CARBON STORAGE THROUGH BIOMASS-BASED CONSTRUCTION

Tarun Jami, Sumit Kumar, Y. K. Agrawal, Deepak Rawtani

Abstract: At the onset of increasing GHG emissions worldwide, it is becoming increasingly important to reduce fresh carbon emissions. New forms of building materials have been emerging, where natural fibres (biomass) are used in combination with zero emission or low emission pozzolans or binder materials such as lime, fly ash, furnace slag, etc. to reduce CO2 emissions from manufacturing industry. One such building material uses Hemp and lime, and is called Lime Hemp Concrete (LHC). This research was focused on formulating LHC based on the literature reviewed, and; assessing the total carbon sequestration achieved by the formulated LHC mix from CHN Elemental analysis and X-Ray Diffractometer analysis. A stoichiometric analysis was conducted on the formulated LHC cube of dimensions 7cm x 7cm x 7cm to establish a projected carbon sequestration potential of 161.31 g of CO2. At the age of 28 days, it was found that the cube had achieved a carbon sequestration of 105.39 g of CO2. The project carbon sequestration potential for the LHC mix was 492.3 kg of CO2 per m 3 of Lime Hemp Concrete and the achieved carbon sequestration was 307.26 kg of CO2 per m 3 of LHC. Future work has been suggested in the paper for development of physical properties of the material such as mechanical strength. Life Cycle Assessment of an LHC wall with different mix designs also needs to be carried out to assess the net carbon emissions.

Keywords: Hemp concrete, Biomass, Composite materials, Carbon sequestration, Sustainable materials

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2016.0530024