Concrete might seem like an unlikely hero in the fight against harmful carbon pollution, but thanks to one engineer's groundbreaking work, it could be a major player in building a cleaner future.
Mehdi Khanzadeh, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, developed a promising new method for creating carbonatable concrete — a material that not only emits less pollution during production but also absorbs carbon dioxide from the air as it cures.
This is a big deal because traditional concrete is responsible for roughly 8% of the world's CO₂ emissions. If the cement industry were a country, it would be the fourth-largest polluter, behind China, the U.S., and India.
Khanzadeh's research, published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, tackles a key limitation of carbonatable concrete: strength. Until now, this greener material has been mostly limited to non-load-bearing products such as cinder blocks and pavers because it lacked the durability of traditional concrete.
But Khanzadeh's new process — called internal-external CO₂ curing — changes that. It allows CO₂ to be absorbed deeper into the concrete, resulting in up to 100% better mechanical and durability performance. That means carbonatable concrete could soon be strong enough for beams, columns, and other structural elements in buildings and infrastructure projects.
"We're hoping that by using this process we can move from only using carbonatable concrete for blocks and pavers to instead using the material for large-scale beams and columns," Khanzadeh said in a statement.
This innovation didn't happen overnight. Khanzadeh has been developing the process since 2021, scaling up from lab tests using pastes and mortars to full-scale materials that can withstand real-world demands. And throughout it all, he's kept accessibility and scalability front and center.
"I try to keep in mind, even if this is successful, is it going to be applicable?" Khanzadeh said. "Is this material going to be scalable? This is especially important for something like concrete. We use it so much, so it needs to be accessible everywhere."
If widely adopted, this technology could drastically reduce the environmental impact of one of the most common materials on the planet while keeping buildings just as sturdy and safe. Since carbonatable concrete absorbs CO₂ during the curing process, it has the potential to help remove harmful air pollution rather than add to it, flipping the script on how we think about building materials.
And because this is projected to use the kind of cement that requires less energy to produce, it reduces pollution not just during use but from the moment it's made. This could play a big role in curbing emissions from the construction industry — one of the world's top polluters — while opening the door to more sustainable infrastructure in cities across the globe.
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Definitely 🙁 Khanzadeh's method is still in the early testing phase, but if durability tests pan out, we could see this innovation hit the construction market in the coming years, helping lay the foundation for a stronger, greener future.
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