For approximately 200 years, concrete is one of the materials used for construction, ranging from roads, building foundations, bridges, and buildings.
Concrete is high demand for construction, but in the treatment process, the material becomes one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. In response, several multidisciplinary researchers from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) has made a unique solution that helps reduce the sources of greenhouse gases.
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| Scientists plan to use carbon dioxide from power plant emissions as a new building material. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1Yq683) |
As quoted from Science Daily on Monday, March 28, 2016, they created a closed loop that has a way of working with carbon capture from power plant chimneys and use it to make concrete by using the 3D printer.
"This technology takes something that we consider to be a nuisance, namely carbon dioxide from smokestacks and turn it into something valuable," said professor of public policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, J.R. DeShazo.
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| J.R. DeShazo, left, and Gaurav Sant show off a sample of the new building material they have created to replace concrete. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1Yq5l2) |
This technology can solve global climate change, which became the biggest challenges faced by society today and the future.
"We hope that not only captures the exhaust gas. But we'll take the gas ... and use it to create the cement replacement building materials," he added.
The chairman of the research who has the educational background of civil and environmental engineering, Gaurav Sant, said that the study on which they run aims to create carbon dioxide as a resource.
"When in the cement production process produces carbon dioxide, as well as the manufacture of coal or natural gas, then we can utilize the exhaust gas to make building materials which will become a new type of cement ...," said Sant.
So far, the construction materials have been produced on a small scale in the laboratory, by using 3D printing device and shaping it into a small cone.
"We have a proof of concept that we can do this. But we need to start the process of increasing the volume of material and thinking how to bring it in the commercial world," said DeShazo.
Sant adds, "The biggest challenge is not just trying to make building materials. We are building the solution process, the right integrated technology of carbon dioxide to the finished product."
Another challenge is to convince the stakeholders that the material they created such a successful profitable, not only for the Earth but also for them.
"This technology could change the economic incentives associated with electricity generation and change the exhaust gases from the chimney into a resource that can be used, to enlarge their road system," said DeShazo.
"It can turn what had been a problem and turn it into useful products ... which will be needed and valued in such polluted places like India and China," he added. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | SCIENCEDAILY]
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