Rapid technological advances have enabled access to commodities such as metals, iron and steel, and cement which are crucial for realizing a high-quality human experience. However, unabated industrial CO2 emissions have detrimental environmental and climate impacts. The generation of alkaline industrial wastes to the order of several hundreds of millions of tons occupies a significant land footprint. These alkaline residues often contain value added metals that can be recovered and reused. In this study, approaches to selectively recover critical materials integrated with carbon mineralization are elucidated. Advances in single step pathways for accelerated capture and mineralization of CO2-bearing flue gas streams into solid carbonates using regenerable solvents are discussed. The design of novel materials for enhanced metal recovery with inherent CO2 utilization is investigated. These studies are grounded in the fundamental science underpinning the interplay between the chemo-morphological heterogeneity of alkaline residues and reactivity in complex multiphase environments.
