Climate solutions: Miami company producing concrete that removes CO2 from the atmosphere - KXAN.com
KXAN Weather: Climate solutions: Miami company develops concrete that absorbs CO2
MIAMI (KXAN) — A Miami-based company is trying to pave the way to net-zero carbon pollution by developing ‘green’ concrete that absorbs and captures CO2 pollution from the atmosphere.
“Our main and very big goal is to remove a billion tons of CO2 pollution with our technology,” Tim Sperry, CEO of Carbon Limit, said.
Sperry’s company developed a concrete additive that transforms regular concrete into a version that actively captures carbon dioxide pollution from the air. Carbon Limit claims their technology attracts CO2 to the concrete like a magnet, then solidifies the CO2 into the concrete itself. Sperry said that one mile of their concrete can remove the same amount of CO2 as thousands of trees each year. The company has won multiple sustainability awards for the technology.
While the company has been directly involved in getting their product into a U.S. Department of Transportation paving project and also at a large technology company, Sperry said their main customers are cement and concrete manufacturers who pay for a license to use the carbon capture technology then sell directly to their customers.
“There is a little bit of a ‘green premium’,” Sperry said of the product’s cost, but carbon credits generated can offset some of that cost.
The University of California Los Angeles Institute of the Environment and Sustainability said that carbon sequestration projects are an integral part of keeping global temperature rise below the Paris Climate Agreement goal of 2 degrees Celsius.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”