FMRG: Eco: Carbon-Inverted Manufacturing of Inverted Cements (CIMIC)

Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) is by far the world’s most widely used manufactured material and is central to sustainable built environments, yet its manufacturing demands high energy, emits a large amount of CO2, and overconsumes natural resources, and hence is not eco-friendly. This multidisciplinary Future EcoManufacturing research grant seeks to create future eco-friendly manufacturing of next-generation greener cements by simultaneously utilizing the CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions from OPC manufacturing and innovatively upcycling the wastes generated from mining and refining industries as feedstocks.

The approach is inspired by and further engineers two geological processes, namely: (1) subaerial exothermic rock weathering for carbon mineralization, and (2) subsurface diagenetic alteration of mineral deposits under low-temperature, hydrothermal conditions to form rocks at a massive scale. The targeted product is a new class of silicate-cemented carbonates (iCem) to be manufactured for the first time by transforming Ca/Mg-leached polymeric silicates from waste feedstocks as cementing agents, promoted by silanization to prevent their folding and aggregation, to bond the precipitated carbonates that permanently store gaseous CO2 in solid minerals as value-added products.

This project is designed not only to generate the fundamental science on the polymeric silicate-cemented iCem and develop knowledge on future manufacturing of iCem, but also to tackle multiple pressing global challenges, including CO2 emission, climate change, and industrial waste upcycling. The project aims to contribute to advancing sustainability, environmental protection, and circular economy, thereby generating significant impacts on the environment and human society at multiple scales and dimensions.

The project aims to have a transformative impact on traditional OPC manufacturing and mining/refining processes. It intends to create: (1) a new manufacturing pathway for next-generation, eco-friendly cementitious materials (iCem) that simultaneously maximizes carbonation and improves iCem’s properties; (2) new science through which polymeric silicate structures are preserved by silanization as cementing and scaffolding constituents to strengthen iCem; (3) innovative multifunctional use of amine silanes to enhance CO2 adsorption and carbonation, bridge different silicate structures, and regulate nano-sized carbonate precipitation; (4) novel combination of carbonation and cold sintering to create eco-friendly manufacturing processes; and (5) eco-friendly technologies for upcycling mine wastes towards a more circular economy, addressing pressing techno-socio-economic challenges of the massive mine wastes anticipated from worldwide adoption of electric vehicles.

Concurrent education, workforce development, and outreach activities aligned and accompanied with the research plan are jointly conducted among five collaborating academic institutions (with two from EPSCoR states, one being an HBCU/MSI), to train a diverse, next-generation workforce with multidisciplinary skills in future manufacturing of sustainable cementitious materials (a field that critically needs new workforce), through research training and mentoring, curricula development, short courses and workshops, and various outreach activities at local community colleges, vocational, middle, and high schools.

This Future Manufacturing award is supported by the Divisions of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET) and Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI).

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.