Date of Award

May 2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Energy Engineering

First Advisor

Daniel Laudal

Abstract

Humans have contributed to climate change through anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, chlorofluorocarbons, and nitrous oxide, into the atmosphere. CO2 emissions contribute approximately 79% to the warming of the Earth's surface. Various tactics have been developed to slow down global warming and prepare for climate change, including carbon mineralization. Carbon mineralization is a process that converts CO2 into solid mineral forms, such as carbonates, emulating the natural weathering process of alkaline silicate rocks. However, the rate of natural weathering is slow, occurring on geologic time scales. Therefore, the goal of this research is to test a novel contacting method to accelerate the mineralization process to create a feasible industrial approach. This study seeks to: assess the potential of industrial waste (e.g., biomass combustion ash) for mineralization, determine the significant factors affecting the mineralization process, and determine the suitability of mineralized products as soil-amendment products. The industrial wastes were characterized using x-ray fluorescence and x-ray diffraction and a factorial design of experiments was used to determine the significance of various test parameters. The results of the study show that a novel contacting method has the potential to result in effective mineralization with rates on the order of minutes or seconds and that the CO2 partial pressure is a significant factor affecting the mineralization process. Tests also showed that mineralized products hold potential as soil amendments. The methods developed in this study hold promise as a new technology for the point-source capture and sequestration of CO2 emissions with industrially-relevant scaling.

Download

Available for download on Saturday, June 06, 2026

Share

COinS