Cement carbon capture

Berkeley University civil engineering student Cagla Meral is working to develop a greener form of Portland cement by sequestering CO₂ into it during the manufacturing process.

Up to 5 per cent of the globe’s climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions result from manufacturing the durable and popular construction material, and Meral believes that even if she can reduce emissions by a small percentage, it will have a tremendous impact on the environment.

Preliminary tests have shown that supercritical CO₂ infiltrates cement particles and chemically locks carbon dioxide back into the material.

'What we want to find out is how much CO₂ can be put back without losing the strength of cement-based materials,' said Meral, who is also studying how materials such as nanosilica or polymeric microfibres might fortify cement.

In another facet of her work, Meral is investigating the idea of replacing some of the cement typically used in concrete with greater quantities of industrial byproducts like fly ash and slag that might otherwise end up in landfills.