Accelerated Carbonation Technologies for Construction and Building Materials

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Materials, and Repair & Renovation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2023) | Viewed by 4007

Special Issue Editors

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon TU428, Hong Kong
Interests: civil engineering; UHPC; concrete; cement; building materials; carbonation; recycled aggregate
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon 999077, Hong Kong
Interests: civil engineering; concrete; cement; recycled aggregate; alkali activation
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon 999077, Hong Kong
Interests: sustainable concrete materials and technology; 3D printing of sustainable concrete
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
Interests: civil engineering; concrete; cement; carbonation curing; self-consolidating concrete; C-S-H; life cycle assessment

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Our world is facing critical environmental challenges due to the extensive release of CO2, and the production and use of concrete contribute a significant portion of these carbon emissions. Meanwhile, the annual production of concrete consumes 4–6 billion tonnes of cement and generates 8% of global CO2 emissions, making construction a carbon-intensive industry. Carbon is mainly produced from the combustion of fossil fuels, and these will remain dominant energy sources for the foreseeable future. To mitigate global warming and the associated environmental changes, reducing the CO2 released by construction and building materials has attracted significant interest.

This Special Issue aims to discuss the new advanced accelerated carbonation technologies to reduce the carbon footprint of construction and building materials, which also have good performance. Areas to be covered in this Research Topic may include, but are not limited to:

  • Low-carbon concrete.
  • Carbon curing.
  • Low-carbon cement.
  • Carbonation mineralization materials.
  • Carbonation of recycled wastes (recycled concrete, IBA, steel slag, etc.).
  • Biological carbonation mineralization.
  • Life cycle assessment (LCA).
  • Theory and simulations on carbonation technologies.
  • Other accelerated carbonation technologies.

Dr. Peiliang Shen
Dr. Dongxing Xuan
Dr. Shipeng Zhang
Dr. Rahil Khoshnazar
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • carbon
  • carbonation curing
  • cementitious materials
  • low-carbon cement
  • low-carbon concrete
  • life cycle assessment (LCA)
  • CO2 sequestration
  • calcium carbonate
  • value-added products
  • mineralization

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 3298 KiB  
Article
Microstructural Evolution of Calcium Sulfoaluminate Cement during the Wet-Carbonation Process
by Yangyang Zhang, Hang Yang, Qunli Zhang, Quan Qian, Chengwei Zhang, Kai Wu and Peiliang Shen
Buildings 2024, 14(2), 343; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14020343 - 26 Jan 2024
Viewed by 658
Abstract
Calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) cement, as a type of low-carbon cement, can contribute to further reduction in carbon emissions with carbonation technologies. However, the detailed microstructure development of CSA cement during the carbonation process has been rarely analyzed. In this paper, wet carbonation was [...] Read more.
Calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) cement, as a type of low-carbon cement, can contribute to further reduction in carbon emissions with carbonation technologies. However, the detailed microstructure development of CSA cement during the carbonation process has been rarely analyzed. In this paper, wet carbonation was applied to CSA cement to investigate the microstructure evolution of carbonation products and carbon absorption capacity of CSA cement by means of pH measurement, X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement, thermogravimetric (TG) measurement, Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) measurement and scanning electron microscope measurement. During the carbonation process, the formed ettringite product and the dicalcium silicate clinker were carbonated immediately to generate calcium carbonate crystals, silica gel and aluminum hydroxide (AH3) gel. With the trend of pH increasing first and notably decreasing later, the coupling interaction between the hydration and carbonation reactions of CSA cement was revealed. From the XRD and TG results, three types of calcium carbonate crystal forms (calcite, vaterite and aragonite) were detected, and the content of calcium carbonate increased with the increase in carbonation time. FT-IR analysis further confirmed the existence of calcium carbonate, silica gel and AH3 gel with their characteristic vibrations. Moreover, the microstructure of carbonation products with different morphologies was observed. The application of wet carbonation to CSA cement provides a more comprehensive insight to the carbonation mechanism of this low-carbon cement. Full article
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17 pages, 5781 KiB  
Article
Synthesis of Aragonite Whiskers by Co-Carbonation of Waste Magnesia Slag and Magnesium Sulfate: Enhancing Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Portland Cement Paste
by Junhao Ye, Songhui Liu, Jingrui Fang, Haibo Zhang, Jianping Zhu and Xuemao Guan
Buildings 2023, 13(11), 2888; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13112888 - 19 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1051
Abstract
This study focused on the synthesis of aragonite whiskers through a synergistic wet carbonation technology utilizing waste magnesia slag (MS) and magnesium sulfate (MgSO4), aiming to improve the microstructure and mechanical properties of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) paste. The influence of [...] Read more.
This study focused on the synthesis of aragonite whiskers through a synergistic wet carbonation technology utilizing waste magnesia slag (MS) and magnesium sulfate (MgSO4), aiming to improve the microstructure and mechanical properties of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) paste. The influence of MgSO4 concentration on the wet carbonation process, phase composition, and microstructure of MS was investigated. Furthermore, the effect of incorporating carbonated MS (C-MS) on the mechanical properties and microstructure of Portland cement paste was evaluated. Results showed that appropriate MgSO4 concentrations favored aragonite whisker formation. A concentration of 0.075 M MgSO4 yielded 86.6% aragonite with high aspect ratio nanofibers. Incorporating 5% of this C-MS into OPC increased the seven-day compressive strength by 37.5% compared to the control OPC paste. The improvement was attributed to accelerated hydration and reduced porosity by the filling effect and microfiber reinforcement of aragonite whiskers. MS demonstrated good CO2 sequestration capacity during carbonation. This study provides an effective method to synthesize aragonite whiskers from waste MS and use it to enhance cementitious materials while reducing CO2 emissions, which is valuable for the development of a sustainable cement industry. Full article
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Review

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14 pages, 2890 KiB  
Review
Carbonation of Aggregates from Construction and Demolition Waste Applied to Concrete: A Review
by Henrique Comba Gomes, Elvys Dias Reis, Rogério Cabral de Azevedo, Conrado de Souza Rodrigues and Flávia Spitale Jacques Poggiali
Buildings 2023, 13(4), 1097; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13041097 - 21 Apr 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1828
Abstract
The construction industry is essential to the development and economy, but is also the largest generator of construction and demolition waste (CDW). While efforts are made to minimize such generation, the construction industry has been developing applications for it in the form of [...] Read more.
The construction industry is essential to the development and economy, but is also the largest generator of construction and demolition waste (CDW). While efforts are made to minimize such generation, the construction industry has been developing applications for it in the form of aggregates to replace the commonly used natural aggregates. However, in structural applications, it is necessary to ensure that the properties of concrete produced with CDW, as recycled aggregates (CDW-concrete), guarantee adequate performance and do not put the structure at risk. For this, one of the alternatives is improving the properties of CDW aggregates through carbonation, a process called carbonate curing or accelerated carbonation. In this sense, this paper aims to investigate the carbonation of CDW aggregates, clarifying how this process occurs, the existing carbonation methods, the main properties that affect this process, and their influence on the properties of recycled aggregates and the CDW-concrete. To this end, the SREE (systematic review for engineering and experiments) method was used to search and analyze scientific manuscripts published without a time limit. The results revealed that the most widely used method for carbonate curing is recommended by Chinese standard GB50082, and highlighted the need for further research to investigate the CDW-concrete, focusing on its eco-friendly potential to capture CO2 from the atmosphere. Full article
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