| Project Detail |
A carbon-neutral future for concrete
The construction industry is a significant contributor to global carbon emissions, with traditional concrete production alone responsible for a substantial environmental footprint. Conventional methods rely heavily on cement, a material notorious for its high CO2 emissions during manufacturing. Also, the durability of these structures often depends on steel reinforcement, which can corrode over time, further exacerbating environmental impact. In response to these challenges, the EIC-funded CARBCOMN project aims to revolutionise the sector by developing zero-carbon concrete load-bearing structures. This reduces CO2 emissions. It also enhances durability and circularity through advanced digital design and novel material technologies. CARBCOMN promises to set new standards in sustainable building practices, empowering architects and engineers to create inspiring, environmentally responsible structures.
CARBCOMN addresses a disruptive innovation in zero-carbon concrete load-bearing structures (combination of columns, beams, slabs or walls) by setting forth a new digital AEC design paradigm that is fully compatible with concrete that uses CO2 as raw material and is carbon-negative. Digital methodologies are exploited and developed to realise an innovative carbon-neutral construction system implementing structural geometries that are compression dominant, optimise the CO2 sequestration capability and make use of demountable discrete blocks combined with system redundancy. The latter will be assisted by the combined use of funicular shapes and post-tensioning with shape memory alloys. To handle the complex geometries in combination with a carbon-negative concrete-like material, an innovative digital pipeline is developed that incorporates for example computed tomography, topology optimization and 3D construction. Using CO2 sequestration to harden the concrete-like material for widely used load bearing structures will reduce embodied greenhouse gas emissions in an unprecedented way. The material design, incorporating recycled materials and by-products derived from other industrial processes (e.g. slags and ashes) will equally reduce raw material usage. The intrinsic durability properties by introducing a system that is not susceptible to rebar corrosion and is deconstructable, will achieve both long service life and circularity, to further reduce the environmental impact of the built environment. The overall superiority of the proposed system with respect to the current state of practice will be demonstrated through a full life cycle analysis. Throughout the CARBCOMN project, compliance with relevant standards of building operational performance will be established, and designers, architects, engineers will be enabled to use the novel design paradigm for inspiring buildings. |
