Effective Capture of Carbon Dioxide Using Hydrated Sodium Carbonate Powders

Yuanhao Cai; Weilin Wang; Liang Li; Zhaofeng Wang; Suying Wang; Hao Ding; Zhengguo Zhang; Luyi Sun; Weixing Wang

doi:10.3390/ma11020183

Effective Capture of Carbon Dioxide Using Hydrated Sodium Carbonate Powders

Materials (Basel). 2018 Jan 24;11(2):183. doi: 10.3390/ma11020183.

Authors

Yuanhao Cai¹, Weilin Wang^{2

3

4}, Liang Li⁵, Zhaofeng Wang^{6

7}, Suying Wang⁸, Hao Ding^{9

10}, Zhengguo Zhang¹¹, Luyi Sun^{12

13

14}, Weixing Wang¹⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, China Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation of the Ministry of Education, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, Guangdong, China. ceyhcai@163.com.
² School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, China Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation of the Ministry of Education, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, Guangdong, China. weilinwang92@gmail.com.
³ Polymer Program, Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. weilinwang92@gmail.com.
⁴ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. weilinwang92@gmail.com.
⁵ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, China Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation of the Ministry of Education, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, Guangdong, China. liliang628.scut@gmail.com.
⁶ Polymer Program, Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. zhfwang@licp.cas.cn.
⁷ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. zhfwang@licp.cas.cn.
⁸ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, China Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation of the Ministry of Education, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, Guangdong, China. cewangsuying@mail.scut.edu.cn.
⁹ Polymer Program, Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. hao.2.ding@uconn.edu.
¹⁰ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. hao.2.ding@uconn.edu.
¹¹ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, China Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation of the Ministry of Education, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, Guangdong, China. cezhang@scut.edu.cn.
¹² Polymer Program, Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. luyi.sun@uconn.edu.
¹³ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. luyi.sun@uconn.edu.
¹⁴ Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. luyi.sun@uconn.edu.
¹⁵ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, China Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation of the Ministry of Education, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, Guangdong, China. cewxwang@scut.edu.cn.

Abstract

The emission of CO₂ has been considered a major cause of greenhouse effects and global warming. The current CO₂ capture approaches have their own advantages and weaknesses. We found that free-flowing hydrated sodium carbonate (Na₂CO₃) powders with 30 wt % water can achieve a very high CO₂ sorption capacity of 282 mg/g within 60 min and fast CO₂ uptake (90% saturation uptake within 16 min). The results suggest that the alkaline solution resulting from the dissolution of partial Na₂CO₃ can freely attach onto the hydrated Na₂CO₃ particles, which provides an excellent gas-liquid interface for CO₂ capture, leading to significantly enhanced CO₂ sorption capacity and kinetics.

Keywords: CO2 capture; free-flowing powders; hydrated sodium carbonate.