Use CO2 to cure concrete

Concrete is usually cured using water. However, a research group from SINTEF Materials and Chemistry has done a series of experiments (exCEP) in which they cured concrete with the help of CO2. The results show that the concrete is cured several hundred times as fast as with hydraulic curing, and that the concrete becomes stronger. A third advantage is that the technology is CO2-neutral because the gas that is liberated in the course of cement production is returned to the cement in the curing process.

“This is not a new technique,” says SINTEF’s Ove Paulsen, but what is strange is that, as far as we are aware, no one uses it. We believe that this technique could make an important contribution to reducing global CO2 emissions at the same time as it makes concrete product manufacture much more efficient.”