By : Dr. Franyi Sarmiento, Ph.D., Inspenet, March 18, 2022
Spanish researchers have managed to dose a concrete through a new procedure that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and that could be used to manufacture paving stones, curbs, vaults and other types of urban furniture without steel reinforcement.
David Suescum-Morales’ team developed this research work jointly at the Belmez Higher Polytechnic School by the ‘Construction Engineering’ and ‘Materials and Applications’ groups of the University of Córdoba.
They concluded in the creation of a new recipe to make this material with two fundamental ingredients: recycled aggregates from construction and demolition waste, and sparkling water.
According to the results of the research, the use of carbonated water, which is used to mix and cure the concrete, and the use of recycled aggregates manage to capture 181% more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, compared to when aggregates are used. natural and mixed with conventional water.
According to the researcher José María Fernández, one of the authors of the study, it is “a pioneering strategy that manages to mitigate climate change and that is also based on the paradigm of the circular economy, in which waste and greenhouse gases greenhouse effect are reintegrated into the manufacturing process.
The carbonated water contains carbon dioxide, which, in turn, reacts with one of the components of the cement (portlandite) to form calcium carbonate. In other words, carbon in the form of CO 2 disappears from the atmosphere to adhere to the concrete itself, filling its pores, “which improves the resistance and mechanical properties of the material”, explains David Suescum Morales, lead author of the research.
It is a process called accelerated carbonation, a technique that, although it is in the early stages of research, could only be carried out in carbonation chambers, which are quite expensive, as José Ramón Jiménez, another of the study’s authors, points out. The difference is that now the incorporation of CO 2 can be implemented in the process of mixing concrete and mortar “in-situ” through a more economical procedure, without the need to use these special carbonation chambers.
The line of research and development advances in this way in the achievement of one of the great objectives of the cement industry, whose roadmap is marked by the goal of reducing CO 2 emissions and achieving climate neutrality.
The study has been published in the academic Journal of CO 2 Utilization and is entitled “Use of carbonated water to improve the mechanical properties and reduce the carbon footprint of cement-based materials with recycled aggregates”.
Sources: UCO / NCYT Amazings : https://noticiasdelaciencia.com/art/43883/nuevo-hormigon-sostenible-que-usa-agua-con-gas-y-captura-co2
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