Use of Carbon Dioxide for Sustainable and Resilient Concrete Pavements

Status: Active

Objectives

Concrete is the most widely used man-made material in existence. It is second only to water as the most-consumed resource on the planet. In 2016, world cement production generated around 2.2 billion tons of CO2. More than half of that emissions associated with cement manufacturing arise from the calcination process. Together with thermal combustion, 90% of the sector's emissions could be attributed to the production of clinker. It is therefore necessary to explore alternative options for cement and concrete production used in public infrastructure to achieve decarbonization goals. One sustainable process is to sequester CO2 (2) (3) through concrete production to reduce cement content in the concrete without compromising resiliency and durability. Concrete with low cement content will exhibit reduced shrinkage and one that eliminates oxychlorides will definitely be resilient.

This research will examine through testing, measurements and observation, the performance of concrete made with the CarbonCure CO2 mineralization technology. It will generally entail an evaluation of the sustainability of mineralized concrete when the concrete is used for pavement purposes by collecting information on paved road applications.

Pursuant to these objectives this research will include the following:

Constructing test sections of paved concrete at the MnDOT testing facility.
Testing additional sustainable CO2 utilization technologies under development and deployment. A CO2-beneficiated reclaimed concrete water technology developed by CarbonCure and CO2 mineralized recycled concrete aggregate would offer additional sustainable alternatives for potable mix water and virgin aggregate.
Performance of paved sections will be assessed against standard concrete durability parameters and other parameters of interest to NRRA.

Tasks

Task 1: Literature research

The team will provide a synthesis of the use of carbon dioxide in concrete cataloguing reported research and deployment. The review will include technologies that add CO2 to mixtures and/or their ingredients and discuss their influence on concrete performance as well as enumerate the amount of CO2 that is bound into the mixture. The review will also discuss methods that can be used to measure the amount of bound CO2. Recommendations will be made regarding proposed sequestration evaluation technology.

Deliverable:Report and presentation to the TAP
Date due: June 30, 2022

Task 2: Laboratory testing analysis and sequestration stoichiometry

The team will compile construction testing results reported by others from another contract. Work will also be conducted to measure the amount of CO2 sequestered in the test mixtures. Tools may include x-ray fluorescence (XRF), x-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The data will be used to assess the reduction in carbon footprint in the test sections as compared to the control sections. Low temperature scanning differential calorimetry will also be conducted on core samples to assess the sensitivity of the test and control mixtures to oxychloride based joint deterioration.

Deliverable:Report and presentation to the TAP
Date due: September 30, 2022

Task 3: Constructability evaluation description

Noting that MnDOT will be developing a construction report, the team will
plan to be at the construction site to observe the process and gather feedback from the contractor and to collect samples for testing. Based on this information the team will review the feasibility of constructing concrete mixtures containing sequestered CO2 when compared to the control sections. The evaluation will look at material handling issues, costs, changes to operations, safety implications and changes to batching, transporting, placing and finishing the pavements.

Deliverable: Report and presentation to the TAP
Date due: March 31, 2023

Task 4: Annual Interim Update 2nd Year

The team will work with MnDOT to collect performance data one year after
construction and prepare a report of the findings. Data will be obtained from embedded sensors and from surface evaluations using tools such as visual inspection / imaging, MIRA, falling weight deflection (FWD), International roughness index (IRI), and MnROAD “load test” response method. The data collected will be compared with that from the control sections.

Deliverable: Report and presentation to the TAP
Date due: June 30, 2023

Task 5: Annual Interim Update 3rd Year

The team will work with MnDOT to collect performance data two years after
construction and prepare a report of the findings. Data will be obtained from embedded sensors and from surface evaluations using tools such as visual inspection / imaging, MIRA, FWD, IRI, and MnROAD “load test” response method. The data collected will be compared with that from the control sections and previous years.

Deliverable: Report and presentation to the TAP
Date due: June 30, 2024

Task 6: Sustainability and resiliency comparison

Noting that sustainability and resiliency will be evaluated under a separate
contract, the team will use the reported data to compile a review of the changes to sustainability and potential resiliency of the test sections in comparison to the control sections. Methods will likely include review of Environmental product declaration (EPD)s, Life cycle analysis (LCA) analysis and lifetime predictions based on the data collected to date.

Deliverable: Report and presentation to the TAP
Date due: March 31, 2025

Task 7: Draft Final Report

A final report that is a standalone product will be prepared that describes the work conducted, methods used, results obtained and lessons learned as well as inferences and recommendations for future implementation of carbon sequestration systems. A tech brief to aid in implementation will also be prepared.

Deliverable: Draft report
Date due: September 30, 2025

Task 8: Editorial review and publication of final report

Following TAP review, the team will work with the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center (CP Tech Center)’s publications team and the MnDOT appointed editor to ensure coherence of text, adherence to style as well as Americans with Disabilities (ADA) requirements, to deliver a final report for publication.

Deliverable: A final publishable report
Date due: December 31, 2025

Project team

Email the Project Team
Principal Investigator: Peter Taylor, Ph.D., Professor and Director, CP Tech Center at Iowa State University, ptaylor@iastate.edu
Co-PI: Halil Ceylan, Ph.D., Professor, CP Tech Center at Iowa State University, hceylan@iastate.edu
Technical Liaison: Bernard Izevbekhai, MnDOT, bernard.izevbekhai@state.mn.us
Project Technical Advisory Panel (TAP): Contact us to join this TAP

Dan Gancarz, Illinois Tollway
Alf Gardiner, Braun Intertec
Bernard Izevbekhai, Minnesota DOT (TL)
Lieska Halsey, Nebraska DOT
Jeffrey Meek, Minnesota DOT, Office of Sustainability
Somayeh Nassiri, Washington State University
Joseph Podolsky, Minnesota DOT
Sadati SeyedHamed, CalTrans
Xijun Shi, Texas State University
Jake Sumeraj, Illinois Tollway

Related materials

Initial Project proposal (doc), 4/21/2021