A group of researchers at the Northwestern University has pushed new boundaries with the latest project creating carbon-negative artificial sand. This means that it could possibly replace conventional sand in concrete when storing CO2.

The team was led by civil engineer Alessandro Rotta Loria who was working on finding a way to ‘grow’ sand and to do so, he injected CO2 and electricity into seawater. The material then came to life with the aid of Cemex as well, which is a leading global cement manufacturer. Loria noted that the material is quite comparable to the regular sand and this notion applies to the structural integrity, offering an alternative that is carbon negative during its use.

Image Credit: Northwestern University