Advanced CO2 Capture, Utilization and Storage: Mass Transfer, Reaction Engineering, Process Intensification and Resource Utilization

The continuous increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration and its contribution to global climate change have intensified the need for effective carbon capture, utilization, and storage strategies. Among the emerging approaches, CO2 mineralization has attracted considerable attention because it converts CO2 into thermodynamically stable carbonate minerals, providing a potentially permanent pathway for carbon storage. Beyond carbon sequestration, mineralization can also be coupled with the valorization of abundant alkaline minerals, industrial solid wastes, and mine wastes, offering opportunities to simultaneously address carbon management and resource utilization.Despite substantial progress, the practical development of CO2 mineralization remains challenging. The overall mineralization process involves a series of strongly coupled phenomena, including CO2 transport and dissolution, mineral dissolution, interfacial reactions, nucleation, carbonate precipitation, and structural evolution. These processes span multiple spatial and temporal scales and are strongly influenced by multiphase transport, hydrodynamics, material composition, moisture conditions, and operating parameters. Consequently, the overall mineralization performance cannot be fully understood by considering mineral reactivity or reaction kinetics alone.In particular, CO2 mass transfer is often a critical step governing the availability of dissolved CO2 at reactive mineral surfaces. Gas-liquid and gas-liquid-solid mass transfer, interfacial area, bubble dynamics, pore-scale transport, and hydrodynamic conditions can substantially influence the mineralization rate and CO2 sequestration efficiency. At the same time, mineral dissolution and carbonate precipitation continuously modify pore structures, reactive interfaces, and transport pathways, leading to dynamic feedback between mass transfer and mineralization reactions. Understanding these coupled transport-reaction processes is therefore essential for establishing a mechanistic framework for efficient CO2 mineralization.Recent advances in reaction engineering, multiphase flow, process intensification, advanced reactor technologies, multiscale characterization, and computational modeling provide new opportunities to overcome the limitations of conventional mineralization processes. Strategies such as microbubble generation, intensified gas-liquid contact, Venturi reactors, enhanced mixing, and other advanced reactor configurations may significantly improve CO2 transfer and reaction rates. Meanwhile, molecular simulations, CFD, multiscale modeling, and data-driven approaches offer powerful tools for linking molecular-scale interactions and pore-scale transport with macroscopic mineralization performance.Another important direction is the utilization of naturally occurring minerals and alkaline solid wastes as reactive feedstocks. Materials such as fly ash, steel slag, carbide slag, red mud, coal gangue, mine wastes, and other alkaline residues may provide abundant sources of reactive Ca- and Mg-bearing phases while enabling large-scale solid-waste valorization. However, the complex composition, heterogeneous reactivity, impurity content, and evolving pore structure of these materials present additional challenges for controlling mineralization processes and ensuring the long-term stability of mineralized products.Furthermore, the engineering value of CO2 mineralization depends not only on the amount of CO2 stored, but also on the resulting material properties, process efficiency, scalability, environmental compatibility, and economic feasibility. Mineralization-induced structural evolution and carbonate formation may significantly modify the mechanical, physical, and chemical properties of mineralized materials, creating opportunities for applications in construction materials, mine backfilling, geological carbon storage, and other engineering fields. Integrating mineralization with CO2 capture, resource recovery, and sustainable process design may further expand its potential as a carbon management technology.Therefore, the goal of this Research Topic is to bring together researchers from chemical engineering, reaction engineering, transport phenomena, mineral carbonation, materials science, environmental engineering, and sustainable process engineering to advance the fundamental understanding and engineering development of CO2 mineralization. Particular emphasis will be placed on the coupling of mass transfer, reaction kinetics, multiphase flow, structural evolution, and process performance, as well as on innovative strategies for process intensification, solid-waste valorization, and large-scale carbon storage.To be considered for this collection, manuscripts should address innovative scientific or engineering aspects of CO2 mineralization. We particularly welcome studies that elucidate fundamental mineralization mechanisms, establish quantitative relationships between multiphase mass transfer and reaction processes, develop intensified mineralization technologies, reveal the evolution of mineralized structures and material properties, or demonstrate scalable and sustainable applications of CO2 mineralization.Perspective/Review contributions and Original Research papers on the following themes are welcome:• CO2 mineralization mechanisms and reaction kinetics• Multiphase mass transfer and interfacial phenomena in CO2 mineralization• Process intensification and reactor engineering for CO2 mineralization• Mineral feedstocks, solid-waste valorization, and multiscale modeling• Structural evolution, material performance, and long-term carbon storage• Engineering applications, process scale-up, and sustainable CO2 mineralization• Carbon capture using MOFs, COFs, and other advanced adsorbent/membrane materials Topic editors: Bo Wang, Liang L., Fangqin Cheng Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85274/advanced-co2-capture-utilization-and-storage-mass-transfer-reaction-engineering-process-intensification-and-resource-utilization