Sam Draper and Barney Shanks, material researchers and PhD students at the Imperial College London, recently created a solution for carbon-neutral concrete called Seratech. Low-cost and easy to scale, Seratech swaps part of the cement portion of concrete with a special type of silica that has been created using carbon dioxide captured directly from factory flues. Here is a detailed report on SURFACES REPORTER (SR).
Seratech swaps part of the cement portion of concrete with a special type of silica that has been created using carbon dioxide captured directly from factory flues.
The Seratech technology eliminates the CO2 content of concrete. It captures industrial CO2 emissions directly from factory flues and produces a carbon-negative cement replacement material, silica. This silica is then used in combination with Portland cement. However, only a maximum of 40 per cent of cement content of concrete can be reportedly replaced this way. According to the duo, the carbon capture and storage (CCS) that is involved to make the replacement material means that more carbon is stored in the concrete than it is emitted during the cement production, thus making it carbon neutral.
Only a maximum of 40 per cent of cement content of concrete can be reportedly replaced with this technology.
Although at a lab level, Seratech is easy to implement. It mainly uses waste CO2 and mineral olivine as raw materials. Additionally, the process and equipment that are required for this technology are the same as the ones used in concrete production.
That being said, Draper and Shanks recently won the 2022 Obel Award, an international prize that felicitates architectural achievement, for Seratech.
Image credits: Helene Sandberg