A new seawater material, carbon dioxide and electricity could give the construction industry a well -necessary climate upgrade. Developed by researchers from the Northwestern University, the substance similar to the dough offers a double solution: a substitute for mined sand and a means of producing carbon capture concrete.
Concrete is the most used synthetic material in the world, but it is also one of the most polluting. Make it releases enormous quantities of carbon dioxide and is strongly based on dredged sand from rivers and rivers, a practice that can cause serious environmental damage.
The approach of the northwest team uses two common resources: shaking and carbon dioxide – which are carried out through an electrochemical process to produce a white paste of calcium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide. The material imitates natural processes. Corals and crustaceans build their skeletons using similar chemistry, and researchers say they have modeled their method after these organisms.
Researchers say They can control the properties of the dough by adjusting variables such as tension, flow and reaction time. This allows them to provide different shapes, sizes and porosities adapted to concrete mixtures, winding or even paintings.
What makes this alternative in concrete of carbon capture particularly promising is its versatility. It can be a substitute for traditional sand and gravel in the production of cement, reducing the demand of extracted materials. So this allows us to do concrete without cement.
Because it absorbs carbon dioxide during production rather than emitting it, the dough returns the traditional carbon footprint of cement on its head. The process also emits hydrogen as a by-product, which can be captured and used as a clean energy source.
The team notes that this method could be associated with existing cement operations to recycle their own emissions. The cement factories near the ribs can attract seawater directly into the reactors on site, transforming waste into solid and solid building materials. Over time, this could reshape the economy of green cement, especially if the synthetic aggregate is cheaper than traditional sand.
The construction sector has few scalable options to reduce its climate impact. Of course, we saw promising environmental concrete The options, and some have even started to be tested in real world applications. However, carbon capture concrete made from abundant and inexpensive ingredients could offer a rare combination of feasibility and climatic advantages.