The production of infrastructure materials and their accumulation in the built environment has a significant impact on our carbon footprint and demand for natural resources and energy. In the United States, the production of building materials accounts for nearly 13% of the nation?s energy demand and 38% of its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Recent studies suggest that biomass ash, from energy production, is a promising building block for new construction materials that could capture and store CO2 in the built-environment. With support from the Environmental Engineering Program in the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET) and the NSF 2026 Fund Program in the Office of Integrated Activities, Professors Miller, Jenkins, and Kendall at University of California-Davis propose to carry out an integrated research program organized around three complementary objectives. Objective 1 will evaluate the properties of biogenic ashes that affect their ability to capture and store CO2. Objective 2 will investigate the carbonation of the biogenic ashes and quantify their CO2 sequestration potential. Objective 3 will quantify the use of carbonated biogenic ashes in infrastructure materials for long-term CO2 capture and storage. The goal of this high-risk and high-reward exploratory research project are to 1) explore the utilization of biogenic ashes produced from the pyrolysis of crop residues as CO2 sorbents and 2) evaluate their incorporation into infrastructure materials including biogenic fillers in cement-based materials and thermoplastic composites. The successful completion of this project will benefit society through the generation of new knowledge to advance the development of next-generation carbon negative buildings. Further benefits to society will be achieved through student education and training, and public outreach including the mentoring of two female doctoral students.
CO2 capture and storage in buildings is a promising technology for the mitigation of global climate change. The composition and alkaline nature of biogenic ashes suggest that they could capture CO2 through carbonation, leading to the formation of carbonate minerals. The goal of this high-risk and high-reward project is to explore how biomass ashes from agricultural wastes can be engineered to 1) serve as CO2 sinks and 2) enable their incorporation into infrastructure materials for long-term carbon storage in the built-environment. To achieve this goal, the PIs propose to carry out an integrated experimental and modeling research program structured around three objectives. First, the PIs will explore the use of pyrolysis to synthesize carbonated ashes using hulls, wheat straw and sugarcane bagasse as precursors. The relevant physicochemical properties of these new materials will be characterized using a suite of assays (e.g. acid hydrolysis) and tools [e.g. scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)] to assess their carbonation potential. Second, the PIs will measure the CO2 sorption capacity of the carbonated ashes by exposing them to a flue gas simulant inside a moisture and CO2 rich test chamber. The results of the CO2 sorption measurements will be used as inputs to carry out life cycle assessment (LCA) of the carbon sequestration potential of biogenic ashes. Finally, the PIs will combine mechanical testing (e.g. tensile and flexural strength measurements) with SEM, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and DSC to evaluate the utilization of the new carbonated ashes as fillers in cement-based materials and thermoplastic composites. Thus, the successful completion of this project has potential for transformative impact by advancing the fundamental science and engineering of carbon negative buildings.
The supported project further expands the concept from three of the top 33 NSF 2026 Idea Machine entries: (I) Public Carbon Capture and Storage, (ii) Unlocking the Future of Infrastructure, and (iii) Terraforming Earth.
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.
