Page 16 - Green Builder Magazine Jul-Aug 2021

CarbonCure Technologies

S 10% 25 lbs
T

A stronger than average per cubic yard
T
Base material of CarbonCure’s concrete (derived Amount of CO2 emissions reduced
S
from waste outputs from third-parties) when using CarbonCure concrete

MAGINE USING CONCRETE, one of the world’s largest ratio. Cement also has an enormous reach: It’s used in
producers of carbon dioxide (CO2), to help remove that virtually all buildings, and buildings generate nearly
greenhouse gas (GhG) from the atmosphere. That may 40 percent of the world’s GhGs every year. Cement produces
I sound strange, but to CarbonCure Technologies CEO Rob three times more CO2 than civil aviation.
Niven, it’s a logical and essential approach if the world is to Those totals will get worse down the road: By 2060, the
reach GhG reduction goals within the next three decades. world is expected to gain another 230 billion square meters
That’s generally the timeframe by which countries need of new, concrete-laden structures, about the equivalent of
to reach net zero with their carbon emissions in order to building another New York City every month for the next
keep the planet’s temperature increase to no more than 40 years, CarbonCure notes.
1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100 and avoid runaway climate “As a key construction material, concrete has everything
impacts, according to the United Nations Environment going for it—except its carbon footprint,” Niven says. “What
Programme (UNEP). if, instead of contributing to GhG emissions, concrete helped
Concrete is the world’s most resilient and abundant man- eliminate CO2 from the built environment? What is currently
made material, produced at the rate of 3 million tons per viewed as a threat to the concrete industry may just be one
year per person on Earth. But its key component, cement, of its greatest opportunities.”
is one of the largest CO2 emitters, Niven notes. There’s a CarbonCure’s carbon utilization technology takes waste
pound-for-pound cement production to carbon emission CO2 that has been captured by a third party, usually a

Air lock. CarbonCure Technologies CEO Rob Niven sees a future where
The right combination. CarbonCure’s carbon mineralization process starts with concrete, the world’s most-abundant and resilient man-made material, is
carefully injecting CO2 into concrete during mixing, via a valve box on the gas’s no longer one of the biggest producers of greenhouse gas.
storage tank. COURTESY OF CARBONCURE TECHNOLOGIES COURTESY OF CARBONCURE TECHNOLOGIES
14 GREEN BUILDER July/August 2021 www.greenbuildermedia.com