Prediction on CO₂ uptake of recycled aggregate concrete

Abstract

Carbonation of concrete is a process which absorbs carbon dioxide (CO₂). Recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) may own greater potential in CO₂ uptake due to the faster carbonation rate than natural aggregate concrete (NAC). A quantitative model was employed to predict the CO₂ uptake of RAC in this study. The carbonation of RAC and the specific surface area of recycled coarse aggregates (RCAs) were tested to verify accuracy of the quantitative model. Based on the verified model, results show that the CO₂ uptake capacity increases with the increase of RCA replacement percentage. The CO₂ uptake amount of 1 m³ C30 RAC within 50 years is 10.6, 13.8, 17.2, and 22.4 kg when the RCA replacement percentage is 30%, 50%, 70%, and 100%, respectively. The CO₂ uptake by RCAs is remarkable and reaches 35.8%–64.3% of the total CO₂ uptake by RAC when the RCA storage time being 30 days. Considering the fact that the amount of old hardened cement paste in RCAs is limited, there is an upper limit for the CO₂ uptake of RCAs.

Keywords

RAC / CO₂ uptake / carbonation / specific surface area / RCA

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation (NSFC) of China (Grant No. 51808399), and Chinese-Japanese Research Cooperative Program sponsored by Ministry of Science and Technology in China (No. 2016YFE0118200).

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2020 Higher Education Press