Carbonatation is a chemical reaction in which calcium hydroxide reacts with carbon dioxide and forms insoluble calcium carbonate:
The process of forming a carbonate is sometimes referred to as "carbonation", although this term usually refers to the process of dissolving carbon dioxide in water.
Carbonatation is a slow process that occurs in concrete where lime (CaO, or Ca(OH)2 (aq)) in the cement reacts with carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air and forms calcium carbonate.
The water in the pores of Portland cement concrete is normally alkaline with a pH in the range of 12.5 to 13.5. This highly alkaline environment is one in which the steel rebar is passivated and is protected from corrosion. According to the Pourbaix diagram for iron, the metal is passive when the pH is above 9.5. [1]
The carbon dioxide in the air reacts with the alkali in the cement and makes the pore water more acidic, thus lowering the pH. Carbon dioxide will start to carbonatate the cement in the concrete from the moment the object is made. This carbonatation process will start at the surface, then slowly moves deeper and deeper into the concrete. The rate of carbonatation is dependent on the relative humidity of the concrete - a 50% relative humidity being optimal. If the object is cracked, the carbon dioxide in the air will be better able to penetrate into the concrete.
Eventually this may lead to corrosion of the rebar and structural damage or failure.
The carbonatation process is used in the production of sugar from sugar beets. It involves the introduction of limewater (milk of lime - calcium hydroxide suspension) and carbon dioxide enriched gas into the "raw juice" (the sugar rich liquid prepared from the diffusion stage of the process) to form calcium carbonate and precipitate impurities that are then removed. The whole process takes place in "carbonatation tanks" and processing time varies from 20 minutes to an hour.
Carbonatation involves the following effects:
The target is a large particle that naturally settles rapidly to leave a clear juice. The juice at the end is approximately 15 °Bx and 90% sucrose. The pH of the thin juice produced is a balance between removing as much calcium from the solution and the expected pH drop across later processing. If the juice goes acidic in the crystallisation stages then sucrose rapidly breaks down to glucose and fructose; not only do glucose and fructose affect crystallisation but they are 'molassagenic' taking equivalent amounts of sucrose on to the molasses stage.
The carbon dioxide gas bubbled through the mixture forms calcium carbonate. The non-sugar solids are incorporated into the calcium carbonate particles and removed by natural (or assisted) sedimentation in tanks or clarifiers.
There are several systems of carbonatation, named from the companies that first developed them. They differ in how the lime is introduced, the temperature and duration of each stage, and the separation of the solids from the liquid.
Both DDS and RT processes are favoured by European factories. The carbonatation system is generally matched to the diffusion scheme; juice from RT diffusers being processed by the RT carbonatation.
The clear juice from carbonatation is generally known as "thin juice". it may undergo pH adjustment with soda ash and addition of sulfur ("sulfitation") prior to the next stage which is concentration by multiple effect evaporation.
The carbonatation reaction takes place during lime softening (Clark's process) in water softening.
A carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid, H2CO3, characterized by the presence of the carbonate ion, a polyatomic ion with the formula CO2−3. The word "carbonate" may also refer to a carbonate ester, an organic compound containing the carbonate groupO=C(−O−)2.
A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel (aggregate) together. Cement mixed with fine aggregate produces mortar for masonry, or with sand and gravel, produces concrete. Concrete is the most widely used material in existence and is behind only water as the planet's most-consumed resource.
Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula CaCO3. It is a common substance found in rocks as the minerals calcite and aragonite, most notably in chalk and limestone, eggshells, gastropod shells, shellfish skeletons and pearls. Materials containing much calcium carbonate or resembling it are described as calcareous. Calcium carbonate is the active ingredient in agricultural lime and is produced when calcium ions in hard water react with carbonate ions to form limescale. It has medical use as a calcium supplement or as an antacid, but excessive consumption can be hazardous and cause hypercalcemia and digestive issues.
Fructose, or fruit sugar, is a ketonic simple sugar found in many plants, where it is often bonded to glucose to form the disaccharide sucrose. It is one of the three dietary monosaccharides, along with glucose and galactose, that are absorbed by the gut directly into the blood of the portal vein during digestion. The liver then converts most fructose and galactose into glucose for distribution in the bloodstream or deposition into glycogen.
Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula C
12H
22O
11.
