Effect of Na2CO3 on production of NaHCO3 using desulfurized Na2SO4 waste

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Abstract
CO2 is the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activities which cause global warming. Many countries and international regulations aim to reduce CO2 and encourage development of a net-zero society by 2050, thus, CCUS (carbon capture, utilization, and storage) can be considered as a key technology for achieving this goal. Among the many industrial processes, NaHCO3 production is a representative CCUS technology which satisfies both CO2 reduction and economic incentive. Recently, Na2SO4 waste, containing 15% impurities (i.e., various heavy metals), produced as a by-product generated from desulfurized processes in steel industry has received a great deal of attention since landfilling has been the only way to treat it. Na2SO4 could be a suitable source of NaHCO3 production as CCUS; however, there are no commercial processes for production of NaHCO3 using Na2SO4 as the raw material, since it has low production efficiency compared to other Na+ sources. This study evaluates the regeneration of NaHCO3 using Na2SO4 waste and our results show that a combination of Na2SO4 waste and the addition of 20% Na2CO3 can sharply increase the yield of NaHCO3 while minimizing the consumption of expensive NH3.

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