One of the big contributors to climate change is right beneath your feet, and transforming it could be a powerful solution for keeping greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere.
This is what U-M ME professor, Volker Sick explains in his recent article in the Washington Post entitled, “Bendable concrete, other CO2-infused cement mixes could dramatically cut global emissions.”
At the University of Michigan, we are working on composites that produce a bendable concrete material that allows thinner, less brittle structures that require less steel reinforcement, further reducing related carbon emissions. The material can be engineered to maximize the amount of CO2 it can store by using smaller particles that readily react with CO2, turning it to mineral.
Advanced concrete mixes, bendable concrete in particular, already begin to address performance and efficiency issues by increasing durability.