CARBONSEQ: Low-carbon, High-performance Concrete Using a Novel Method of CO2 Sequestration

水泥行业贡献了全球人为二氧化碳排放量的7%。由于建筑业的繁荣，水泥需求将大幅增加，导致二氧化碳排放增加。这与巴黎协议背道而驰，许多国家承诺到2030年将排放量在1990年的基础上减少55%。由于水泥是目前唯一能够满足建筑需求的材料，因此迫切需要找到减少其碳足迹的方法。在混凝土中封存二氧化碳是一种很有前途的捕获二氧化碳、改善混凝土力学性能和耐久性能的技术。然而，使用现有方法将二氧化碳固定在混凝土中的体积仅限于混凝土体积的1-2%，并且只能在特殊的密封室中进行。因此，这项技术的使用和接受是有限的。本项目中提出的方法旨在封装20%-30%的二氧化碳，而不需要任何特殊的腔室，使用将在本项目中设计和开发的新方法。此外，新的封装技术将适用于预拌混凝土和预制混凝土。详细的微观结构和矿物学特征将利用扫描电子显微镜、MIP、X射线衍射仪和X射线层析技术进行研究，以提高各种胶凝体系混凝土的流变性、尺寸、力学和耐久性。为了量化新的二氧化碳封存方法对环境的真实影响，将通过考虑生产新型混凝土所涉及的所有过程来设计一个框架。然后，将使用从所有涉及的过程中获得的第一手数据来量化环境影响，这些过程包括预拌混凝土和预制混凝土的制造，这将确立这种新的方法是迈向政府低碳议程的一步。

The cement industry contributes 7% of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Due to the boom in construction, the cement demand is going to increase significantly, leading to an increase in CO2 emissions. This goes against the Paris accord where many countries pledged to cut the emissions by 55% by 2030 from 1990 levels. As cement is the only material capable of meeting the construction demand at present, there is an urgent need to find ways of reducing its carbon footprint. CO2 sequestration in concrete is one of the promising techniques to capture CO2 as well as improve the mechanical and durability properties of concrete. However, CO2 sequestrated in concrete using existing approaches is limited to 1-2% by volume of concrete and can only be practised in special chambers. Therefore, the use and acceptance of this technology is limited. The proposed approach in this project aims to encapsulate 20-30% CO2 without the requirement of any special chamber, using a novel approach that will be designed and developed in this project. Further, the new encapsulation technique will be applicable to both ready-mix concrete and precast concrete. Detailed microstructural and minerological characteristics will be studied using SEM, MIP, XRD and X-ray tomography to achieve the enhanced rheological, dimensional, mechanical, and durability characteristics of concretes for various types of cementitious systems. To quantify the true environment impact of the novel method of CO2 sequestration, a framework will be designed by considering all the processes involved in the production of novel concrete. Then, environmental impacts will be quantified using the first-hand data obtained from all the processes involved, including the manufacture of readymix and precast concretes, which will establish that this novel approach is a step towards the low carbon agenda of the governments.