| Project Detail |
A new way to improve mineralisation in industrial waste management Climate change has resulted in more extreme weather events and increased pollution, posing threats to both human health and the environment. CO2 mineralisation technology offers a promising solution to stabilise industrial waste and capture CO2 emissions. However, industrial waste is inherently complex, and the presence of impurities can significantly affect the efficiency of the mineralisation process. To effectively address this challenge, it is crucial to gain a deeper understanding of the effects of these impurities and ensure the safety of the mineralisation process. With the support of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions programme, the ENCAPSULATE project takes an interdisciplinary approach. By establishing comprehensive datasets and models, the project aims to assess the impact of impurities on mineralisation efficiency and develop strategies to mitigate environmental consequences. Anthropogenic climate warming has led to more frequent climate extremes and pollution episodes, posing serious threats to the ecological environment and human health. The rapid development of CO2 mineralization technology for industrial solid wastes offers a promising solution to ENCAPSULATE CO2 while stabilizing wastes. However, unlike desirable natural silicate minerals like olivine and wollastonite, industrial solid wastes exhibit a complex and diverse composition. The efficiency of mineralization in the carbonation process can be significantly impacted by the competitiveness of impurities relative to Ca/Mg. Whereas, the correlated systematic assessments of impurities competitiveness remain lacking. In addition, the leachability of potentially toxic elements after mineralization has not been explored, raising significant safety concerns. ENCAPSULATE takes an interdisciplinary approach, combining the researcher’s experience in waste characterization and thermodynamic modeling with the supervisor’s expertise in interfacial geochemistry and molecular modeling to address these hitherto neglected challenges head-on. To this end, ENCAPSULATE will establish publicly available datasets and novel models to (i) estimate the impurities constraints on mineralization efficiency at the outset, (ii) propose possible strategies to reduce the environmental impacts of using carbonized products in practical applications and (iii) link CO2 emission to specific activities in industries. The outcomes will benefit EU organizations and industrial stakeholders engaged in CO2 mitigation efforts. The fellowship will be carried out at Université Grenoble Alpes (ISTerre joint research unit) and work with both academics (PSI, ESRF, CNRS, and EMPA) and industry partners (AMIII). The supervisors expertise and the organizations equipment ensure successful research progress and unsurpassed academic-industry intercommunication. |
