Archinect - News

Researchers develop a feasible solution for self-healing concrete in the construction industry

2021-06-21T19:23:00-04:00

The cases against concrete and its environmental impacts are prevalent in the AEC community. As a result, numerous attempts and research initiatives have been made to help mitigate the material's environmental impact. Research from firms like Snøhetta and their net-zero concrete to companies like CarbonCure and CarbonBuilt (formerly CO2Concrete) and their carbon-sequestering cement products are a few examples of concrete change — no pun intended.

Recently, researchers from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), lead by associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Nima Rahbar, have developed a new method for producing concrete with "self-healing" capabilities to strengthen the durability of concrete structures.

The research paper, titled "An Enzymatic Self-Healing Cementitious Material," was published in Applied Materials Today, a peer-reviewed journal focused on cutting-edge applications of novel materials. Co-authors were Suzanne Scarlata, professor of Chemistry & Bi...

UCLA researchers receive $2.9M grant from Department of Energy to transform CO2 into concrete

2020-07-28T12:51:00-04:00

A UCLA research team led by Gaurav Sant, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and of material science and engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has received a two-year, $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. The award supports the development of a process that can convert carbon dioxide emissions into construction materials, as described in UCLA's press release.

An additional $905,000 from UCLA discretionary funds and industry partners has also been allotted to the research. According to UCLA, the technology captured carbon dioxide from raw flue gas as it exits power plants, cement plants and other producers of carbon dioxide. Sant says the resulting product will have a carbon footprint 50% to 70% lower than regular concrete used in construction.

CarbonCure sequesters CO2 to reduce emissions and increase strength of concrete

2019-12-04T08:00:00-05:00

Although concrete is common building material that's readily available and easy to use, the environmental impact it generates is a costly one, specifically with regards to how it is manufactured. Estimates indicate that every pound of cement produces one pound of CO2 emissions, for example, a fact that has caused a great deal of debate within architecture and design circles. With a growing number of initiatives taking shape within the architecture and construction industries aimed at implementing better building practices that mitigate carbon emissions, one company is moving to tackle this issue head-on by embedding CO2 directly within concrete itself.

Founded in 2017 by Rob Niven, CarbonCure aims to create a scalable technology that could reduce the carbon footprint left behind by the highly lucrative concrete industry. According to the company, after attending a United Nations Summit on Climate Change in 2007, Niven realized that there existed an unmet global demand for developin...

How much pollution does cement really produce? Is there a cleaner solution?

2019-06-28T19:06:00-04:00

Cement is everywhere, but few notice the impact it has on the environment. A standard building material used everywhere, it is often confused with concrete. Cement is a key component in making concrete. By burning limestone at extremely high temperatures, this process turns the stone into a fine powder that's then mixed with clay and other minerals. This powder material, called clinker, is mixed together with other materials to create concrete. Despite its inexpensive and readily available supply, cement production is responsible for high levels of carbon dioxide emissions surpassing the emissions produced from trucks.

Image © Bloomberg

Huelva Cultura & Leisure Center in Andulusia is constructed with Larfarge Holcim's Agilia® ready-mix concrete. Image © LafargeHolcim

Thanks to Vanessa Dezem's Bloomberg piece, we learn why cement is so hazardous to the environment and what solutions have been made by manufacturers to help alleviate its hazardous output. The science behind cement and wh...

Innovators turn carbon dioxide and industrial waste into carbon-negative products

2019-06-26T15:38:00-04:00

Scientists from round the world are meeting in Germany to improve ways of making money from carbon dioxide. They want to transform some of the CO2 that’s overheating the planet into products to benefit humanity. They don’t claim the technology will solve climate change, but they say it will help. Carbon dioxide is already being used in novel ways to create fuels, polymers, fertilisers, proteins, foams and building blocks.

BBC environmental analyst, Roger Harrabin, details three novel ways to turn excess carbon dioxide into potentially profitable carbon-negative products: high-grade fertilizer from agricultural waste products; food-grade beverage carbonation and biogas from horse manure; and most interesting for the architecture and construction industry, building blocks made from the ash of a waste incinerator plant.

Blocks using the latter innovation by British firm Carbon8 Aggregates have already been used in the construction of the Renzo Piano-designed Shard tower in London, the tallest building in Western Europe.

Urban design practice ecoLogicStudio harvests photosynthetic microalgae to help de-carbonize our cities

2018-11-09T14:24:00-05:00

The London-based architectural practice ecoLogicStudio, which specializes in bio-digital design, has developed a large-scale installation which stores and filters CO2 to help fight global climate change. Their 'urban curtain'—dubbed Photo.Synth.Etica—was unveiled this week in Dublin during the 2018 Climate Innovation Summit, where it covered the main façade of the Printworks building at Dublin Castle.

Composed of 16, 2 x 7 meter modules made from a digitally designed and custom made bioplastic, the curtain acts as a photo-bioreactor, harvesting light and carbon dioxide to feed living micro-algal cultures.

Photo.Synth.Etica by ecoLogicStudio © NAARO

"For example, when the Printworks building emits CO2, this is captured by each of our facade’s photo-bioreactors and feeds the living algae cultures within them" explains ecoLogicStudio co-founder Marco Poletto. And "when the sun shines, its energy is captured by the algae cells within the photo-bioreactors that are designed to form an urb...

MIT's mass timber longhouse is more sustainable than concrete

2018-07-23T15:15:00-04:00

Changing the mindset behind short-term wooden constructions is MIT. A group of researchers at the university are leading an initiative to investigate new mass timber designs- wood-based buildings designed to be more efficient and cheaper than, yet just as durable as, concrete and steel buildings. The team proposes building mass timber longhouses - large wooden engineered houses built from massive pieces of timber.

