Stop Smoking—Tube-In-Tube Helical System for Flameless Calcination of Minerals

Mineral calcination worldwide accounts for some 5–10% of all anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per year. Roughly half of the CO2 released results from burning fossil fuels for heat generation, while the other half is a product of the calcination reaction itself. Traditionally, the fuel combustion process and the calcination reaction take place together to enhance heat transfer. Systems have been proposed that separate fuel combustion and calcination to allow for the sequestration of pure CO2 from the calcination reaction for later storage/use and capture of the combustion gases. This work presents a new tube-in-tube helical system for the calcination of minerals that can use different heat transfer fluids (HTFs), employed or foreseen in concentrated solar power (CSP) plants. The system is labeled ‘flameless’ since the HTF can be heated by other means than burning fossil fuels. If CSP or high-temperature nuclear reactors are used, direct CO2 emissions can be divided in half. The technical feasibility of the system has been accessed with a brief parametric study here. The results suggest that the introduced system is technically feasible given the parameters (total heat transfer coefficients, massand volume flows, outer tube friction factors, and –Nusselt numbers) that are examined. Further experimental work will be required to better understand the performance of the tube-in-tube helical system for the flameless calcination of minerals.