Thermal decomposition of dolomite under CO2-air atmosphere

This paper reports a study on thermal decomposition of dolomite under CO2-air. Calcination was carried out non-isothermally by using thermogravimetry analysis-differential scanning calorimetry (TGA-DSC) with a heating rate of 10°C/minute in an air atmosphere as well as 10 vol% CO2 and 90 vol% air atmosphere from 25 to 950°C. In addition, a thermodynamic modeling was also carried out to simulate dolomite calcination in different level of CO2−air atmosphere by using FactSage® 7.0. The the main constituents of typical dolomite from Gresik, East Java include MgCO3 (magnesite), CaCO3 (calcite), Ca(OH)2, CaO, MgO, and less than 1% of metal impurities. Based on the kinetics analysis from TGA results, it is found that non-isothermal dolomite calcination in 10 vol% CO2 atmosphere is occurred in a two-stage reaction; the first stage is the decomposition of magnesite at 650-740 °C with activation energy of 161.23 kJ/mol, and the second stage is the decomposition of calcite at 775-820 °C with activation energy of 162.46 kJ/mol. The magnesite decomposition is found to follow nucleation reaction mechanism of Avrami Eroveyef (A3), while calcite decomposition follows second order chemical reaction equation. Thermodynamic modeling supports these kinetic analyses. The results of this research give insight to the kinetics of dolomite decomposition in CO2-air atmosphere.