Calcium oxide, commonly known as quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. It is a white, caustic, alkaline, crystalline solid at room temperature. The broadly used term lime connotes calcium-containing inorganic compounds, in which carbonates, oxides, and hydroxides of calcium, silicon, magnesium, aluminium, and iron predominate. By contrast, quicklime specifically applies to the single compound calcium oxide. Calcium oxide that survives processing without reacting in building products, such as cement, is called free lime.
A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value.
Calcium hydroxide (traditionally called slaked lime) is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Ca(OH)2. It is a colorless crystal or white powder and is produced when quicklime (calcium oxide) is mixed with water. Annually, approximately 125 million tons of calcium hydroxide are produced worldwide.
Calcination is thermal treatment of a solid chemical compound (e.g. mixed carbonate ores) whereby the compound is raised to high temperature without melting under restricted supply of ambient oxygen (i.e. gaseous O2 fraction of air), generally for the purpose of removing impurities or volatile substances and/or to incur thermal decomposition.
A sugar refinery is a refinery which processes raw sugar from cane or sugar extracted from beets into white refined sugar.
Calcium bicarbonate, also called calcium hydrogencarbonate, has the chemical formula Ca(HCO3)2. The term does not refer to a known solid compound; it exists only in aqueous solution containing calcium (Ca2+), bicarbonate (HCO−
3), and carbonate (CO2−
3) ions, together with dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2). The relative concentrations of these carbon-containing species depend on the pH; bicarbonate predominates within the range 6.36–10.25 in fresh water.
Lime is an inorganic material composed primarily of calcium oxides and hydroxides. It is also the name for calcium oxide which occurs as a product of coal-seam fires and in altered limestone xenoliths in volcanic ejecta. The International Mineralogical Association recognizes lime as a mineral with the chemical formula of CaO. The word lime originates with its earliest use as building mortar and has the sense of sticking or adhering.
Concrete cover, in reinforced concrete, is the least distance between the surface of embedded reinforcement and the outer surface of the concrete. The concrete cover depth can be measured with a cover meter. The purpose of concrete cover is to protect the reinforcement from corrosion, fire, and other potential damage.
The alkali–silica reaction (ASR), also commonly known as concrete cancer, is a deleterious internal swelling reaction that occurs over time in concrete between the highly alkaline cement paste and the reactive amorphous silica found in many common aggregates, given sufficient moisture.
Concrete degradation may have many different causes. Concrete is mostly damaged by the corrosion of reinforcement bars due to the carbonatation of hardened cement paste or chloride attack under wet conditions. Chemical damage is caused by the formation of expansive products produced by chemical reactions, by aggressive chemical species present in groundwater and seawater, or by microorganisms Other damaging processes can also involve calcium leaching by water infiltration, physical phenomena initiating cracks formation and propagation, fire or radiant heat, aggregate expansion, sea water effects, leaching, and erosion by fast-flowing water.
A sugar cane mill is a factory that processes sugar cane to produce raw sugar or plantation white sugar. Some sugar mills are situated next to a back-end refinery, that turns raw sugar into (refined) white sugar.
The environmental impact of concrete, its manufacture, and its applications, are complex, driven in part by direct impacts of construction and infrastructure, as well as by CO2 emissions; between 4-8% of total global CO2 emissions come from concrete. Many depend on circumstances. A major component is cement, which has its own environmental and social impacts and contributes largely to those of concrete.
Calthemite is a secondary deposit, derived from concrete, lime, mortar or other calcareous material outside the cave environment. Calthemites grow on or under man-made structures and mimic the shapes and forms of cave speleothems, such as stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone etc. Calthemite is derived from the Latin calx "lime" + Latin < Greek théma, "deposit" meaning ‘something laid down’, and the Latin –ita < Greek -itēs – used as a suffix indicating a mineral or rock. The term "speleothem", due to its definition can only be used to describe secondary deposits in caves and does not include secondary deposits outside the cave environment.
A beet sugar factory, or sugar factory, is a type of production facility that produces sugar from sugar beets or alternative plants to sugarcane in making refined sugar. These factories process the beets to produce refined sugar, similar to how sugarcane is processed in other regions. The process involves several steps, including washing, slicing, and extracting the sugar content through diffusion. Nowadays, most sugar factories also act as a sugar refinery. The first beet sugar factory was built in 1802.
