CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF MANUFACTURED CARBONATED AGGREGATES

The underpinning research and development, and early commercialisation of manufactured carbonated aggregates has been presented at WASCON meetings since the mid 2000’s. Initially the unintentional production of carbonated... [ view full abstract ]

The underpinning research and development, and early commercialisation of manufactured carbonated aggregates has been presented at WASCON meetings since the mid 2000’s. Initially the unintentional production of carbonated agglomerations in soil was discussed, as were the first attempts at producing construction aggregates from solid waste and CO₂ gas.

Since 2012, manufactured carbonated aggregates have become an accepted product primarily for use in bound engineering applications in the UK. The UK’s third commercial manufacturing plant has been commissioned and three more plants are planned. By 2021, >5.0Mt of aggregate are anticipated to be produced, primarily from waste air pollution control residues (APCr) obtained from municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI).

The present work briefly reviews the history of development of manufactured aggregates from waste using accelerated carbonation. High-volume waste streams, which also have potential to be risk-managed and valorised by an accelerated carbonation process step, are presented.  

The European market for aggregates is explored in terms of selected waste arising’s on their ability to combine with CO₂. The potential for manufactured carbonated aggregates to contribute to the construction materials supply chain in Europe is discussed.