FMRG: Eco: Carbon-Inverted Manufacturing of Inverted Cements (CIMIC)

普通波特兰水泥(OPC)是迄今为止世界上使用最广泛的人造材料，是可持续建筑环境的核心，但其制造需要高能量，排放大量二氧化碳，并且过度消耗自然资源，因此不环保。这项多学科的未来生态制造研究拨款旨在通过同时利用OPC制造的二氧化碳当量(CO2e)排放，并创新地将采矿和炼油行业产生的废物作为原料，创建未来更环保的下一代水泥制造。该方法受到两个地质过程的启发，并进一步设计了两个地质过程，即：(1)为碳矿化而进行的空中放热岩石风化；(2)低温热液条件下矿床的地下成岩蚀变，形成大规模岩石。目标产品是首次生产的新型硅酸盐胶结碳酸盐(ICEM)，方法是将废弃原料中浸出的钙/镁浸出的聚合物硅酸盐转化为胶结剂，在硅烷化作用的促进下防止其折叠和聚集，以粘结沉淀碳酸盐，这些碳酸盐将气体二氧化碳永久储存在固体矿物中作为增值产品。该项目不仅旨在产生关于聚合物硅酸盐胶结ICEM的基础科学，并发展关于ICEM未来制造的知识，而且还旨在应对多种紧迫的全球挑战，包括二氧化碳排放、气候变化和工业废物回收利用。该项目旨在促进可持续发展、环境保护和循环经济，从而在多个规模和维度上对环境和人类社会产生重大影响。该项目旨在对传统的OPC制造和采矿/精炼流程产生革命性影响。它旨在创造：(1)新一代生态友好型胶凝材料(ICEM)的新制造途径，同时最大化碳化作用并改善ICEM的性能；(2)通过硅烷化作为胶结和支架成分来保护聚合硅酸盐结构的新科学，以加强ICEM；(3)胺硅烷的创新多功能用途，以增强二氧化碳的吸附和碳化作用，桥接不同的硅酸盐结构，并调节纳米碳酸盐的沉淀；(4)碳化和冷烧结的新组合，以创建生态友好的制造工艺；以及(5)环保技术，使采矿废物向更循环的经济升级，应对世界范围内采用电动汽车预计将产生的大量采矿废物所面临的紧迫技术--社会--经济挑战。五个合作的学术机构(其中两个来自EPSCoR州，一个是HBCU/MSI)联合开展与研究计划相一致的同步教育、劳动力发展和外联活动，通过研究培训和指导、课程开发、短期课程和讲习班以及当地社区大学、职业、初中和高中的各种外联活动，培养未来可持续胶凝材料制造(迫切需要新劳动力的领域)中具有多学科技能的多样化的下一代劳动力。这一未来制造奖由化学、生物工程、环境和运输系统(CBET)和土木工程、机械和制造创新(CMMI)部门支持。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) is by far the world’s most widely used manufactured material and is central to sustainable built environments, yet its manufacturing demands high energy, emits a large amount of CO2, and overconsumes natural resources, and hence is not eco-friendly. This multidisciplinary Future EcoManufacturing research grant seeks to create future eco-friendly manufacturing of next-generation greener cements by simultaneously utilizing the CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions from OPC manufacturing and innovatively upcycling the wastes generated from mining and refining industries as feedstocks. The approach is inspired by and further engineers two geological processes, namely: (1) subaerial exothermic rock weathering for carbon mineralization, and (2) subsurface diagenetic alteration of mineral deposits under low-temperature, hydrothermal conditions to form rocks at a massive scale. The targeted product is a new class of silicate-cemented carbonates (iCem) to be manufactured for the first time by transforming Ca/Mg-leached polymeric silicates from waste feedstocks as cementing agents, promoted by silanization to prevent their folding and aggregation, to bond the precipitated carbonates that permanently store gaseous CO2 in solid minerals as value-added products. This project is designed not only to generate the fundamental science on the polymeric silicate-cemented iCem and develop knowledge on future manufacturing of iCem, but also to tackle multiple pressing global challenges, including CO2 emission, climate change, and industrial waste upcycling. The project aims to contribute to advancing sustainability, environmental protection, and circular economy, thereby generating significant impacts on the environment and human society at multiple scales and dimensions. The project aims to have a transformative impact on traditional OPC manufacturing and mining/refining processes. It intends to create: (1) a new manufacturing pathway for next-generation, eco-friendly cementitious materials (iCem) that simultaneously maximizes carbonation and improves iCem’s properties; (2) new science through which polymeric silicate structures are preserved by silanization as cementing and scaffolding constituents to strengthen iCem; (3) innovative multifunctional use of amine silanes to enhance CO2 adsorption and carbonation, bridge different silicate structures, and regulate nano-sized carbonate precipitation; (4) novel combination of carbonation and cold sintering to create eco-friendly manufacturing processes; and (5) eco-friendly technologies for upcycling mine wastes towards a more circular economy, addressing pressing techno-socio-economic challenges of the massive mine wastes anticipated from worldwide adoption of electric vehicles. Concurrent education, workforce development, and outreach activities aligned and accompanied with the research plan are jointly conducted among five collaborating academic institutions (with two from EPSCoR states, one being an HBCU/MSI), to train a diverse, next-generation workforce with multidisciplinary skills in future manufacturing of sustainable cementitious materials (a field that critically needs new workforce), through research training and mentoring, curricula development, short courses and workshops, and various outreach activities at local community colleges, vocational, middle, and high schools. This Future Manufacturing award is supported by the Divisions of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET) and Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.