Sequestering Carbon in Concrete

26 JUN 2019
Blue Planet is sequestering carbon in concrete by creating artificial limestone from carbon captured from smoke stacks and other sources of carbon dioxide.

Carbon Dioxide that would otherwise end up in the atmosphere now turns concrete into a green material. Concrete is often a source of high embedded carbon in construction and it is such a useful and versatile building material that alternatives are very difficult to select. This process turns the equation on its head.

Once in the form of concrete the carbon is permanently locked up, so it is a real sequestration solution. Using wood in construction merely stores the carbon. At the end of life wooden structures likely will release the carbon to the atmosphere. Wood is thus a great way to pull carbon out of the air - but it will need to be sequestered ultimately.

Reportedly this is a commercially available option - part of a new airline terminal in San Francisco used the material. So hopefully this will scale and become more widely available. Likely the issue will be the carbon capture process that will prove hard, but once captured this will be an ideal way to put that carbon away for a long time.
By Hab3