qian, Yong; Morsi, Badie I.; Wafle, Trina K.; Rosinski, Ronald; Shi, Fan; Li, Bingyun

doi:10.1016/j.jece.2025.120601

Conversion of CO₂ from power plant into CaCO₃ nanoparticles

Journal Article · Sat Dec 05 00:00:00 EST 2026 · Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2025.120601· OSTI ID:3022507

Li, Qingyang ^[1]; Sowers, Alexa ^[1]; ^[2]; Stueckle, Todd A. ^[3]; Qian, Yong ^[3]; Morsi, Badie I. ^[4]; Wafle, Trina K. ^[1]; Rosinski, Ronald ^[5]; ^[6]; ^[1]

West Virginia Univ., Morgantown, WV (United States)
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Washington, DC (United States)
Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
Longview Power, LLC, Maidsville, WV (United States)
National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA (United States)

Carbon dioxide (CO₂), a main composition of flue gas, represents a significant and largely untapped carbon resource. Herein, mediated by glycine (Gly), we captured and converted CO₂ into CaCO₃ nanoparticles using real flue gas from a power plant, demonstrating for the first time the feasibility of using amino acid to convert CO₂ from power plant flue gasses. The method did not require extraneous energy and CaCO₃ nanoparticles with a size of ∼25 nm were obtained. Moreover, the potential toxicity of CO₂-converted nanoparticles was investigated. It appeared that both the initial CO₂ loading and the carbamate percentage significantly influence the shape and size of the CaCO₃ particles. Our method was also proven effective for flue gas with varying CO₂ concentrations (4 %, 12 %, and 20 %). By tuning flue gas bubbling time and flow rate to achieve consistent CO₂ loading and carbamate levels, we produced CaCO₃ nanoparticles with similar shapes and sizes across all CO₂ concentrations studied. In addition, our data indicated that although real flue gas contains small amounts of gases like oxygen and CO, they insignificantly influence the shape and size of our nanoparticles but did impact the phase component of CaCO₃. In conclusion, the toxicity experiments found that CaCO₃ nanoparticles produced from both real flue gas and simulated flue gas exhibited concentration- and time-dependent effects on cell viability.

Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation (NSF); USDA; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012704

Other Award/Contract Number:: 2125872
2320495
2020–68012–31881

OSTI ID:: 3022507

Report Number(s):: BNL--229494-2026-JAAM

Journal Information:: Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering (Online), Journal Name: Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering (Online) Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 14; ISSN 2213-3437

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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