CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS  
 

VOL. 56, 2017 

A publication of 

 

The Italian Association 
of Chemical Engineering 
Online at www.aidic.it/cet 

Guest Editors: Jiří Jaromír Klemeš, Peng Yen Liew, Wai Shin Ho, Jeng Shiun Lim 
Copyright © 2017, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l., 

ISBN 978-88-95608-47-1; ISSN 2283-9216 

Effect of Coal Bottom Ash and Binder Addition into 

CaO-based Sorbent on CO2 Capture Performance 

Mustakimah Mohamed, Suzana Yusup*, Mohamad Azmi Bustam, Nurulhuda Azmi 

Chemical Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610, Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia  

drsuzana_yusuf@petronas.com.my 

CO2 capture through series of calcination and carbonation cycle using natural solid CaO-based sorbent has 

been an emerging and promising technologies due to economic and environment advantages. However natural 

solid sorbent experiences rapid degradation in capture capacity as increasing reaction cycles. This paper 

described the derivation of CaO-based sorbent from cockle shell (CS) with the addition of coal bottom ash (CBA) 

and several type of binders as a mean to increase sorbent cyclic-stability. Cockle shell was mixed with coal 

bottom ash and binders at percentage weight ratio of 85:10:5 while the examined binders were aluminum pillared 

clay (Montmorillonite), magnesium oxide (MgO) and kaolinite. Series of calcination and carbonation was 

demonstrated via thermal-gravimetric analyzer (TGA EXSTAR 6300 Series). Calcination was performed at 850 

°C in pure N2 environment (100 mL/min) to synthesize CaO from the cockle shell while carbonation was 

conducted in pure CO2 environment (50 mL/min) at 650 °C. The study found that CaO conversion of fresh 

sorbents was reduced by 15 % once CS was added with CBA and binders. CS with CBA and Montmorillonite 

displayed the highest CaO conversion during the second regeneration cycle onwards while the lowest 

conversion was observed from derived-sorbent of CS with CBA and MgO. Fresh sorbent of CS obtained the 

highest CO2 capacity which was 0.52 gCO2/gsorbent while the capture capacity of other fresh sorbents was within 

0.46-0.49 gCO2/gsorbent. Derived sorbent from CS with CBA and Montmorillonite exhibited the highest capture 

capacity once it was reused at all reaction cycles. CS-free additive and CS with CBA and MgO illustrated the 

highest loss in CO2 capture capacity within all cycles which indicate that suitable binders have increased the 

performance of the derived natural-sorbents. 

1. Introduction 

Due to the environmental impact of CO2, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is becoming highly important 

step to ensure the world sustainability. Carbon dioxide adsorption is considered as an alternative technology for 

removal high concentration of CO2 from gas streams due to its generally low energy requirement, ease of 

operation, and low maintenance (Saiwan et al., 2013). Nowadays, there are numerous porous materials have 

been used as CO2 adsorbents with respect to their differences in advantages and drawbacks, such as activated 

carbon, zeolite, mesoporous silicates, and metal oxides (Kangwanwatana, et al., 2013). 

Adsorbents that are made up of calcium oxide, CaO, has become effective substance to trap CO2 due to high 

CO2 capture capacity, abundantly available, low cost raw material, and easy to handle  (Kumar and Saxena, 

2014). It is environmental-safe towards hassle-free disposal, technology-ready for implementation using 

fluidized or fixed bed reactors. The spent sorbents of CaO can be reused for cement production and potentially 

applied for CO2 removal in flue gases and hydrogen production (Ridha et al., 2013). Solid sorbents have 

potential to reduce energy demand of capture processes due to potentially higher loading capacities, absence 

of solvent heating and vaporization during regeneration, lower material heat capacities, and lower heats of 

sorption (Samanta et al., 2012). The CO2 separation with solid sorbents has also become a promising 

technology that can be integrated with existing CO2 emitting plants (Benedetti et al., 2015). 

Waste shells are potential alternative material to capture GHGs such as CO2, SO2, NOx and other impurities. 

