Researchers from Saudi oil company Aramco and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have found a way of introducing more CO2 into concrete at the curing stage, saying it could be an important use for emissions captured from industrial processes, including cement-making.
Carbon-cured concrete sets much faster than the industry norm, and is more durable, they say.
They claim that if the global precast concrete industry implemented CO2 curing technology, it could recycle at least 63 million tons of CO2 every year, the equivalent of taking around 14 million cars off the road. The actual figure may be as high as 246 million tons of CO2, the equivalent of approximately 53 million cars, they add.
“This is all the more worthwhile given the manufacture of cement—the principal ingredient of concrete—produces around 7% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions,” says Aramco senior research scientist Issam Amr, who led the industry-academia research project, in a note to GCR.