A team of scientists at Northwestern University has developed a new method to create carbon-negative materials using seawater, electricity, and carbon dioxide (CO₂). This new process not only locks away CO₂ in solid form but also yields hydrogen gas, a useful clean fuel.
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With this innovation construction could become a lot more sustainable in the future - (Image Credit: Drop of Light via Shutterstock - HDR tune by Universal-Sci)
The team, led by civil and environmental engineering professor Alessandro Rotta Loria, drew inspiration from the way corals and molluscs build their shells by converting dissolved ions into solid minerals. Instead of using biological energy, they applied electrical energy to seawater, then bubbled in CO₂.
This process triggers chemical reactions that create calcium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide—materials that can serve as replacements for sand, cement powder, and other key ingredients in concrete, cement, plaster, and paint.
“We have developed a new approach that allows us to use seawater to create carbon-negative construction materials,” said Rotta Loria. The team wanted to use seawater as there is an abundance of it and that way it wouldn't use up valuable fresh water.
Valuable Byproduct
By adjusting voltage, current, and flow rates in the lab, the researchers discovered they could fine-tune the final mineral composition for different uses—ranging from lightweight and porous to harder, denser forms. In addition, the process generates hydrogen gas, a potential clean fuel for transportation and other applications.
Rotta Loria and his collaborators believe this approach can be scaled up by placing modular reactors near coastal construction and cement plants, preventing significant CO₂ emissions from entering the atmosphere.
The material can store carbon dioxide equal to half its own weight, potentially replacing sand in concrete and other building materials while capturing greenhouse gases. - (Image Credit: Northwestern University)
Storing CO₂
With concrete and cement production responsible for a substantial portion of global CO₂ emissions, capturing and transforming that CO₂ into building materials offers a promising way to build more sustainably. “We could create a circularity where we sequester CO₂ right at the source,” explained Rotta Loria. “Those materials would truly become carbon sinks.”
By turning a major industrial emitter into part of the solution, this strategy could help reduce the construction industry’s environmental impact and move toward cleaner, more responsible building practices.
If you are interested in more details about the underlying research, be sure to check out the paper published in the peer-reviewed science journal Advanced Sustainable System, listed below this article.
Sources, further reading and related articles:
Electrodeposition of carbon-trapping minerals in seawater for variable electrochemical potentials and carbon dioxide injections - (Advanced Sustainable Systems)
Scientists find a new use for dumped tires: let's turn them into graphene to reinforce concrete - (Universal-Sci)
This Amazing Breakthrough in Plastic Recycling Could Change Everything - (Universal-Sci)
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