Opportunities for Mineral Carbonation in Australia’s Mining Industry

Abstract

Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) via mineral carbonation is an effective method for long-term storage of carbon dioxide and combating climate change. Implemented at a large-scale, it provides a viable solution to harvesting and storing the modern crisis of GHGs emissions. To date, technological and economic barriers have inhibited broad-scale utilisation of mineral carbonation at industrial scales. This paper outlines the mineral carbonation process; discusses drivers and barriers of mineral carbonation deployment in Australian mining; and, finally, proposes a unique approach to commercially viable CCUS within the Australian mining industry by integrating mine waste management with mine site rehabilitation, and leveraging relationships with local coal-fired power station. This paper discusses using alkaline mine and coal-fired power station waste (fly ash, red mud, and ultramafic mine tailings, i.e., nickel, diamond, PGE (platinum group elements), and legacy asbestos mine tailings) as the feedstock for CCUS to produce environmentally benign materials, which can be used in mine reclamation. Geographical proximity of mining operations, mining waste storage facilities and coal-fired power stations in Australia are identified; and possible synergies between them are discussed. This paper demonstrates that large-scale alkaline waste production and mine site reclamation can become integrated to mechanise CCUS. Furthermore, financial liabilities associated with such waste management and site reclamation could overcome many of the current economic setbacks of retrofitting CCUS in the mining industry. An improved approach to commercially viable climate change mitigation strategies available to the mining industry is reviewed in this paper.

Coupling and Coordination Development of Australian Energy, Economy, and Ecological Environment Systems from 2007 to 2016

“…In recent years, the Australian Government has integrated the protection of the ecological environment into its national strategy. Other environmental protection measures, such as the comprehensive utilization of water resources and protection of biodiversity, have also been gradually promoted and implemented in Australia [25]. The impact of global climate change and Australia's huge carbon emission base, which is an important cause of extreme climate that leads to sea level rise, high temperatures, and drought, has seriously damaged Australia's ecological environment [26].…”

Economic Evaluation of Carbon Capture and Utilization Applying the Technology of Mineral Carbonation at Coal-Fired Power Plant

“…CCU by mineral carbonation technology, also called CO 2 mineralization, is a less explored method of sequestering CO 2 compared to other CCS methods, such as geological sequestration [10][11][12], ocean disposal [13][14][15], and biological fixation [16][17][18]. Mineral carbonation involves the chemical conversion of CO 2 to solid inorganic carbonates permanently fixing carbon with a negligible risk of return to the atmosphere without having a great impact on the surrounding environment and ecosystems [19,20].…”

“…Based on the operating data and input cost of a 40 tCO 2 /day (2 megawatt (MW)) class CCU pilot plant at a coal-fired power plant, the scaled-up 400 tCO 2 /day (20 MW) class CCU plant at 500 MW coal-fired power plant was economically analyzed by applying the LCOE and CO 2 avoided cost, considering the energy penalty. Moreover, the CCU technology in this study, utilizing the resulting compounds as construction ingredients, has insufficient economic evaluation and comparative studies according to applied technology on the economic evaluation results [19,41]. Here, we have calculated the LCOE and CO 2 avoided cost for mineral carbonation, resulting in 26 USD/MWh and 64 USD/tCO 2 each, and conducted comparative studies with other CCS and CCU technologies, which were higher cost for each factor.…”

Alkali-Activated Binders Based on Tungsten Mining Waste and Electric-Arc-Furnace Slag: Compressive Strength and Microstructure Properties

“…Different mine tailings from different mining operations around the world have been investigated regarding their potential. The mine tailings are reused as raw materials for alkaline activation and the mineral carbonation for the storage of carbon dioxide to combating the climate change [10][11][12][13]. Tungsten mining waste mud is a mine tailing leftover from the ore processing which is conveyed out and stored as a slurry in the dump area.…”