Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles are 3-D printing concrete made of carbon dioxide, according to an article published by the university last week. The product, CO2NCRETE, is created through a closed-loop process in which CO2 is captured from power plant smokestacks and is then used by the 3-D printers. Thus far, the researchers have only been demonstrated their process at the lab scale, producing roughly 5-centimeter-long cylinders.
“We have proof of concept that we can do this,” J.R. DeShazo, professor of public policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and director of the university’s Luskin Center for Innovation, said in the article. “But we need to begin the process of increasing the volume of material and then think about how to pilot it commercially. It’s one thing to prove these technologies in the laboratory. It’s another to take them out into the field and see how they work under real-world conditions.”
