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Use of Carbon Dioxide for Sustainable and Resilient Concrete Pavements

Project Details
STATUS

In-Progress

START DATE

05/03/22

END DATE

01/31/26

FOCUS AREAS

Infrastructure

RESEARCH CENTERS InTrans, CP Tech Center, PROSPER
SPONSORS

Minnesota Department of Transportation
National Road Research Alliance (NRRA) Transportation Pooled Fund

Researchers
Principal Investigator
Peter Taylor

Director, CP Tech Center

Co-Principal Investigator
Halil Ceylan

Director, PROSPER

About the research

It is becoming increasingly apparent that it is necessary to explore alternative options for cement and concrete production used in public infrastructure to reduce carbon footprint. One possible process is to bubble CO2 in the fresh concrete during production to sequester CO2 and possibly to reduce cement content in the concrete without compromising system performance. Concrete with reduced cement content will exhibit reduced shrinkage reducing the risk of early age cracking. Other CO2 sequestration techniques such as dissolving it in batch water and manufacturing CO2enhanced aggregates also need to be assessed.

Confirming these benefits would be a breakthrough in simultaneously reducing the CO2 footprint while enhancing concrete performance.

Two questions are therefore raised – how much CO2 is sequestered, and what are the effects on the performance of the pavement? The goal of this research is to address these questions through testing, measurements, and the observation of concrete made with CarbonCure technology. The work will also include an assessment of the reduction of the CO2 footprint compared to control mixtures based on determining the amount of CO2 bound in the mixture as well as potential changes in maintenance needs of the pavement over the life of the pavement under traffic and environmental exposure.

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