Direct air capture concrete produced in Germany

Germany-based company NeoCarbon has successfully produced industrial grade concrete that contains CO2 sourced using direct air capture (DAC) technology.

About 0.04% of the atmosphere is carbon, To remove carbon requires large capture plants and very high heat, which of course takes a lot of energy to produce. The drawback of existing carbon capture plants is the high cost of the energy they use. NeoCarbon bypasses this energy requirement by utilising waste heat from cooling towers which is sent to curing chambers where carbon molecules from the air are extracted and bound with concrete.

Using waste heat from existing infrastructure, carbon is permanently stored in concrete in a fast and economical process. The technology can be fitted to capture waste heat from different industrial processes without interfering with their operation. By operating on existing sites, no large-scale plants need to be constructed.

The first batch of DAC concrete is a proof of concept. NeoCarbon, in partnership with Carbonaide, hopes to scale the process to mass produce concrete and aid the carbon dioxide removal industry. This DAC concrete can be used for concrete flooring and other construction uses.

Carbon dioxide is linked to climate change. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has a target of removing 6 billion tons of CO2 annually from the atmosphere by the year 2050 in order to limit climate change disasters. The NeoCarbon technology could potentially help achieve this by storing captured carbon in one of the most commonly used construction materials, concrete.