Carbon dioxide capture through the use of calcium-polyphosphate to deprotonate bicarbonate, and form calcium carbonate minerals

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The energy-efficient capture and secure storage of carbon dioxide is of increasing importance, with the rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, and its rapid effects on our planet, such as ocean acidification. While no immediately obvious, single technology will capture and securely store the current, large-scale anthropogenic production of carbon dioxide with a net-negative carbon footprint, it is possible that many, smaller, varied, niche chemical processes for capturing and storing carbon dioxide may collectively make a significant impact on our emissions. One of the carbon-capture and storage technologies is the formation of carbonate minerals from carbon dioxide emissions. This strategy precipitates carbonate minerals from solutions of divalent cations and carbonate ions, and requires a reactant that will deprotonate the bicarbonate ion. This work proposes to investigate a novel technology for capturing carbon dioxide through mineralization: the precipitation of calcium carbonate from calcium polyphosphate and bicarbonate ions. In parallel, this proposal includes the development of laboratory-scale phosphate removal technology (enhanced biological phosphorous removal through microbial polyphosphate formation) from simulated, treated municipal wastewater. The calcium polyphosphate generated by the phosphorous-removing microbes will be tested as a biological source of calcium polyphosphate for carbon dioxide capture. These carbon-dioxide and phosphate-capture processes will be developed and integrated at the laboratory scale, representing a potential industrial ecology model for simultaneous phosphorus and carbon dioxide capture at a carbon dioxide-emitting municipal wastewater treatment plant.