The shells such as mussel, oyster, clam, and cockle are made up of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) which can be 

converted into CaO via calcination process (Castilho et al., 2013). However natural based solid sorbent face 

several limitation such as rapidly decreasing CO2 capture capacity with number of repeated cycles (Skoufa et 

                               
 
 

 

 
   

                                                  
DOI: 10.3303/CET1756055

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Please cite this article as: Mohamed M., Yusup S., Bustam M.A., Azmi N., 2017, Effect of coal bottom ash and binder addition into cao-based 
sorbent on co2 capture performance, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 56, 325-330  DOI:10.3303/CET1756055   

325



al., 2016), generally week in structure (Zhang et al., 2015), sintering effect (Wang et al, 2014), filling and 

blockage of small pores and formation of product layer at outer walls (Broda et al., 2011). Hence numbers of 

modification studies are conducted to enhance the sorbents performance. 

Coal bottom ash (CBA) is a part of the waste generated from coal fired power plant (CFPP) other than coal fly 

ash. CBA has lesser application and study found only 21 % of the waste was recycled in the industries (EPRI, 

2015). However coal bottom ash is a potential sorbent candidate since it contained various kinds of metal oxides 

such as SiO2, Al2O3 Fe2O3 and CaO (Asokbunyarat et al., 2015). Research on synthesizing activated carbon 

(Purnomo et al., 2011), silica (Liu et al., 2014), alumina and zeolite (Robledo-Muniz et al., 2010) has been 

extensively conducted using the coal ash due to various alkaline metals contained. These studies indicated 

addition of the ash has enhanced the sorbent performance. 

A study observed general increased in CO2 sorption capacity with increasing atomic radii for the alkali metals, 

such as Li<Na<K<Rb<Cs (Liang et al., 2004). Studies indicated Al2O3 as the best support matrix for K2CO3  

sorbent in capturing CO2 followed by activated carbon (AC), vermiculite and SiO2 (Reddy and Smirniotis, 2004). 

Sub-bituminous and lignite type of coal contain higher calcium concentration compared to bituminous coal 

(EPRI, 2015). Concentration of CaO in sub-bituminous and lignite coal may reach to 15% and produce alkaline 

solution (pH 11-12) once reacted with water (EPRI, 2015). Carbonation generally occurs spontaneously once 

the ash is initially hydrated. 

The CaO-based sorbent capture CO2 via carbonation reaction which is denoted by Eq(1) and sorbent 

regeneration can be done via calcination which is the reverse of the stated equation. Both reactions are applied 

in industries as calcium looping (CaL) system which CO2 rich streamed is fed to storage or sequestration 

(Antzara et al., 2014). CaL is a type of gas–solid adsorption processes which are promising technologies for 

carbon capture as an alternative to gas–liquid absorption due to low cost, high CO2 capacity and fast 

carbonation/calcination kinetics (Broda et al., 2012). Zhang et al. (2015) mentioned CaL system employed 38 

% of the total cost consumed by CO2 amine-scrubbing system and associated with significantly small energy 

penalty than amine scrubbing. CO2 captured via CaL system is applicable due to the established technology of 

fixed and fluidized bed reactors in the industries (Blamey et al., 2010).  

𝐶𝑎𝑂 (𝑠) + 𝐶𝑂2 (𝑔) ↔ 𝐶𝑎𝐶𝑂3   (1) 

Modification which are cost-effective, environmental-friendly and operational convenient are crucial aspects to 

synthesis a promising CO2 sorbent. Addition of binder during sorbent development has improved the sorbent 

performance.  Binder affects pore properties, material structure, thermal stability and mechanical strength of the 

sorbents. Zhang et al. (2015) used MgO as the binder of the sorbent materials and found the binder has 

enhanced structural ability of the sorbent. MgO acts as an inert dopant that impedes sintering process (Zhang 

et al., 2015). Wu (2007) also included clay as the binder to synthesize Ca(OH)2-based sorbent and found the 

derived pallet sorbent has greater mechanical strength.  Ridha et al. (2013) used cement as the binder to derive 

acetified limestone sorbent. Al2O3 in the cement reacts with CaO to form mayenite which stabilizes the structure 

and enhance sintering resistance. Antzara et al. (2014) applied sol-gel auto-combustion method and hydrated 

lime mixed with kaolin as binder. Kaolin composed of mainly Al2O3 and SiO2 and its addition to CaO lattice leads 

to formation of mixed phase Ca3Al2Si2. Antzara et al. (2014) observed that kaolin decreased the material surface 

area while MgO acts inversely which might attributed to high surface area of pure MgO. However the sorbent 

stability has significantly increased in the presence of binders (Antzara et al., 2014). 

