Carbon capture a solution to reducing harmful emissions and securing carbon dioxide supplies?

Innovative carbon-capture technology can secure the supply of carbon dioxide and accelerate the UK concrete industry’s reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Following the Paris Agreement and subsequent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2018, carbon removal from the atmosphere, through nature-based solutions such as afforestation, and engineered solutions such as biochar and bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS), is now high on the agenda in order to help achieve net-zero targets by 2050. It is well-recognised that the deployment of BECCS and carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) in general will play a key role in off-setting residual emissions from hard-to-decarbonise sectors such as construction, which is, of course, heavily reliant on cement and concrete.

In this article, published in the October 2022 issue of Concrete Ricardo's Dr Naser Odeh discusses the company's recent funding award of received £3 million from the UK Government to design, install and operate a biomass combined heat and power (CHP) demonstrator plant with a carbon-negative footprint, which will showcase emission-busting technology. The plant will demonstrate the effectiveness of community-scale greenhouse gas removal (GGR) and storage, and clean energy using sustainably sourced forestry waste. It is this captured carbon dioxide that can be used to accelerate cement hydration and as a consequence be bound in concrete long-term.