According to the World Economic Forum, the global cement industry accounts for about 8% of total CO₂ emissions. Concrete is one of the most widely used materials worldwide, so policymakers and civil engineers are challenged to find innovative solutions to reduce carbon emissions to meet global climate targets. Researchers are now exploring ways to make cement production carbon neutral, and even carbon negative, with living materials.
In this ASCE Interchange Live, Wil Srubar, Deming Associate Dean of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado Boulder, discusses how living materials in cement and concrete can impact the future built environment. Srubar is also the principal investigator at the Living Materials Laboratory.
“They’re actually carbon-fixing instead of carbon-emitting. So they take atmospheric CO₂ that is dissolved in seawater, and that’s the CO₂ that is used to then produce the calcium carbonate, which is CaCO₃. So the CO₂ in there comes from the atmosphere. Contrast that to the cement production process, where we have to burn limestone to make cement. And when you burn calcium carbonate that’s in the limestone, off goes the CO₂ that has been stored,” Srubar said.
“They also have other benefits such as being nontoxic, biorenewable, super easy to grow. There are fresh and saltwater strains of algae. So they’re basically found everywhere on the planet. It’s also very economical to grow algal strains compared to other biological organisms. They simply need sunlight, some form of water, and CO₂.”
Srubar also discusses how living materials like self-healing concrete can further enhance the sustainability of civil engineering projects by reducing life-cycle costs due to maintenance and rehabilitation, signaling when it’s time for repair, or indicating when there are toxins in the air.
Learn more about Living Materials Laboratory and how researchers are integrating biology and biomimetic techniques with traditional materials science to bring new building materials to life.
To view all ASCE Interchange episodes, visit ASCE’s YouTube channel.
