CarbonCure Technologies, a clean technology innovation hub in Halifax, allows producers to recycle waste carbon dioxide (CO₂) during production to make more environmentally friendly concrete.

Here’s how it works: carbon dioxide is captured from the emissions of local industrial polluters by gas suppliers across the country. Using CarbonCure’s technology, this purified and liquified CO₂ is injected into wet concrete while it’s being mixed where it’s chemically converted into a solid mineral and permanently captured within the concrete. The technology is integrated with the producer’s batching system and has no impact on normal operations, which means that CarbonCure’s customers can continue to supply the same high quality concrete products – only now they’re greener.

Brad Vickers (BEng’13), Director of Engineering at CarbonCure Technologies, is pictured working on Carbon Cure’s Human Machine Interface (HMI) which is the customer control unit where amounts of CO₂ can be monitored and controlled as it is injected into the concrete.

Canada’s Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna visited CarbonCure in April.

Impressed with the technology I saw at @CarbonCure! They are using carbon emissions to create stronger concrete. pic.twitter.com/yWJnFqgcVA

— Minister C. McKenna (@ec_minister) April 28, 2017

When CO₂ is introduced to concrete, it converts to a mineral and will never escape back into our atmosphere because it no longer exists. Thanks to technology innovators like CarbonCure, CO₂ can now be used to make better products. The company has enjoyed immense growth this past year, more than doubling its customer base to more than 50 plants. Even U.S. President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord isn’t a huge concern to CarbonCure as the company says climate action is expected to continue in the private sector and other levels of government.

Read more in “Carbon Cure takes advantage of green building trend” and “CarbonCure amping up for global stage” on thechronicleherald.ca.

Image: The Chronicle Herald