Decarbonising the Built Environment by Permanent Carbon Dioxide Storage

低碳材料（LCM）是一家位于东北部的中小企业（也是Earthshot 2022决赛选手），为建筑行业开发环保低碳产品，旨在帮助建筑环境脱碳。我们的旗舰产品- OSTO -是一种用于混凝土砌块的负碳骨料，使用废弃产品的组合生产。OSTO可以添加到混凝土中，作为常用的碳密集型轻质骨料的部分替代品。OSTO的负碳足迹来自（i）通过碳化作用封存二氧化碳-骨料本身在固化时永久捕获二氧化碳（ii）避免二氧化碳排放-我们使用的废物将被焚烧，释放大量温室气体到大气中。OSTO的碳酸化是一个被动过程，通过该过程从大气中吸收环境CO2。碳化是所有混凝土固有的一个过程，对环境有益，但被动碳化发生得非常缓慢，远非最佳。在LCM，我们相信有空间显著增强和加速这一过程，该项目的目的是探索新的，优化的和可扩展的方法，用于OSTO的碳化。任何能够实现更大程度的碳酸化的方法都将增加从骨料内的大气中永久去除的CO2的量。

Low Carbon Materials (LCM) is an SME (and Earthshot 2022 finalist) based in the North East, which develops environmentally-friendly, low carbon products for the construction industry with the aim of helping to decarbonise the built environment. Our flagship product - OSTO - is a carbon-negative aggregate for concrete blockwork which is produced using a combination of waste products. OSTO can be added to concrete as a partial replacement for commonly-used, carbon-intensive lightweight aggregates. The negative carbon footprint for OSTO comes from (i) CO2 sequestration via carbonation - the aggregate itself permanently captures CO2 as it cures (ii) avoided CO2 emissions - the waste we utilise would otherwise be incinerated, releasing a significant volume of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The carbonation of OSTO is a passive process whereby environmental CO2 is absorbed from the atmosphere. Carbonation is a process, which is inherent in all concrete and is beneficial to the environment, but passive carbonation occurs very slowly and is far from optimal.At LCM we believe that there is scope to significantly enhance and accelerate this process and the aim of this project is to explore new, optimised and scalable approaches for the carbonation of OSTO. Any method which enables a greater extent of carbonation will increase the amount of CO2 permanently removed from the atmosphere within the aggregate.