Direct air capture and conversion of CO2 to concrete

C56-25b-273045The end-use of carbon-based chemical products results in widespread CO2 emissions to the atmosphere, which are challenging to limit in comparison to point sources such as power plants. For this reason, the most effective approach to limiting the carbon footprint of the chemical industry sector is to develop carbon- negative methods of producing commodity products. Specially, given the large scale of worldwide CO2 emissions (~37 bn/yr), the host commodity product must be of large use and geographically wide to ensure it can host a large portion of the current CO2 emissions via direct air capture (DAC). Capitalizing on our successful preliminary results, the overarching objective of this project is to demonstrate feasibility of conversion of CO2 from air to a special formulation of concrete using non-carbonate rocks that are reactive to CO2. This Phase I SBIR project will demonstrate manufacturing feasibility of 0.1 Kg/day conversion of CO2 from DAC by optimizing the process yield, CO2 uptake, performing standard testings on concrete samples, and techno-economical analysis (TEA) and life cycle analysis (LCA). In phase II, we will scale-up our technology to demonstrate manufacturing capacity of >10 Kg/day conversion of CO2 to concrete and perform pilot testing on a large 10’x10’x6” concrete slab. C-Crete’s experience in projects with similar complexity along with our state-of-the-art facilities and equipment and relationships with key industry players will catalyze our commercialization efforts.