Demolished buildings offer new home for CO2 emissions

A staggering 30 billion tonnes of concrete are used every year worldwide – and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions are equally colossal: more than those of international aviation and buildings combined. A Swiss company believes it has a solution to help the concrete industry decarbonise and permanently remove one million tonnes of CO2 by 2030. This may be a fraction of what is needed, but it’s an important step. Check out our selection of newsletters. Subscribe here. The Swiss firm Neustark has developed a method to turn concrete waste from demolished buildings and roads into a carbon sink to permanently remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Their process uses CO2 captured from biogas plants which is liquefied and transported to nearby demolition sites. There the CO2 is injected into concrete granules from a demolished building using a purpose-built tank and other technology. This triggers a mineralisation process similar to injecting CO2 deep underground. The CO2 is permanently bound ...