Material scientists Sam Draper and Barney Shanks landed the \u20ac100,000 2022 Obel Award with their \u2018simple way\u2019 to capture carbon from industrial production processes and create an end product that can eliminate the CO\u2082 footprint of concrete.<\/p>\n
The prototype technology, dubbed Seratech<\/a>, takes industrial CO\u2082 emissions directly from flues and produces a carbon-negative cement replacement material (silica). According to the scientists<\/a>, when this is used in combination with Portland cement, the carbon capture associated with producing the silica means the concrete products can be zero carbon.<\/p>\n Although still at \u2018lab level\u2019, the technology can integrate into the existing processes and the equipment used in concrete production.<\/p>\n The Obel Award jury was chaired by landscape architect Martha Schwartz and included Sno\u0308hetta’s Kjetil Tr\u00e6dal Thorsen, Louis Becker of Henning Larsen and XU Tiantian of Beijing-based DnA. They praised the way Seratech could be \u2018easily implemented in every cement plant around the world and [did] not require major shifts in current practices or mindsets\u2019.<\/p>\n They said they hoped the award would encourage \u2018innovative cross-disciplinary solutions to the challenges of climate change\u2019.<\/p>\n \u2018I can\u2019t wait to see brilliant architects take this material and do some wonderful things with it\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Shanks said: \u2018We want to highlight the importance of collaboration between academia, industry and the work of architects. That\u2019s why the Obel Award is great; it\u2019s essentially forcing this collaboration, making us take notice of each other, and getting that interdisciplinary work happening.<\/p>\n \u2018I can\u2019t wait to see some of the brilliant architects take this material and do some weird and wonderful things with it.\u2019<\/p>\n