Classifications

• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C22—METALLURGY; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS
  • C22B—PRODUCTION AND REFINING OF METALS; PRETREATMENT OF RAW MATERIALS
  • C22B26/00—Obtaining alkali, alkaline earth metals or magnesium
  • C22B26/10—Obtaining alkali metals
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C01—INORGANIC CHEMISTRY
  • C01D—COMPOUNDS OF ALKALI METALS, i.e. LITHIUM, SODIUM, POTASSIUM, RUBIDIUM, CAESIUM, OR FRANCIUM
  • C01D1/00—Oxides or hydroxides of sodium, potassium or alkali metals in general
  • C01D1/04—Hydroxides
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C01—INORGANIC CHEMISTRY
  • C01D—COMPOUNDS OF ALKALI METALS, i.e. LITHIUM, SODIUM, POTASSIUM, RUBIDIUM, CAESIUM, OR FRANCIUM
  • C01D1/00—Oxides or hydroxides of sodium, potassium or alkali metals in general
  • C01D1/04—Hydroxides
  • C01D1/20—Preparation by reacting oxides or hydroxides with alkali metal salts
  • C01D1/22—Preparation by reacting oxides or hydroxides with alkali metal salts with carbonates or bicarbonates
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C01—INORGANIC CHEMISTRY
  • C01D—COMPOUNDS OF ALKALI METALS, i.e. LITHIUM, SODIUM, POTASSIUM, RUBIDIUM, CAESIUM, OR FRANCIUM
  • C01D7/00—Carbonates of sodium, potassium or alkali metals in general
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C01—INORGANIC CHEMISTRY
  • C01D—COMPOUNDS OF ALKALI METALS, i.e. LITHIUM, SODIUM, POTASSIUM, RUBIDIUM, CAESIUM, OR FRANCIUM
  • C01D7/00—Carbonates of sodium, potassium or alkali metals in general
  • C01D7/07—Preparation from the hydroxides
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C02—TREATMENT OF WATER, WASTE WATER, SEWAGE, OR SLUDGE
  • C02F—TREATMENT OF WATER, WASTE WATER, SEWAGE, OR SLUDGE
  • C02F1/00—Treatment of water, waste water, or sewage
  • C02F1/44—Treatment of water, waste water, or sewage by dialysis, osmosis or reverse osmosis
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C02—TREATMENT OF WATER, WASTE WATER, SEWAGE, OR SLUDGE
  • C02F—TREATMENT OF WATER, WASTE WATER, SEWAGE, OR SLUDGE
  • C02F1/00—Treatment of water, waste water, or sewage
  • C02F1/42—Treatment of water, waste water, or sewage by ion-exchange
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C02—TREATMENT OF WATER, WASTE WATER, SEWAGE, OR SLUDGE
  • C02F—TREATMENT OF WATER, WASTE WATER, SEWAGE, OR SLUDGE
  • C02F1/00—Treatment of water, waste water, or sewage
  • C02F1/44—Treatment of water, waste water, or sewage by dialysis, osmosis or reverse osmosis
  • C02F1/441—Treatment of water, waste water, or sewage by dialysis, osmosis or reverse osmosis by reverse osmosis
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02P—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS
  • Y02P20/00—Technologies relating to chemical industry
  • Y02P20/10—Process efficiency
  • Y02P20/129—Energy recovery, e.g. by cogeneration, H2recovery or pressure recovery turbines

