Abstract—The present work optimizes the CO
2 capture based on the Solvay process, where carbon dioxide is passed into ammoniated brine and reacts with sodium chloride to form a precipitate of sodium bicarbonate and a soluble ammonium chloride. The process has the dual benefit of decreasing sodium concentration in the reject brine and reducing carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. Process parameters were studied in a semi-batch reactor to determine their effect on CO
2 capture efficiency and ions removal. The optimum conditions for maximum CO
2 capture efficiency and ions removal have been determined using response surface methodology. The optimum CO
2 capture efficiency and ions removal was found to be at temperature of about 19
oC, a gas flow rate of 1.54 L/min, and a molar ratio of 3.3NH3:1NaCl. The CO
2 capture efficiency in 180 min was equal to 86% and the maximum sodium removal was 33%. These results indicated the technical feasibility of the Solvay approach for the capture of CO
2 through reactions with desalination reject brine.
Index Terms—Desalination reject brine, CO
2 capture, sodium bicarbonate, sodium removal, Solvay process.
Ameera F. Mohammad, Mabruk I. Suleiman, andMohamed Al Musharfy are with the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, UAE University, and Takreer Research Center, Abu Dhabi, UAE (e-mail: a.fares@uaeu.ac.ae, missa@takreer.com, musharfy@takreer.com).
Muftah H. El-Naas is with Gas Processing Center, College of Engineering, Qatar University, Qatar (e-mail: muftah@qu.edu.qa).
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Cite: Ameera F. Mohammad, Muftah H. El-Naas, Mabruk I. Suleiman, and Mohamed Al Musharfy, "Optimization of a Solvay-Based Approach for CO2 Capture," International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 230-234, 2016.
