Walls absorb CO₂ and become stronger, — startup creates new bricks

The British startup earth4Earth (e4E), which specializes in the production of eco-materials, has created a brick that can effectively to capture and store CO₂.

Thanks to the technology of direct air capture, this brick is able to to remove CO₂ and turn buildings into carbon sinks. The first batch of bricks is ready for use in the UK and is currently being used in a number of pilot projects.

The bricks are made from excavated soil that would otherwise have been dumped in a landfill. The process of creating the binders produces a large amount of CO₂, but e4E has developed a unique technology that reduces the volume of these emissions.

«Like most traditional binders, ours is lime-based. Lime is usually produced by heating limestone at around 1000 °C. Traditional production is accompanied by CO₂ emissions, both from the decomposition of the raw materials and from the burning of fossil fuels required to reach the high temperatures required. We have developed a unique lime production process that can be carried out at room temperature. All the carbon generated during the production of the binder is also permanently stored in solid form, rather than being released into the atmosphere», — explains earth4Earth co-founder, Prof Theodore Heine.

The binder used in the manufacture of bricks captures and retains atmospheric CO₂ through a carbonization reaction. In addition, carbon sequestration further improves the properties of the materials.

e4E has developed a line of products to meet different needs For example, N10, N20 and N30 bricks contain 10%, 20% and 30% E4E binder. The level of carbon sequestration increases with this content.

«In the future, we plan to develop other types of bricks and materials using e4E binder. We want to offer practical solutions for the decarbonization of the construction industry and are confident that high-quality materials with a range of environmental characteristics will allow us to do so», — says the director and co-founder of e4E Lei Zhang.

Source: Interesting Engineering