Definitions

• the present invention uses a classical equation where C02 is reacted with caustic soda NaOH to produce clear solution of sodium carbonate Na2C03 such that:
• regenerants such as brine water with a salinity of 6 to 12 %, acidic water with acidity of >8% (e.g. HC1 or H2S04) or a combination of both is crucial because it is used to regenerate the cation exchanger such that:
• One aspect of the present patent requires a sparging reactor to bubble acidic flue gas where gases such as HC1 and S02 can be captured to produce acidic solutions such that,
• Acidic waste can be combined with basic waste such as power plant ash to produce neutral output that can be discharged safely to environment.
• Sodium carbonate liquor produced is of low percentage ie 0.05 to 0.5% and need to be concentrated to ⁇ 6%.
• the concentration process is performed using reverse osmosis system where the Na2C03 liquor is taken through multiple passes until the final concentrate output is around 6%.
• Industrially a concentration o f 6% is low to extract the solid economically a major setback for membrane technology.
• the difficulty in going above 6% with existins membrane technology is the high pressure that deteriorates the membrane. Even if recompression evaporation is used around 1MW is required to produce one ton of solid product.
• the most obvious heat source is the heat emitted by solid waste incineration or any other waste heat source. Description of how the invention addresses a technical problem
• Solid waste, brine water waste, and C02 waste are major problems faced by human communities worldwide.
• the proposed invention attempts to bring these three waste problems in one industrial process to bring about a green solution while making a financial benefit.
• the green solution is fulfilled by large elimination of the various wastes stated above.
• the financial benefit comes from selling the soda commodity chemicals as byproduct of the combined processes.
• the production of NaOH by the WHQM process is an alternative to the chloro-alkali cell process that is used worldwide to produce caustic soda NaOH.
• Major problem in the chloro-alkali cell process it is tied up to chlorine production and chlorine is a poisonous gas that must find a safe storage. Production of caustic soda using WHQM process is chlorine independent.
• the process essentially relies on advanced membrane technology systems to produce sodium hydroxide NaOH. Therefore, it is very different from chloro-alkali process that works on high consumption of electrical power (i.e. 3000 KWH per ton of NaOH) to convert NaCl to NaOH.
• the only byproduct is CaC03 while in chloro-alkali technology dangerous gases such as chlorine and hydrogen have to be handled safely.
• Acidic flue gas can be sparged under pressure to dissolve the acidic gas in sea water or river water to form acidic liquor that can be used in strong or weak ion exchange regeneration.
• Ion exchange system would receive the calcium hydroxide liquor Ca(OH)2 (e.g. -0.5-1 g/L) to produce a dilute caustic soda liquor at 1000 ppm concentration.
• Reactors design Carbon dioxide gas is sparged through caustic soda NaOH in a reactor to form a dilute sodium carbonate liquor Na2C03 (e.g. 700 ppm Na2C03 to 300 ppm NaOH). The latter is then subjected to further filtration to remove impurity particulates then passed to reverse osmosis system. The low % liquor needs to be converted and concentrated to higher % sodium carbonate Na2C03 liquor (e.g. 2400 ppm Na2C03 to 1000 ppm NaOH) by passing it to a reverse osmosis system.
• Na2C03 e.g. 700 ppm Na2C03 to 300 ppm NaOH
• the low % liquor needs to be converted and concentrated to higher % sodium carbonate Na2C03 liquor (e.g. 2400 ppm Na2C03 to 1000 ppm NaOH) by passing it to a reverse osmosis system.
• RO unit contains RO cartridges cascaded with the C02-NaOH reactors in between.
• the objective is to keep the NaOH concentration below 300 ppm as the concentration of Na2C03 is increased. That is, keep the pH ⁇ l 1.
• waste heat that is provided by the solid waste processing unit can convert water into steam of 120 to 150 °C having a boiler above the solid waste incinerator.
• the steam can be used to convert the 7% sodium hydroxide liquor to 50% liquor by evaporating half the volume or until it is dry sodium hydroxide.
• Ion exchangers that are used in this process are regenerated from either processed seawater or produced brine water. In the above schematic, if brine water concentration C is >10% salinity then the complex membrane and heat exchanger system is not needed.
• the complex membrane is not needed and the heat exchanger system can be used to raise its concentration to 10% or if it is cheaper NaCl is added to bring C up to 10%.
• the flue gas contains acidic gases such as hydrogen chloride and sulfur dioxide then these gases can be sparged with seawater under pressure to produce acidic sea water suitable for ion exchange processes.
• the acidic seawater can be used as a regenerent to eliminate the calcium and magnesium ions while sea water is used to wash the regenerated ion exchange and convert it to the Na+ form.
• One important aspect about this process is the circulation of RO permeate which save on pure water production and chemicals supply.
• the WHQM process is most convenient for industries that emit brine water (i.e. salinity between 6 to 16%) and lack any waste heat and C02 sources. However, it can also work on industries that emit a limited amount of C02 where the combined amounts from an industrial plant and the solid waste plant can be harnessed in C02 sequestration and caustic soda production.
• a solid waste process can operate on a large scale where solid waste incineration can be harnessed to generate C02, brine water, and heat for the WHQM process.
• the process can also accommodate flue gas emissions that contain acidic gases that can be harnessed in ion exchange regeneration.
• C02 and acidic gases i.e. HCl & S02 sequestration.
• the former is known to cause global warming while the latter causes acid rain in far away regions.

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• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Organic Chemistry (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Materials Engineering (AREA)
• Inorganic Chemistry (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Environmental & Geological Engineering (AREA)
• Geology (AREA)
• General Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Metallurgy (AREA)
• Hydrology & Water Resources (AREA)
• Water Supply & Treatment (AREA)
• Separation Using Semi-Permeable Membranes (AREA)
• Treating Waste Gases (AREA)
• Electrolytic Production Of Non-Metals, Compounds, Apparatuses Therefor (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Publications (1)

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• 2009
  • 2009-12-09 WO PCT/IB2009/007713 patent/WO2011070384A1/en active Application Filing
  • 2009-12-09 AP AP2012006365A patent/AP2012006365A0/xx unknown
  • 2009-12-09 EP EP09852000A patent/EP2509919A1/en not_active Withdrawn
  • 2009-12-09 RU RU2012128544/05A patent/RU2538843C2/ru not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2009-12-09 KR KR1020127017802A patent/KR20120105504A/ko not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2009-12-09 US US13/521,127 patent/US20130272934A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2009-12-09 AU AU2009356416A patent/AU2009356416B2/en not_active Ceased

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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