Mass Timber Design, MIT's architecture workshop exploring sustainable building design at the intersection of architecture and technology, has developed a Longhouse prototype. Mass timber, a wood-based building design and construction technology, has continued to be explored for its sustainability over other materials such as concrete.

The Longhouse prototype by MIT's Mass Timber Design Workshop. Image: MIT.

A major environmental concern, concrete production accounts for about 5 percent of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions alone.

The Longhouse prototype by MIT's Mass Timber Design Workshop. Image: MIT.

The Longhouse draws on its historical background serving as a multi-functional building designed for shared communal space.

The Longhouse prototype by MIT's Mass Timber Design Workshop. Image: MIT.

The structure consists of a series of timber laminated veneer lumber (LVL) arches spanning across the building’s shorter dimension.

The Longhouse prototype by MIT's Mass Timber Design Wo...

How cement could make us miss our climate goals

2018-06-29T14:04:00-04:00

According to the CDP report, the cement industry is the second-largest industrial emitter of carbon after the steel industry. And when accounting for its use in human-made structures, it is responsible for more than a third of the world’s carbon emissions. But unlike the transportation sector, in which a new type of fuel can dramatically decrease the sector’s pollutants, cement’s problem is, well, cemented in its formulation [...]

In his longform piece for The Outline, Mike Disabato explains why the cement industry shows little interest in earnestly reducing the tremendous environmental impact of its (nearly) indispensable product.

"No one in the cement industry has seriously engaged in the herculean task of enhancing the material’s molecular chemistry, nor have they looked to use [Franz-Josef] Ulm’s alternative at scale, according to the professor," writes Disabato. "Why introduce a new product if everyone is already buying your old one?"

Arup, TEAM V to build world's tallest timber residential building in Amsterdam

2016-07-26T14:50:00-04:00

Arup announced on July 25 that they would partner with TEAM V Architecture, Lingotto, Nicole Maarsen, and Nederlandse Energie Maatschappij in the construction of a 73-meter-high residential tower. With 14,500 square meters of floor space in total, the tower, named HAUT, will house 55 apartments and an underground parking lot. Upon completion, HAUT will be the tallest timber tower in the world.

“Building in wood is one of the most talked about innovations in sustainable construction internationally, due to the large storage capacity of CO2,” Arup said. “Using wood provides an answer to the Municipality of Amsterdam’s quest for CO2 neutrality.”

Arup expects HAUT to store some three million kilograms of CO2. Equipped with photovoltaic panels, the build will produce its own energy. A rooftop wetland will filter waste water.

"The municipality of Amsterdam selected this team for their vision of the city of the future in which nature and architecture are balanced," stated Arup. "HAUT also sta...

Icelandic researchers turn CO2 into stone

2016-06-14T13:06:00-04:00

Scientists think they have found a smart way to constrain carbon dioxide emissions - just turn them to stone. The researchers report an experiment in Iceland where they have pumped CO2 and water underground into volcanic rock. Reactions with the minerals in the deep basalts convert the carbon dioxide to a stable, immobile chalky solid. Even more encouraging, the team writes in Science magazine, is the speed at which this process occurs: on the order of months.

It feels rare to hear good news from the climate front these days. Here's some more:

Upcycling CO2 into a concrete competitor

2016-03-21T17:45:00-04:00

[UCLA's team of interdisciplinary researchers'] plan would be to create a closed-loop process: capturing carbon from power plant smokestacks and using it to create a new building material — CO2NCRETE — that would be fabricated using 3D printers. [...] “We can demonstrate a process where we take lime and combine it with carbon dioxide to produce a cement-like material ... We’re trying to develop a process solution, an integrated technology which goes right from CO2 to a finished product."

Related on Archinect:

Could this revolutionary new material replace concrete?

2015-04-15T14:46:00-04:00

Perhaps the most important and widely-used building material, concrete also has an enormous environmental impact. This is largely because in order to produce one ton of cement – the material that binds together rock aggregate in concrete – about 900 kg of C02 are emitted. In fact, the concrete industry is responsible for roughly 5% of carbon emissions worldwide, making it one of the two largest industrial producers of the greenhouse gas.

But, thanks to an accidental discovery, a environmentally-friendly substitute to cement may be on the horizon. A recent report by PBS features the invention of environmental chemist David Stone: a cement-like material that isn't just carbon-neutral but actually carbon-negative. Called 'Ferrock,' the material primarily contains iron dust and silica, both of which can be sourced via recycling. In fact, in order to obtain silica (basically crushed glass), Stone has employed a local man to collect glass bottles that have been left in the desert. While m...

Recently-Discovered Underwater Methane Leaks Contribute to Global Warming

2014-08-26T18:30:00-04:00

Scientists have recently discovered deep deposits of a powerful warming gas leaking into the ocean from previously hidden vents just off North America's East Coast, kicking up underwater carbon dioxide levels [...] Most of the vents are located about 1,600 feet down, the perfect spot for the ocean's temperature and water pressure to combine and create an oozing mix of ice and methane gas, a powerful substance with an impact on global warming that's 20 times more damaging than that of [CO2].

Creating Energy from Noise Pollution

2013-03-26T01:10:00-04:00

Soundscrapers could soon turn urban noise pollution into usable energy to power cities. An honourable mention-winning entry in the 2013 eVolo Skyscraper Competition, dubbed Soundscraper, looked into ways to convert the ambient noise in urban centres into a renewable energy form. Noise pollution is currently a negative element of urban life but it could soon be valued and put to good use.