Co2ncrete: Capturing Carbon dioxide to Create Concrete

As carbon emissions continue to rise and cause the planet to warm up, we need to find ways to reduce them. Capturing carbon at the source of its emission is one of the solutions, but there is still the problem of storing all the carbon sucked out of the atmosphere. If that captured carbon could be put to good use, then perhaps we could have the perfect capturing system in place. This is the line of thinking that researchers at University of California (UCLA) are currently pursuing, and they have some big plans for all that carbon: turning it into concrete.

The conversion of carbon into concrete would be a double whammy since concrete production itself is very planet-unfriendly and accounts for 5 percent of all carbon emissions. But an even larger source of CO2 emissions is flue gas, the combustion exhaust gas from power plants, the scientists' main target.

The carbon would be captured and become the raw material for what they call Co2ncrete, using 3D printers in its fabrication. The researchers describe the multi-stage, complex process, which they are still developing, as upcycling.

link.