NSF Award
2418357
This project addresses the urgent problems caused by hazardous industrial waste and climate change, disproportionately affecting low-income and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities due to social and economic inequality. It aims to transform biomass and hazardous industrial wastes into inexpensive, green construction materials using Negative Emission Technology (NET). This approach promotes environmental justice and enhances resilience to climate-related issues. By incorporating CO2 into building materials from waste, the project reduces atmospheric carbon levels and provides a sustainable waste management solution. It also provides a long-term solution for handling biomass and industrial waste, which is presently disposed in landfills and causes health issues. The project also intends to create better building materials by combining pozzolanic reactivity, CO2 capture and mineralization, which will speed up scientific and technological advancement. It fosters diversity and education by involving researchers from one Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Alabama and three public universities in New Mexico, Alabama, and Idaho. Comprehensive workforce development programs include early career faculty development, undergraduate and graduate training, K–12 education, and teacher training, supporting STEM jobs and education in underrepresented areas. Benefits include better public health from reduced hazardous waste, safer housing options, and improved well-being through economic opportunities and infrastructure enhancement in the targeted communities.<br/><br/>The Fifth National Climate Assessment highlights the vulnerability of low-income and BIPOC communities in Alabama, Idaho, and New Mexico to climate change and land-filled hazardous industrial wastes. In response, a collaborative effort involving four institutions from these EPSCoR jurisdictions aims to develop a novel pathway to alleviate these effects. The project revolves around a Negative Emission Technology (NET) designed to convert alkaline industrial and biomass wastes into low-cost, low-carbon construction materials. This transformative solution provides an economically viable means of enhancing the climate resilience of these communities and sequestering CO2 into concrete. Using alkaline industrial wastes as feedstock, the process produces calcium-rich leachate for CO2 capture, creating CaCO3 precipitate. The filtered solid residual, with higher pozzolanic reactivity, can partially replace ordinary Portland cement in concrete. This method generates new revenues and addresses climate change through carbon capture and utilization in concrete. It is estimated that the NET method could sequester 2.9-8.5 billion tonnes of CO2 per year by 2100. The project is a consortium of researchers from The University of Alabama, University of New Mexico, University of Idaho, and Alabama A&M University, a Historically Black College and University. The diverse team includes nine assistant professors. Workforce development and outreach activities are extensive, covering K-12 education for teachers, undergraduate students, early career professors, industry partners, and communities. These initiatives promote STEM education in sustainable construction materials, circular economy practices, and the emerging interdisciplinary field of decarbonization of the built environment, directly benefiting the targeted low-income and BIPOC communities. This project is funded by the EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement-Focused EPSCoR Collaborations (RII-FEC) program. The RII-FEC program builds inter-jurisdictional collaborative teams of EPSCoR investigators in focus areas consistent with the NSF Strategic Plan. RII-FEC projects include researchers from at least two EPSCoR eligible jurisdictions with complementary expertise and resources necessary to address challenges, which neither party could address as well or as rapidly independently.<br/><br/>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.
