Sustainable Na2CO3 production from NaCl waste and CO2 sources using membrane technology

Book chapter, 2023

This chapter presents the preliminary results related to obtaining Na2CO3 through membrane distillation in a carbon capture and utilization scheme for the circular economy. This process is developed in a circular economy framework in which value can be given to waste streams or brines with high NaCl contents. The process proposes to capture CO2 from streams from multiple industrial processes such as biogas, combustion streams, or typical standard flue gases, based on a membrane process. The permeate and salt fluxes obtained when using membrane distillation to concentrate Na2CO3 have been explored. This was carried out through an experimental design which served to obtain a reliable model to predict permeate flux according to feed rate and feed temperature. The results showed that, for the range tested, the influence of the feed rate is greater than the influence of the temperature.