Direct conversion of CO2 from point sources to a special formulation of high performance concrete

C56-25a-273063Deep decarbonization of the industrial sector (steel plants, cement plants, H2 production plants, etc.) poses a significant challenge. The conventional CO2 capture approach is to first separate/capture CO2 from process emissions or pre/post-combustion flue gases and then, as applicable, to regenerate the capture medium (e.g., amines) and to compress, transport, and store or otherwise utilize the purified CO2 in other applications. The act of capturing CO2 in this method is often accompanied downstream by energy intensive and costly support infrastructure and processes to capture, purify, compress, transport and/or store the captured CO2, and to regenerate the capture medium. It is thus highly desired in terms of energy efficiencies and costs to employ a “reactive capture” approach to carbon capture. In the reactive capture approach, the act of capturing CO2 and converting it into a higher value product is integrated into one continuous process onsite – thus eliminating the potential need to separately regenerate the capture medium and the need to purify, compress, transport, or store the captured CO2. Capitalizing on our successful preliminary results, the overarching objective of this project is to demonstrate feasibility of direct conversion of CO2 from point sources to a special formulation of high-performance concrete using industrial wastes. The product rivals/outperforms Portland cement concrete in performance while mineralizing net CO2. This Phase I SBIR project will focus on synthesis gas from industrial plants, maximize CO2 uptake, perform standard testings on carbon-negative concrete specimens, and conduct TEA and LCA. In phase II, we will optimize our process yield, scale-up our technology to ~50 Kg/day CO2 capture from actual gas streams of industrial plants and perform pilot testing on a concrete slab to demonstrate continuous processing of our technology. 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.