Kim's research team seeks to improve recycled concrete for construction, carbon sequestration

Nebraska Engineering researcher Seunghee Kim is one of the leaders of a University of Nebraska team studying the economic and practical feasibility of using recycled concrete as a building material and carbon sequestration source.

The project is funded by an $805,000 grant from the Department of Energy, one of 33 grants totaling $131 million awarded this year as part of its goal to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Matching funding takes the total to more than $1 million.

More than 1.8 billion tons of concrete is used in construction every year in the United States alone, and its production is a prolific generator of carbon emissions; for every ton produced, a nearly equal amount of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas linked to global warming, is released into the atmosphere.

“Also, we tear down lots of structures – infrastructure, buildings, so on,” said Kim, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and one of the research team’s leaders. “Whenever we tear down, there’s a lot of waste concrete,” much of which ends up in landfills.