Impacts of Nickel Nanoparticles on Mineral Carbonation

This work presents experimental results regarding the use of pure nickel nanoparticles (NiNP) as a mineral carbonation additive. The aim was to confirm if the catalytic effect of NiNP, which has been reported to increase the dissolution of CO₂ and the dissociation of carbonic acid in water, is capable of accelerating mineral carbonation processes. The impacts of NiNP on the CO₂ mineralization by four alkaline materials (pure CaO and MgO, and AOD and CC steelmaking slags), on the product mineralogy, on the particle size distribution, and on the morphology of resulting materials were investigated. NiNP-containing solution was found to reach more acidic pH values upon CO₂ bubbling, confirming a higher quantity of bicarbonate ions. This effect resulted in acceleration of mineral carbonation in the first fifteen minutes of reaction time when NiNP was present. After this initial stage, however, no benefit of NiNP addition was seen, resulting in very similar carbonation extents after one hour of reaction time. It was also found that increasing solids content decreased the benefit of NiNP, even in the early stages. These results suggest that NiNP has little contribution to mineral carbonation processes when the dissolution of alkaline earth metals is rate limiting.