This paper described one of the approach to synthesize CaO-based sorbent from natural raw material by 

demonstrating the effect of adding coal bottom ash and binder into CaO-precursors on CO2 capture capacity 

and cyclic stability.  

2. Methodology 

2.1 Material preparation 

This study utilizes waste cockle shells (CS) from the type of blood cockle which was obtained from local stall 

while the coal bottom ash (CBA) was retrieved from nearby power plant TNB Janamanjung, Perak, Malaysia. 

The examined binders were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich aluminum pillared clay (Montmorillonite), 

magnesium oxide (MgO) and kaolinite. 

Initially, CS and CBA were cleaned by removing the leftover foreign particles and later ground into fine powder 

(particle size less than 0.125 mm). CS was mixed with CBA and binders at percentage weight ratio of 85:10:5 

in the deionized water at temperature of 70 °C while stirring for 4 h. Then the slurry was dried in the oven for 4 

h at 200 °C. The dried powder was milled again using pestle and mortar to ensure uniform mixing and particle 

size and ready for calcination and carbonation analysis. 

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2.2 Investigation on calcination-carbonation cycle of derived sorbent 

Cycle of calcination-carbonation reaction was demonstrated by TGA (EXSTAR 6300) using the biomass 

sorbents at configured calcination residence time and carbonation temperature of commercial CaCO3 sample. 

The material was initially calcined at 850 °C in pure N2 atmosphere at flow rate of 200 mL/min. Then the 

temperature was reduced to 650 °C and gas stream was switched to pure CO2 flow at 50 mL/min for carbonation 

within 30 min. Calcination and carbonation reaction was repeated for 9 cycles. The CaO conversion, CO2 

capture capacity and average sorption decay of derived CaO-based sorbent was determined using Eq(2), Eq(3) 

and Eq(4). 

𝐶𝑎𝑂 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑋𝐶𝑎𝑂 =
𝑚𝑜𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑏𝑒𝑛𝑡

𝑚𝑜𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑏𝑒𝑛𝑡
=

(𝑚𝑖−𝑚𝑓)
44

⁄

𝑚𝑖
100⁄

   (2) 

𝐶𝑂2𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 (
𝑔𝐶𝑂2

𝑔𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑏𝑒𝑛𝑡⁄ ), 𝐶𝐶 =
𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝐶𝑂2

𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑏𝑒𝑛𝑡
=

𝑚𝑖−𝑚𝑓

𝑚𝑖
   (3) 

𝐴𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑦 (
𝑔𝐶𝑂2

𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒⁄ ) =
𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦

𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟
=

𝐶𝐶9−𝐶𝐶0

9
   (4) 

3. Results and Discussion 

CaO conversion of the raw material and CO2 capture performance of derived sorbents is obtained based on TG 

analysis during calcination process and carbonation reaction respectively. Material decomposition during 

calcination is indicated by the sample weight loss which also signifies the CaO conversion. Figure 1 

demonstrated TG curves for all of the fresh samples during calcination. No rapid weight loss was observed 

earlier than 600 °C indicated the samples are stable and contained insignificant volatile materials.  Rapid 

decomposition occurred once temperature was nearing to 700 °C and reached plateau at temperature lower 

than 850 °C. Addition of CBA and binders into CS appeared to reduce the decomposed fraction by ~7wt. % 

although it maintained the calcination temperature regime of CS. This behavior signified CBA and binders have 

hindered CS decomposition and CBA and binders are thermally-stable materials. According to MSDS of OSHA 

(HHS, 1995) CaCO3 is known to decompose and convert to CaO at temperature of 825 °C. Hence calcination 

temperature of 850 °C is a substantiate temperature for complete conversion of CaO contained in the samples. 

Figure 2 illustrates the overall TG curves obtained for calcination-carbonation cycles. Weight gained occurred 

during carbonation and the amount constantly decreasing with increasing number of cycles. The behavior 

indicated the sorbents managed to capture CO2 once regenerated during calcination but capture performance 

of the derived sorbent was declined. Severe difference of weight change during carbonation was observed 

during once the fresh sorbent was recycled (0-1st cycle) and this behavior was similar for all samples. Castilho 

et al. (2013) mentioned that particle-swelling occurred during carbonation and promotes grain boundary 

migration. This occurrence initiated the sintering effect which aggravated once high temperature is introduced. 

