Franz-Josef Ulm and Admir Masic discuss how concrete supercapacitors could store renewable energy for residences and wirelessly charge electric vehicles in New Scientist. “The materials are available for everyone all over the place, all over the world,” said Dr. Ulm. “Which means we don’t have the same restriction as with batteries.”
Read the article.
Thank you to the Construction Industry Institute for the opportunity to join a panel on Impacts and Opportunities for Key Construction Materials.
Randolph Kirchain and Hessam AzariJafari are featured in a new Massachusetts Institute of Technology Climate Portal piece discussing how green spaces and reflective pavements/rooftops can help cities mitigate the impacts of extreme heat.
“[With] the billions that we spend to maintain our urban surfaces,” Kirchain says, “we need to make sure we’re adding in climate considerations into those decisions and be open to new approaches.”
In The Globe and Mail, Randolph Kirchain discusses cool pavements, which can help cities mitigate the impacts of extreme heat and the urban heat island effect. Cool pavements like concrete stay cooler in the sun, helping reduce air temperatures in comparison to conventional pavements. Kirchain notes that this technology is currently “underappreciated” and is important to take advantage of when greening spaces is not feasible.
In this brief, postdoc Damian Stefaniuk and research assistant Marcin Hajduczek outline how their method for carbonation before curing can offer a new solution for concrete sustainability.
We were excited to join the MIT Center for Real Estate at their World Real Estate Forum. Randolph Kirchain presented on circularity in the built environment, and how concrete is an essential part of it.
During this webinar, Hessam AzariJafari led a presentation of a new CSHub framework for modeling the lifetime CO2 uptake of cement-based products at the national scale.
The growing threat of climate events like hurricanes makes the value of resilient construction clear. To help us understand resilience where fragility curves may fall short, Hub alum Konstantinos Keremidis, Sc.D. has developed a model to quantify damage for any building design for structural and nonstructural elements.
On March 29th and 30th, 2023, we welcomed industry and academics to MIT to discuss the state of the professionals that keep the world moving: concrete delivery professionals (CDPs). During the workshop, the assembled experts identified innovative solutions to CDP recruitment and retention as well as the future of the profession.
We deeply appreciate the support of the Concrete Advancement Foundation — without them, this event wouldn’t have been possible.
“Carbon uptake is one more piece of the puzzle that makes concrete a sustainable choice for building in many applications.” In this MIT News story with Hessam AzariJafari, we cover the implications of uptake for life cycle assessment, including how it can be accelerated (where prudent).
