CarbonBuilt – a concrete carbon capture technology startup, and the US Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory’s (NETL) National Carbon Capture Center announced on June 29th the completion of a key carbon capture test.
The multi-week test was led on a new carbon capture utilization and storage or concrete CO2 emissions reduction technology from production at the center’s facility in Wilsonville, Alabama. It successfully injected CO2 from the flue gas streams of natural gas and coal-fired generating units directly into more than 5,000 concrete blocks for storage.
Carbon Built’s technology emerged from the Institute of Carbon Management at the University of California (UCLA) and won the 2021 NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE. Nowadays the company is partnering with concrete producers to grow its business and help the industry decarbonize its operations.
The Carbon Capture Technology Explained
CarbonBuilt’s ReversaTM process is innovative as it significantly reduces the consumption of cement. It also includes a more flexible use of waste materials like fly ash or slag. The process involves a direct injection of the dilute CO2 from flue gas streams during the curing process, into the concrete.
The process eliminates the need for carbon capture or purification. It reduces overall carbon emissions from production by more than 50%.
Teams from CarbonBuilt and the National Carbon Capture Center tested the technology under a range of conditions. A Post-production analysis of the blocks validated the performance of the process and the CO2 uptake from the flue gas streams relative to industry standards. The testing turned out successful across all metrics.
“Helping advance technologies toward commercialization is the core of our mission…It is exciting to work with CarbonBuilt and UCLA to test and evaluate their concrete production technology. Utilizing carbon dioxide to produce essential products like concrete will be an important solution as the world moves to reduce overall carbon emissions,” said John Northington, Director of the National Carbon Capture Center.
The X-prize winning technology is helping the carbon capture utilization and storage CCUS industry become more efficient and economical to allow scalability. As the concrete production sector needs urgently emission reduction, the successful testing of CarbonBuilt’s process will allow the sector to come one step closer to reaching carbon neutrality.