 

 

Figure 1: TG curves for fresh samples during calcination process in pure N2 environment at 850 °C 

327



 

Figure 2: TG curves for three type of sample in series of calcination and carbonation cycles  

 

Figure 3: CaO conversion of derived sorbents due to calcination in pure N2 environment at 850 °C 

CaO conversion which is denoted as mol fraction of decomposed sample to sorbent is illustrated in Figure 3.  

Fresh CS sorbent experienced the highest conversion while the CBA-added fresh sorbents obtained 0.15-0.11 

lesser conversion. CS maintained highest CaO conversion during first sorbent regeneration yet the conversion 

gap with other CBA-added sorbents had reduced by 0.1-0.4. CS with CBA and Montmorillonite recorded the 

highest CaO conversion at second regeneration cycle and maintained the highest conversion until the tenth 

cycle. Hence it indicated Montmorillonite as a favorable sorbent for the mixture. Inversely, adding MgO as the 

binder into the mixture was unable to improve CaO conversion of CS during repeated cycles of calcination-

carbonation. The derived sorbents recorded the lowest CaO conversion as early as second cycle and continued 

towards the end. This observation suggested MgO could exaggerate pore blockage or alter the crystalline 

properties of synthesized CaO which lead to sorbent decay.   

Figure 4 summarized the CO2 capture capacity of the derived sorbents. Fresh sorbent of CS obtained the 

highest capture capacity which was 0.52 gCO2/gsorbent compared to other sorbents that fall within 0.46-0.50 

gCO2/gsorbent. However the sorbent capacity dropped by 30 % after being regenerated for the first time and as 

depicted in Figure 5 where additive-free sorbent (CS) experienced the largest loss among all sorbents for overall 

carbonation cycle. It verified that natural sorbent without additive in cyclic-capture system has low cyclic-stability 

and capture capacity.  

Derived sorbent with Montmorillonite binder illustrated the highest capture capacity once the sorbent was 

regenerated for each cycle. The sorbent managed to maintain high capture capacity compared to other derived 

sorbents at each carbonation cycle. CS with CBA and Montmorillonite binder recorded the lowest CO2 sorption 

decayed which was at average of 0.02 gCO2/gsorbent within 9 cycles. Hence the sorbent demonstrated high cyclic-

stability since it loss the capture capacity with respect to each cycles and was relatively low (<10 %) as recorded 

in Figure 5.  

 

 

328



Inversely, MgO binder is unable to increase the capture capacity of derived sorbents at stated calcination and 

carbonation conditions.  The derived sorbent of CS with CBA and MgO demonstrated capture capacity that was 

lower than CS-free additive once the sorbent was recycled. The stated sorbent also has high average decay in 

sorption capacity as illustrated in Figure 5. CBA and MgO are both materials with high thermal stability 

properties. Mixing both materials together might not be the best formulation for sorbent derivation in this study.  

 

Figure 4: CO2 capture capacity of derived sorbents during carbonation in pure CO2 environment at 650 °C 

 

Figure 5: Loss in CO2 capture capacity of derived sorbents during carbonation in pure CO2 environment at  

650 °C 

4. Conclusions 

All of the derived sorbents are thermally stable materials and able to capture CO2 for several reaction cycles.  

Fresh sorbent of CS-free additive displayed the highest CaO conversion and CO2 capture capacity but the 

performance decreased rapidly once it was regenerated for carbonation. Hence the fresh sorbent without any 

additive signified largest loss of its reactivity and cyclic stability. Adding CBA into the CaO precursor has 

increased the CaO conversion and CO2 capture capacity of the derived sorbents. However, addition of binder 

is able to further increase the performance of derived sorbents during multiple cycles of calcination and 

carbonation reaction. Montmorillonite binder is the most favorable binder for CS with CBA while magnesia (MgO) 

binder is unable to improve the performance of the derived sorbents. 

Acknowledgments  

Biomass Research Grant, TNB Janamanjung Sdn Bhd and Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS are acknowledged 

for financial, materials and facilities support towards the research project. 

 

 

 

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