A CCS Mineralization Process: Investigation of the Production of Magnesium Carbonates from Magnesium Chloride Solution

Abstract Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is considered as a promising technology to remediate the severe carbon dioxide release in the atmosphere. Mineralization in the storage process has several advantages, and its products can be used as low carbon footprint construction materials –magnesium oxide (MgO) cement. It is thought as a good replacement of traditional Portland Cement (PC) from both technical and environmental perspectives. In this study, MgO was obtained by mixing pure magnesium chloride and CO 2 under alkaline condition, to produce hydrated magnesium carbonates as the intermediate product; and then calcined into the final one. This part of research presented in the paper mainly focused on the first stage of carbonation process, and investigated the importance of the pH effect, while other reaction parameters were fixed during the reaction. Filtrates and precipitates were then analysed by ICP and XRD respectively, and the results showed pH>9 has good performance in precipitation, and all the sediments formed in a short time are irrelevant to pH.