CO2 capture and sequestration in stable Ca-oxalate, via Ca-ascorbate promoted green reaction

• Published in: The Science of the total environment 2019-05, Vol.666, p.1232-1244
• Main Authors: Pastero, Linda, Curetti, Nadia, Ortenzi, Marco Aldo, Schiavoni, Marco, Destefanis, Enrico, Pavese, Alessandro
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ascorbic acid; Calcium ascorbate; Calcium oxalate; Carbon dioxide; Sequestration; Weddellite
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.114

The increase in the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions related to many anthropic activities is a persistent and growing problem. During the last years, many solutions have been set out, none of them being the ultimate one. Investigators agree on the need of a synergic approach to the problem, in terms of many complementary methods of sequestration that, combined with the reduction of production, will be able to decrease the concentration of the CO2 in the atmosphere. In this work, we explore the use of a green reaction to trap the CO2 into a stable crystalline phase (weddellite) resorting to a multidisciplinary approach. CO2 is reduced and precipitated as calcium oxalate through vitamin C as a sacrificial reductant. Calcium oxalate crystals obtained show a startling good quality that increases their already great stability over a wide chemical and physical conditions' range. [Display omitted] •The increase of the amount of atmospheric CO2 is still an unsolved issue.•We handled the issue resorting to a multidisciplinary approach.•We converted CO2 into oxalate by using vitamin C as a sacrificial reductant.•Calcium oxalates doubled the reaction performance compared to carbonate trapping.•The conversion reaction was studied to improve its performance.