Chemistry of inorganic compounds – Modifying or removing component of normally gaseous mixture – Carbon dioxide or hydrogen sulfide component
Patent
1995-07-27
1999-09-28
Langel, Wayne
Chemistry of inorganic compounds
Modifying or removing component of normally gaseous mixture
Carbon dioxide or hydrogen sulfide component
42324306, 423312, 423397, 423470, 423471, B01D 5350, B01D 5362
Patent
active
059583533
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a method for reducing atmospheric pollution caused by a pollutant selected from the group consisting of CO.sub.2, SO.sub.2, and a mixture thereof.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for reducing atmospheric pollution caused by CO.sub.2 contained in industrial gases, such as in flue gases produced by combustion powered gas turbines, through the conversion of CO.sub.2 to CaCO.sub.3 utilizing commercially available calcium salts, and to a method for reducing atmospheric pollution caused by SO.sub.2 contained in industrial gases through the conversion of SO.sub.2 to calcium sulfite, utilizing commercially available calcium-containing salts.
Carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases, i.e., it is one of those gases considered to be a major threat to the environment, due to the greenhouse effect attributable thereto.
As reported in "Costs of Curbing CO.sub.2 Emissions Analyzed", C & En, page 4 (May 18, 1992), the annual damage to the U.S. economy from the doubling of CO.sub.2 emission (expected to occur between 2025 and 2050), would be about $60 billion, or 1% of the gross domestic product.
Two bills that aim to stabilize carbon dioxide at 1990 levels by 2000 have been introduced in the Congress of the U.S. An amendment to the energy bill introduced would stabilize greenhouse emissions.
In fiscal year 1992, the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technologies proposed several awards totaling $550,000, for initial R&D work on innovative concepts to utilize waste CO.sub.2.
In the prior art there are many suggested methods for separating carbon dioxide from gases containing the same.
Thus, the following prior art processes have been proposed:
All of the above processes are characterized by absorption, desorption, and condensation. Most of them have been developed to deal with situations in which there is a local need for CO.sub.2, and they therefore are designed to utilize locally-produced CO.sub.2 as opposed to bringing CO.sub.2 to the site where it is required. An example of such a situation is one in which CO.sub.2 is required for the production of sodium bicarbonate. These processes, however, were not designed to provide a solution for reducing atmospheric pollution caused by CO.sub.2, and they were not designed to provide a sink for CO.sub.2 enabling the disposal thereof.
All of these processes involve the use of a recyclable absorber, such as mono- and di-ethanolamine, potassium carbonate, dimethylether or polyethylene glycol. They further require make up of reagents due to carryover losses which occur during the various stages, as well as due to chemical degredation and oxidation. All of these processes suffer from limited absorption capability, since they are based on absorption followed by desorption, and thus a strong absorbent, which would otherwise be desirable, results in unacceptable energy requirements for effecting the desorption therefrom.
Furthermore, since all of these processes involve several stages, all involving gas treatment, the volumes required for effecting these various stages is prohibitive.
It should also be realised that combined processes involving absorption and desorption require energy consumption, at least for the desorption step.
Thus, despite the existence of these various processes, more practical and economical processes are still required since it is known, e.g., that for lack of a solution for the removal of polluting CO.sub.2 gas from flue gases produced by the combustion-powered gas turbine used in the off-shore drilling rigs in the North Sea oil fields, in the range of sixty million dollars are paid annually.
However, despite this enormous financial incentive, the prior art has yet to provide a solution for providing a non-hazardous CO.sub.2 sink applicable to such situations.
Similarly, sulfur and nitrogen in oil or coal result in sulfur dioxide (SO.sub.2) and various nitrogen oxides (NO.sub.x) in addition to carbon dioxide (CO.sub.2) in the flue gas. These oxides are hazardous and are the main c
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Clue
Di Mauro Peter
Langel Wayne
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