CO2 capture and sequestration in stable Ca-oxalate, via Ca-ascorbate promoted green reaction

Linda Pastero; Nadia Curetti; Marco Aldo Ortenzi; Marco Schiavoni; Enrico Destefanis; Alessandro Pavese

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.114

CO₂ capture and sequestration in stable Ca-oxalate, via Ca-ascorbate promoted green reaction

Sci Total Environ. 2019 May 20:666:1232-1244. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.114. Epub 2019 Feb 17.

Authors

Linda Pastero¹, Nadia Curetti², Marco Aldo Ortenzi³, Marco Schiavoni³, Enrico Destefanis², Alessandro Pavese²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Earth Sciences, University of Torino, Via Valperga Caluso, 35, 10125 Torino, Italy. Electronic address: linda.pastero@unito.it.
² Department of Earth Sciences, University of Torino, Via Valperga Caluso, 35, 10125 Torino, Italy.
³ Department of Chemistry, University of Milan, Via Golgi 19, 20133 Milano, Italy.

PMID: 30970488
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.114

Abstract

The increase in the amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions related to many anthropic activities is a persistent and growing problem. During the last years, many solutions have been set out, none of them being the ultimate one. Investigators agree on the need of a synergic approach to the problem, in terms of many complementary methods of sequestration that, combined with the reduction of production, will be able to decrease the concentration of the CO₂ in the atmosphere. In this work, we explore the use of a green reaction to trap the CO₂ into a stable crystalline phase (weddellite) resorting to a multidisciplinary approach. CO₂ is reduced and precipitated as calcium oxalate through vitamin C as a sacrificial reductant. Calcium oxalate crystals obtained show a startling good quality that increases their already great stability over a wide chemical and physical conditions' range.

Keywords: Ascorbic acid; Calcium ascorbate; Calcium oxalate; Carbon dioxide; Sequestration; Weddellite.