Basalt as a solid source of calcium and alkalinity for the sequestration of carbon dioxide in building materials

Motivated by the idea of converting waste carbon dioxide into usable building products, Calera Corporation has developed a multi-step process that sequesters CO2 as carbonate minerals in cementitious materials. Process inputs include dissolved divalent cations and alkalinity, both of which can be extracted from basalt. In one mode of the Calera process, the electrochemical production of alkalinity generates large volumes of hydrochloric acid as a by-product, which has been shown to effectively leach divalent cations from basalt while being neutralized by the basalt dissolution reaction. Using a 10:1 1M HCl solution to rock ratio, 3500 ppm Ca was extracted while the initial solution was neutralized to a pH of 2.60 in two weeks at a temperature of 80oC in an anoxic batch reactor. In this scenario, mineral carbonation occurs via three steps: electrochemical production of alkalinity, CO2 absorption by the alkaline stream, then precipitation by mixing the basalt-derived divalent cation stream and the CO2-containing alkaline stream. In a second scenario, alkalinity is extracted from basalt using an alkalinity capacitor, a weak acid. This solution may contain a proton source, such as ammonium chloride, or a hydroxyl acceptor, such as boric acid, but the main design constraint is that the pKa of the capacitor be high enough to deprontonate carbonic acid. The weak acid solution is mixed with basalt in an anoxic batch reactor and the dissolving rock consumes protons from the weak acid, generating the conjugate base. The solution rich in conjugate base then absorbs CO2 and the carbonate-rich solution is mixed with a calcium-rich stream to precipitate carbonate minerals. We have extracted up to 1100 mmol alkalinity per kg rock using an alkalinity capacitor, versus no more than 50 mmol alkalinity per kg rock using DI water as a solvent. Again, carbon sequestration occurs via three steps: alkalinity extraction from basalt, CO2 absorption, and finally carbonate precipitation. Both multi-step CO2 sequestration processes use little energy, safely capture and store CO2 for geologic time periods, and produce commercial building materials that partially replace traditional cement, which is itself a major generator of CO2 emissions.