Discussion on the Relation Between Carbon Emissions and Solid Waste Management to Develop a Sustainable Business Model

Abstract

Increasing environmental issues, such as climate change and industrial waste management, have been putting pressure on developing novel and efficient solutions. Besides, global population increase is another increasing challenge for humanity in terms of adequate and secure food supply. The Merseburg process, the conversion reaction of gypsum with ammonium carbonate to yield ammonium sulfate and calcium carbonate, offers dual advantages against global warming and solid waste management issues. Another advantage of the process is the production of ammonium sulfate, an agriculturally valuable fertilizer. Utilization of the Merseburg process would be strategically important since it provides both consumption of phosphogypsum and low-cost raw material supply for ammonium sulfate production together with carbon dioxide consumption. This mini-review gives a detailed discussion of semi-batch ammonium carbonate production, followed by gypsum conversion, which can be an alternative operation and feed strategy for the Merseburg process conducted as a ternary-multiphase reaction system. The paper also provides the discussion of an alternative resource utilization route for phosphogypsum, including CO₂ sequestration and low-cost ammonium sulfate production.