CO2Concrete

CarbonBuilt envisions a world in which global economic prosperity is no longer a threat to the climate. The company also aims to enable concrete manufacturing to drive large-scale greenhouse gas reductions through the cost-effective utilization of CO2 and other industrial waste. Their innovations have a transformative impact on ensuring the sustainability of the world. The company also builds products that deliver the performance their customers require as well as significant environmental, economic, and societal benefits.

CarbonBuilt’s Reversa™ process includes CO₂ emission-reducing innovations to both the concrete mix design and its curing process. On the formulation side, the company introduces portlandite (also known as calcium hydroxide, a commodity chemical), to reduce the usage of traditional cement, and increase the use of waste materials like fly ash. The concrete is then formed using the same processes and equipment. After forming, CarbonBuilt cures the concrete with waste CO₂ emissions using a process that does not require expensive capture, compression, or purification of the CO₂. The Reversa process reduces emissions through a combination of utilization (permanently embedding CO₂ into the concrete) and avoidance (reducing CO₂ emissions associated with the raw materials).

CarbonBuilt offers benefits for three core groups - heavy industries, building industries, and concrete producers. For heavy industries seeking ways to reduce CO₂ emissions, the company's turnkey projects offer a low-cost route to do so. For the building industry, they offer on-spec concrete products that help projects achieve LEED certification or other sustainability criteria. Finally, CarbonBuilt enables concrete producers to increase profitability while differentiating from competitors by meeting a growing demand for more sustainable concrete.

CarbonBuilt's core technology emerges out of the Institute for Carbon Management at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Led by Gaurav Sant, a third-generation civil engineer, the UCLA team conceptualized the potential to address climate change by embedding industrial CO₂ emissions into concrete in an economically viable fashion. CarbonBuilt partners with concrete producers to grow their businesses, industrial emitters seeking to reduce CO₂ emissions, and builders and tenants to reduce the environmental impact of homes and buildings. The UCLA CarbonBuilt team has the 2021 NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE award, a global contest designed to foster and fund the development of breakthrough technologies that convert CO₂ emissions into usable products.

CEO Rahul Shendure privately holds and leads CarbonBuilt. He spends 20+ years commercializing sustainable technologies ranging from fuel cells to advanced biochemicals. The growing team includes concrete experts as well as climate tech and heavy industry veterans.