Techno-Economic Analysis of Mineralization and Utilization of CO2 in Recycled Concrete Aggregates

Considering the dangers and risks posed by climate change, many countries and organizations have pledged to achieve “net-zero emissions” by 2050. The present work introduces a new approach that addresses the growing global carbon emissions issue by integrating CO2 capture and sequestration through the carbonation of recycled concrete aggregates (RCAs), producing an alternative sand (AS) product. This study explores the capture of low-concentration CO2 and its suitability for sequestration into RCA. The integration of RCA in the process allows concrete manufacturers to reduce their reliance on mined sand, thereby minimizing its impact on the environment. A techno-economic analysis (TEA) was conducted on the CO2 absorption and mineralization process to assess its economic viability across various processing scales, from 150 kt CO2 per year to 1 Mt CO2 per year. Initial bench-scale experiments show that RCA samples have a carbonation capacity of 10% by mass—these experimental results were used to conduct a TEA using Aspen Plus and an Aspen Process Economic Analyzer (APEA). The TEA results reveal a cost of 11.02 USD/t AS at the smallest scale and 8.02 USD/t AS at the largest scale.