High surface area CaCO3 was produced through the reaction between CO2 and an aqueous suspension of Ca (OH)(2) with the addition of an additive, sodium polyacrylate. The surface area of CaCO3 prepared was affected markedly by the amount of additive and the solution pH when adding the additive. The CaCO3 with the highest surface area (87.7 +/-1.3 m(2)/g) was obtained under the conditions that the initial Ca(OH)(2) concentration was 2.4 wt.%, the amount of sodium polyacrylate added was 0.2 wt.%, and the solution pH at which the additive was added was in the range of 11.4-11.1. The high surface area CaCO3 also had a high pore volume. The CaCO3 was highly reactive toward SO2, and a conversion of 0.95 was achieved when it was sulfated at 950 degrees C and 4000 ppm SO2 in air for 1 min. Prior calcination reduced the reactivity of this high surface area CaCO3. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.