| Abstract |
The use of CO2 as a feedstock for generating industrial products has been one of the most promising efforts for mitigating the impacts of human society on the environment. Among the options, sodium bicarbonate stands out as a versatile and highly demanded compound. This work aims to further expand studies in this subject, assessing alternative production routes while drawing multiple criteria comparisons with the conventional processes. All processes are simulated in Aspen Plus (R) at different operating conditions, and, then, rigorous optimization techniques based on metaheuristics are carried out. Results indicate that soda ash carbonation shows the best overall results at 35 degrees C, with a gross profit of US$ 0.23/kg of sodium bicarbonate, while the Solvay process and sodium sulfate carbonation showed a potential gross profit of 0.14 and 0.12 US$/kg at the same temperature, respectively. Availability of raw materials and demand for secondary products are, therefore, key aspects in evaluating the competitiveness of each route. Furthermore, the captured CO2 for each of these routes was of 0.32, 0.70 and 1.04 kg CO2/kg of product, respectively, and the secondary products of sodium sulfate carbonation indicate that it is an interesting approach to reduce waste, beign aligned to circular economy principles. Thus, the integration of such processes to industries with high CO2 emissions stands out as a promising strategy to further address society's growing concern regarding sustainable development. Lastly, the applied method was efficient in optimizing the models, enabling further studies not only regarding the entire sodium bicarbonate supply chain but also for comparing production routes for other products. |
