Minería Chilena: Captura, Transporte, y Almacenamiento de Dióxido de Carbono en Relaves mediante Líquidos Iónicos y Carbonatación Mineral

Abstract

This work analyzes and discusses the current situation of Chilean mining and its relation with environmental issues and with a proposal for capturing, transporting and sequestering carbon dioxide (CO2) in mine tailings. Some aspects related to climate change, greenhouse effect, and carbon footprint are discussed. Also, analysis is done on how the mining industry, not only in Chile but around the world, can make use of raw material being permanently formed such as the waste material forming mine tailings, to mitigate the problem of excess of CO2 in the atmosphere, mainly formed in power plants that provide energy to the mining and metallurgical processes. Also, sequestration of CO2 is analyzed as a viable alternative to reduce the amount of harmful gases in the atmosphere. Finally, a method for the capture of CO2 contained in flue gases and its transport to the place of sequestration using ionic liquids is proposed. It is concluded that despite the costs of sequestration are still high, work must be done to optimize processes for making the technology economically viable for the capture and transport of CO2 using ionic liquids and its sequestration in mineral tailings, in the shortest possible time.