Thursday 4 March 2021

Carbon-negative aggregates

Whilst Aggregate Industries clearly couldn’t care that any minerals quarried from Straitgate Farm would have high embodied carbon – not least because of the addition of a 46-mile round trip required to process each as-dug load before any onward distribution – some companies are working towards carbon-negative aggregates, aggregates made from CO2

Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation has selected O.C.O Technology to be part of its Green Concrete Consortium programme focusing on carbon-negative concrete and aggregate production. 

Stephen Roscoe, O.C.O’s Technical Director, said: 
Using carbon dioxide to transform unwanted waste materials into new carbon negative products is a perfect example of the circular economy in action. It reduces the need for natural aggregates and above all, it enables significant volumes of CO2 to be taken out of the atmosphere – something we all need to work towards to improve the future sustainability of our planet.
O.C.O was apparently the first company in the world to successfully commercialise the Accelerated Carbonation Technology process whereby "carbon dioxide is permanently captured as stable carbonate minerals… (manufactured limestone)". The company produces more than 350,000 tonnes of carbon-negative aggregate each year from its operations in Suffolk, Avonmouth and Leeds.