Remember we are talking about 4 to 6 million metric tons of CO2.
In order to make that much lime you need to decompose CaCO3 ...which only liberates more CO2...so you get no net gain. You just release the CO2 somewhere else.
CaCO3=CaO (lime) + CO2
By the way...you just gave me an idea. I'm going to try your suggestion next week at one of our coal plants and look for a CO2 reduction result. We have this very system in place to knock out the SO3 blue plume from our stacks.
I'll be in touch.
You seem like a knowledgeable fellow about this, pleasure to talk to someone who knows the business. Yes, you have to decompose limestone to get that much lime, but it can be in a controlled environment(chemical tanks and such). That in turn means the CO2 is easier to sequester in some further process.
A distant possibility : CF/LENR(Cold Fusion/Low Energy Nuclear Reactions) : We KNOW we can transmutate isotopes with this process, I've even done it on my kithchen counter for under $100 for the whole experiment. My mass spectrometer test($50 of the $100)showed a doubling of K41 from 8% to 16%(K39 = 92% and K41 = 8% of normal isotopic distribution). The K(potassium)was from the KOH electrolyte I used(photographic developer fluid).
So, would it be possible to transmutate the CO2 nuclei to other isoptopes(Boron or Nitrogen)? I'll have to ask Dr Miley about that. He's at Urbana and has done LOTS of CF work over the years. We've concentrated out efforts on nuclear waste remediation, I haven't heard anyone even mention CO2 as a possible waste product to tansmutate/clean up.
As to CO2 bubbling thru limewater, consider the stepped formations just south of Gardner MT, in Yellowstone Park. Over the eons CO2 has bubbled up from the pluton below this DORMANT supervolcano(for how much longer will it remain DORMANT?)and built up these layers upon layers of limestone.
That then is your model of fine, hot bubbles of CO2 coming up in limewater, nature does it, why can't we? Hey, as simple and dumb as it sounds, if it WORKS, make million$ on it... And 6 million metric tons, hey, that's just another average mountain range in MONTANA...
Did a bit more thinking about this CO2 + CaO = CaCO3 idea. I'm no expert but here goes. Ok, you have 6 million metric tons of CO2 that you would like to sequester somehow. Solid CO2(dry ice)is 1.53g/cc at -79 deg C.
Ok, if you air-blow tiny, hot CO2 bubbles thru lime-rich water you'll get CaCO3 dust settling to the bottom of the tank(the Yellowstone Park number). You then take that creamy dust into another chemical process where you again split it into CaO and CO2.
You then take that CO2 and cool it into a 45 deg cone-mountain as solid dry ice(super insulated walls). How big? 6 x 10^6 x 10^3 x 10^3 = 6 x 10^12 grams/1.53 = about 4 x 10^12 cc. bh/3 is volume of the cone and h = r for 45 deg cone. Thus an insulated cone-mountain 156 meters high, or 522 ft high.
Now, ASSUMING this all works as a practical approach to removing CO2 fom coal fired power plant's exhaust stacks, a BIG IF to be sure, you'd have your global warming CO2 either stored as an ICE MOUNTAIN, or as a CO2 reservoir for comm'l uses.
Yes, I know, the energy equation is all important here, and yet, if it works....