Net Zero Masonry with Carbon Core Technology
The empty pore spaces in typical clay brick are filled over time with solid limestone when made as Carbon Core resulting in 3X the compressive strength & freeze thaw resistance. Limestone formations are shown microscopically (right) after 2 months of "weathering" in the Colorado climate.
Mineralizing
Carbon
Clay products, such as architectural bricks, pavers, and roof tiles, are a promising high-surface-area solution for carbon mineralization. ​It takes about 550g of CO2 to manufacture a single 2,000g brick. Carbon Core technology adds CO2 eating materials to the standard brick making process.
Over time, the minerals react with CO2 in the air, converting them into limestone within the pores of the bricks, much like self-healing concrete. The carbon reduction potential is significant, as approximately 4 billion bricks are manufactured in the U.S. every year. Globally, that number increases to more than 1 trillion bricks per year.​
One Brick at a time...
The global brick industry produces ~0.5 Gigatons of CO2 per year
Each brick with olivine can sequester more than 600g of CO2, making it a net negative building material with a - 200 GWP. Incorporating carbon sequestering minerals into bricks has the potential to sequester nearly 1 Gigaton of CO2 each year. 1 Gigaton is a massive unit of measurement equal to 1 billion metric tons (1,000,000,000 tonnes), or the mass of 185 - 250 million elephants.
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Clay product industries can easily and immediately manufacture net zero and net negative building materials with no capital expenditure. With the implementation of Carbon Core Technology, the ceramics community will be well positioned to make a large contribution in the global push toward net-zero and net-negative materials.
Embodied Carbon (GWP)
Concrete vs. Clay Brick vs. Carbon Core
(No Olivine to ~40wt% Olivine, yielding a -200 kg CO2e/m3 masonry product). Olivine content can vary according to a project's individual carbon offset goals: Net Zero to Net Negative
Why Olivine?
"Olivine" in mineral form
"Peridot" in gem form
The first CO2 eating minerals we incorporated into the bricks is olivine, a naturally occurring mineral that is widely available near volcanoes. Olivine melts at 1,890°C, so it can be directly incorporated into most clay product manufacturing where the maximum temperature is around 1200°C.
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We found that the olivine addition did not affect the manufacturing process. In fact, the olivine sand aided the drying process as little to no defects were observed in either dry or green states.
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In addition, because olivine does not absorb water or undergo vitrification during firing, the bricks and pavers containing olivine had slightly less shrinkage.
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