Emissions of carbon dioxide from burning of fossil fuels and industrial processes has wide-spread public effects, leading to global climate change and acidification of the oceans. Climate change in turn increases the occurrence of droughts and wildfires and influences food production, which causes human suffering. Carbon conversion and long-term storage technologies are important components of achieving net-zero carbon economy by 2050 to help limit the most severe impacts of global climate change. This program will result in an industrial system for the simultaneous treatment of anthropogenic carbon dioxide and produced water to generate market value products while enabling beneficial water reuse. The system is based on an electrochemical reactor and subsequent mineralization of products with market value, like calcium carbonate and generation of hydrogen and chlorine gases as value-added by-products. The Phase I program will focus on adaptation of commercially available reactor technologies to produce calcium carbonate from produced water and carbon dioxide feedstocks, resulting in preliminary system prototype design. System optimization will be conducted to maximize product yields and minimize reactor fouling tendencies. In addition, the project team will study techno-economics and lifecycle analysis of the technology and identify partners for commercial technology of the technology. The system developed in the proposed program would simultaneously use carbon dioxide and produced water for conversion to calcium carbonate for subsequent use in end products such as building/construction materials, paper and plastics. Conversion of the carbon dioxide to calcium carbonate provides a permanent storage solution for the carbon while potentially enabling beneficial reuse of the produced water for irrigation, mining, power, and manufacturing operations, freeing valuable surface and ground water resources.
