CO2 mineralization of carbide slag for the production of light calcium carbonates

The production of polyvinyl chloride by calcium carbide method is a typical chemical process with high coal consumption, leading to massive flue gas and carbide slag emissions. Currently, the carbide slag with high CaO content is usually stacked in residue field, easily draining away with the rain and corroding the soil. In this work, we coupled the treatment of flue gas and carbide slag to propose a facile CO₂ mineralization route to prepare light calcium carbonate. And the route feasibility was comprehensively evaluated via experiments and simulation. Through experimental investigation, the Ca²⁺ leaching and mineralization reaction parameters were determined. Based on the experiment, a process was built and optimized through Aspen Plus, and the energy was integrated to obtain the overall process energy and material consumption. Finally, the net CO₂ emission reduction rate of the entire process through the life-cycle assessment method was analyzed. Moreover, the relationship between the parameters and the CO₂ emission life-cycle assessment was established. The final optimization results showed that the mineralization process required 1154.69 kW·h·(t CO₂)^-1 of energy (including heat energy of 979.32 kW·h·(t CO₂)^-1 and electrical energy of 175.37 kW·h·(t CO₂)^-1), and the net CO₂ emission reduction rate was 35.8%. The light CaCO₃ product can be sold as a high value-added product. According to preliminary economic analysis, the profit of mineralizing can reach more than 2,100 CNY·(t CO₂)^-1.