Mineral carbonation process of carbon dioxide using animal bone

Carbon dioxide has been identified as one of the greenhouse gases responsible for global warming. Several carbon capture and storage technologies have been developed to mitigate the large quantities of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, but these are quite expensive and not easy to implement. Thus, this research analyses the technical and economic feasibility of using calcium leached from cow bone to capture and store carbon dioxide through the mineral carbonation process. The capturing process of carbon dioxide was successful using the proposed technique of leaching calcium from cow shinbone (the tibia) in the presence of HCl by reacting the calcium solution with gaseous carbon dioxide. AAS and XRF analysis were used to determine the concentration of calcium in leached solutions and the composition of calcium in cow bone respectively. The best leaching conditions were found to be 4 mole/L HCl and leaching time of 6 h. Under these conditions, a leaching efficiency of 91% and a calcium conversion of 83% in the carbonation reaction were obtained. Other factors such as carbonation time, agitation rate, and carbonation reaction temperature had little effect on the yield. A preliminary cost analysis showed that the cost to capture 1 ton of CO₂ with the proposed technique is about US$ 268.32, which is in the acceptable range of the capturing process. However, the cost of material used and electricity should be reviewed to reduce the preliminary production cost.