Aussie Start-up Develops Carbon Pollution In Concrete

An Australia-based startup has just touted their new concrete mixture that could be a valuable weapon in the fight to reduce carbon pollution.

According to SmartCompany, Kapture, a climate tech startup from Melbourne, has figured out how to sequester carbon dioxide pollution, one of the primary causes behind the overheating of the planet, within its concrete.

CEO Raj Bagri explained that the technology can be retrofitted onto existing diesel engines that power the mixing process and other aspects of concrete creation. The byproduct of those captured emissions can be used to replace Portland cement, one of the key ingredients of concrete, and another producer of planet-warming pollution.

The process uses a proprietary solvent that Bagri declined to name, which breaks down the carbon emissions — a process the company claims will offset between 0.7 and 1.2 tons of carbon dioxide pollution for every ton of solvent used, in addition to the carbon captured by the device itself.

"As a business, we're tackling emissions from true sources — diesel emissions — and we're reducing concrete emissions, and there's no green premium," Bagri said, "No one in the world has developed a product that can go into the concrete-making process with no green premium."

The production of concrete is a massive source of planet-warming carbon dioxide, accounting for 8 percent of global annual pollution, according to the report.

While Kapture's technology is unique, it's not the only company trying to use concrete as a pathway toward reducing carbon pollution. Scientists have also created concrete that uses hazardous waste products, taking it out of the atmosphere. Hempcrete, or concrete made with hemp as one of the primary ingredients, can also serve as a carbon sink. And researchers have been perfecting a type of concrete made from rice that can also reduce the process' carbon footprint.