Carbon Negative Cement: Pioneering the Use of Alternative Materials and Waste for Sustainable Circular Construction
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Chemical Engineering and Technology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2025 | Viewed by 97
Special Issue Editors
Interests: integrated CO2 capture and conversion; electrochemical conversion of N2 to nitrates and ammonia; decarbonization of cement manufacturing; efficient computational methods of studying crystal growth and nucleation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Concrete is the most widely used construction material globally, playing a crucial role in nearly every modern building and infrastructure project. Despite its utility, concrete production has a significant environmental impact, particularly due to the cement that it contains. Cement production is responsible for approximately 9% of global CO2 emissions. Given this substantial environmental cost, there is increasing interest in developing sustainable alternatives to traditional concrete, including carbon-negative concrete.
Carbon-negative concrete has the potential to offset more CO2 emissions than it generates, making it a powerful tool in combating climate change. This can be achieved through the use of sustainable energy sources, efficient carbon capture technology, and sequestration. Many carbon-negative concretes incorporate carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies into their manufacturing process. CCUS involves capturing CO2 emissions from industrial sources, such as power plants or cement kilns, or direct air capture. Captured CO2 is used as feedstock in concrete production. By incorporating CO2 into the concrete mixture, carbon-negative concrete effectively traps and stores CO2, preventing its release into the atmosphere.
However, CCUS is controversial due to the high energy consumption involved in capturing, transporting, and storing carbon. In many cases, the CO2 produced by the CCUS process can offset the CO2 saved, negating the benefits. This Special Issue aims to provide a platform for sharing and discussing novel ideas, technologies, and research findings to promote interdisciplinary research toward the development of carbon-negative concrete and efficient carbon capture techniques. The goal is to innovate and create concrete that is not only carbon-neutral but carbon-negative. Achieving this goal involves promoting the conversion of waste into construction resources or energy, supporting a circular construction economy.
The topics to be covered in this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, concrete from industrial mineral waste (i.e., fly ash, mining and tailing waste, blast furnace slag, etc.), biochar applications in construction, waste glass as a construction material, geopolymers, contaminant leaching, recycled concrete aggregate utilization, life-cycle assessments, and techno-economic analysis.
Dr. Meenesh R. Singh
Dr. Vamsi Vikram Gande
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- circular construction
- carbon neutrality
- alternative construction materials
- supplementary cementitious materials
- geopolymers
- carbon capture
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