Sant, who is also the director of UCLA’s Institute for Carbon Management, said the product will have a carbon footprint 50% to 70% lower than that of regular concrete used in construction. The production of cement results in more than 8% of annual man-made carbon dioxide emissions.
Similar to traditional concrete, the UCLA team’s product is a mixture of a cementing agent, sand, stone, water and chemical additives, Sant told Construction Dive. However with CO2Concrete, unlike traditional Portland cement-based concrete, the researchers have achieved cementation by the use of calcium hydroxide, which absorbs carbon dioxide from waste gas to form limestone. Sant likened it to the same type of structural cementation seen in seashells.
