Chemical fixation of CO₂ in carbonates: Routes to valuable products and long-term storage

Carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere can be reduced by chemical fixation in organic or inorganic carbonates. Many compounds can be commercially produced on an industrial scale using CO₂, allowing for turning a (nowadays problematic) waste gas into economic profit. Besides this, the carbonation of magnesium silicates and calcium silicates is an option for long-term storage of CO₂ at a capacity that exceeds that of other options for CO₂ storage by several orders of magnitude, with the inherent benefit that post-storage monitoring of the stored CO₂ is not necessary. The first part of this paper gives an overview of commercial carbonate chemical production routes that do (or in a near future can) make use of the CO₂ that is produced at a large scale from human activities. The second part addresses the process technology, market potential and other aspects of mineral carbonation for long-term CO₂ storage as an alternative for, for example, storage in underground aquifers.