CO 2 Mineral Carbonation Reactor Analysis using Computational Fluid Dynamics: Internal Reactor Design Study for the Efficient Mixing of Solid Reactants in the Solution

− Aqueous mineral carbonation process, in which CO 2 is captured through the reaction with aqueous calcium oxide (CaO) solution, is one of CCU technology enabling the stable sequestration of CO 2 as well as economic value creation from its products. In order to enhance the carbon capture efficiency, it is required to maximize the dissolution rate of solid reactants, CaO. For this purpose, the proper design of a reactor, which can achieve the uniform distribution of solid reactants throughout the whole reactor, is essential. In this paper, the effect of internal reactor designs on the solid dispersion quality is studied by using CFD (computational fluid dynamics) techniques for the pilot-scale reactor which can handle 40 ton of CO 2 per day. Various combination cases consisting of different internal design variables, such as types, numbers, diameters, clearances and speed of impellers and length and width of baffles are analyzed for the stirred tank reactor with a fixed tank geometry. By conducting sensitivity analysis, we could distinguish critical variables and their impacts on solid distribution. At the same time, the reactor design which can produce solid distribution profile with a standard deviation value of 0.001 is proposed.