(478g) Decarbonization-Production of CO2- Negative Building Composites

Current state of the art carbon capture and utilization studies (CCUS) approaches are centered around near-term large volume markets such as Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), mineralization and the production of large volumes of chemicals and fuel. These technologies have been developed to provide economic incentives to encourage the installation of CCUS technology. However, from a life cycle analysis (LCA) perspective, the products associated with these markets, such as EOR and large volume fuels, are either CO₂ neutral or, in some cases, CO₂-positive. In the intermediate term, to enable market-driven decarbonization, the US needs to develop novel materials to create new markets. This will involve the development of high value large volume products that has a long enough lifecycle time to enable the sequestration of CO₂. Despite many chemistries and markets available, CO₂-to-value-added-functional products cannot be accomplished at a scale large enough to be impactful and economically feasible. We will present a new carbon dioxide removal (CDR) approach that built upon a CO₂-derived product that is capable of sequestering hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO₂ per year, while cost-effectively meeting commercial performance metrics against fossil-derived incumbent products. We will discuss a CO₂-negative synthetic decking material made from four large volume waste products: a recycled High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) matrix, CO₂, and lignin or lignite fillers. We will also discuss the manufacturing process conditions with 50 -80 wt.% lignin fillers to produce composite materials. We close with a techno-economic and life cycle assessment of the envisioned capture, conversion, and composite manufacturing process.