CO₂Sequestration in Concrete through Accelerated Carbonation Curing in a Flow-through Reactor

CO2 accelerated concrete curing has been recently suggested as a carbon dioxide mitigation technology in which CO2 is reacted with cement and stored as a thermodynamically stable carbonate in concrete construction products. In this research, the rate and extent of CO2 uptake by concrete is assessed in a flow-through reactor. Carbonation efficiencies of 16−20% attained in a flow-through reactor was comparable to those obtained for static CO2 pressure chambers employed in previous studies for accelerated concrete curing. However, significantly less energy is required in a flow-through reactor compared to a CO2 pressure chamber. Intermittent carbonation experiments showed that the carbonation efficiency was limited in part by slow dissolution and/or diffusion of dissolved reactive components in the concrete matrix.