NSF Org:	ITE Innovation and Technology Ecosystems
Recipient:	UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA
Initial Amendment Date:	December 14, 2022
Latest Amendment Date:	July 25, 2023
Award Number:	2236331
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	Linda Molnar ITE  Innovation and Technology Ecosystems TIP  Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships
Start Date:	December 15, 2022
End Date:	November 30, 2023 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$750,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$750,000.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2023 = $750,000.00
History of Investigator:	Jialai Wang (Principal Investigator) jwang@eng.ua.edu Hongyu Zhou (Co-Principal Investigator) Hongyan Ma (Co-Principal Investigator) Armen Amirkhanian (Co-Principal Investigator) Siyuan Song (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	University of Alabama Tuscaloosa 801 UNIVERSITY BLVD TUSCALOOSA AL  US  35401 (205)348-5152
Sponsor Congressional District:	07
Primary Place of Performance:	University of Alabama Tuscaloosa 301 ROSE ADMIN BLDG TUSCALOOSA AL  US  35487-0001
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	07
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	RCNJEHZ83EV6
Parent UEI:	RCNJEHZ83EV6
NSF Program(s):	Convergence Accelerator Resrch
Primary Program Source:	01002324DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s):
Program Element Code(s):	131Y00
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.084

ABSTRACT

Concrete is the most widely used construction material in the world. However, current production of ordinary Portland cement (OPC)-based concrete contributes to three main challenges that our society is facing today: climate change, resource depletion, and solid waste. This convergence research will establish a pathway to address all these challenges by leveraging the synergy of circular economy principles and a revolutionary manufacturing method of concrete which converts concrete into one of the largest sinks for CO2. Through a biomolecule-regulated carbonation (BioCarb) technology, this new manufacturing method transforms cement slurry into an effective CO2 absorbent, which can absorb and permanently store 25 to 50 times more CO2 in fresh concrete than existing technologies. More importantly, the compressive strength of the produced concrete can be drastically increased by in-situ produced nanoparticles. Similarly, calcium-rich industrial wastes ? such as recycled concrete fines, steel slag, and coal ashes ? can be converted into carbon-negative supplementary cementitious materials, which can substantially reduce the amount of OPC needed for concrete production. In addition, the functional biomolecules used in BioCarb will be extracted from agricultural waste, which provides a new solution to decarbonize chemical admixtures used in concrete. If successful, this project can unlock the enormous potential of concrete for permanent storage of CO2 as carbonate minerals and decarbonize all ingredients of concrete. As a result, the CO2 footprint of concrete will potentially be reduced by more than 50%. If the proposed technology is deployed at full scale, over 2 billion metric tons of CO2 can be reduced per year globally, and more than 3 billion metric tons of solid wastes can be converted into useful cementitious materials and aggregate every year and avoiding extraction of the same amounts of natural resources.

Concrete can serve as a CO2 sink through mineralization processes, in which CO2 react with calcium-rich minerals in concrete to produce CaCO3 and permanently store CO2. However, key challenges including diffusion barriers and marginal strength improvement impede existing technologies to reach full potential of concrete for CO2 sequestration. To fully unlock this potential, we propose a breakthrough technology, BioCarb, to maximize CO2 uptake while n-situ produce nanoscale performance enhancers before concrete hardens. This is achieved by using a biomolecule as small-dose additive, which regulates the carbonation process of calcium-rich minerals through: i) chelating with calcium to facilitate the carbonation of the minerals, ii) controlling the crystal nucleation, orientation, size, and polymorph of calcium carbonate, and iii) enabling uniform dispersion of the produced CaCO3 nano- and micro-particles. As a result, much more CO2 can be absorbed by concrete directly without compromising performance. More importantly, the metastable CaCO3 produced through BioCarb can react with the cement to form new minerals or dissolve and re-precipitate to function as a binding phase in concrete. As a result, a novel calcium silicate hydrate-CaCO3 hybrid binder can form in the concrete, leading to improved mechanical strength, volumetric stability, and durability. Similarly, this process can be used to process other calcium-rich solid wastes and convert them into carbon-negative supplementary cementitious materials and aggregate for maximal substitution of cement and naturally extracted aggregate, respectively. This implies an even bigger potential for decarbonization. A convergent research approach is employed in this project to transit BioCarb into practical use, by fusing multiple disciplines ? civil engineering, material science and engineering, environmental engineering, chemistry, food science and processing, and environmental justice ? and the end uses of BioCarb and full life cycle considerations for the environmentally and economically sustainable production of concrete.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

Concrete with ordinary Portland cement (OPC) as the main binder is the most widely used construction material in the world. However, the production of OPC based concrete is responsible for nearly 10% of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions, the consumption of more than 36 billion tons (Gt)/year raw materials and aggregates, and 2.2 Gt/year solid waste in the world. 

This project proposes a new pathway to address this enormous environmental burden created by the concrete industry by harnessing the synergy of Circular Economy principles and a revolutionary manufacturing method of concrete. In this new manufacturing method, CO₂ is added into concrete before mixing through carbonating a cement slurry regulated by a biomolecule added as a multifunctional admixture.  This admixture can facilitate the carbonation of the cement. As a result, the CO₂ uptake by the cement slurry is improved by at least one order of magnitude in comparison with existing methods. More importantly, the morphology and polymorphs of the CaCO₃ particles produced in the carbonated slurry are fine-tuned by the biomolecule so that more metastable CaCO₃ nanoparticles are produced and well dispersed. After being mixed with other ingredients of the concrete, these metastable CaCO₃ nanoparticles can trigger multiple mechanisms, making the produced concrete at least 20% stronger, which cannot be achieved by any existing method.

This new manufacturing method allows the concrete producers to use less cement in their concrete, recycle all waste fresh concrete and wash water back into new concrete, and use high-volume supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) and recycled concrete aggregates in their concrete mixes. If all concretes (14.0 billion m3) are manufactured by this technique, there will be 0.25Gt CO₂ stored in the concrete and 2.03Gt CO₂ is avoided every year. Therefore, this technology can reduce CO₂ emission up to 2.28Gt/year. In addition, 24 million cubic yards waste concrete and 9 billion gallons wash water can be recycled in U.S. every year, which can save concrete producers more than $2.6B/year.

A partnership consisting of stakeholders from academia, industry, and government has been formed to study the proposed new manufacturing method. The project is led by the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa (UA) in partnership with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), Missouri University of Science and Technology (MS&T), and Alabama A&M University (AAMU, a HBCU). The team has also established an innovation ecosystem to collaborate with 15 stakeholders: end-users from ready-mix and pre-cast concrete industries, practitioners, local governments, owners, CO₂ suppliers, trade organizations, and technical societies. They will help the team to better understand the needs of end-users, ensure that the proposed technology comply with standards and building code, and provide real-world environments to test the proposed technology.

This project has supported fully or partially three PhD students. The new knowledge gained from the project were disseminated through presentation in conference, webinar, and a workshop held by the research team.  This project has produced one innovation patent application.

 

Last Modified: 03/27/2024
Modified by: Jialai Wang

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