Accelerated carbonation of steelmaking slags in a high-gravity rotating packed bed

Carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration using the accelerated carbonation of basic oxygen furnace (BOF) slag in a high-gravity rotating packed bed (RPB) under various operational conditions was investigated. The effects of reaction time, reaction temperature, rotation speed and slurry flow rate on the CO2 sequestration process were evaluated. The samples of reacted slurry were analyzed quantitatively using thermogravi-metric analysis (TGA) and atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and qualitatively using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The sequestration experiments were performed at a liquid-to-solid ratio of 20:1 with a flow rate of 2.5 L min(-1) of a pure CO2 stream under atmospheric temperature and pressure. The results show that a maximum conversion of BOF slag was 93.5% at a reaction time of 30 min and a rotation speed of 750 rpm at 65 degrees C. The experimental data were utilized to determine the rate-limiting mechanism based on the shrinking core model (SCM), which was validated by the observations of SEM and TEM. Accelerated carbonation in a RPB was confirmed to be a viable method due to its higher mass-transfer rate. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.