Narayanan Neithalath
Arizona State University Campus Immersion, AZ·Materials Science
Making cement releases about 8% of the carbon dioxide that human activity puts into the air. Most of that comes from two steps that seem unavoidable: heating limestone breaks it into lime and carbon dioxide, and the kilns that do the heating burn fossil fuels.
- Fields
Materials Science
Engineering
Chemistry
- Topics
cement
concrete
decarbonization
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Dec 2027
What they work on
- Develop a low-temperature electrochemical process that breaks limestone down into lime without releasing carbon dioxide, as the first, solar-powered stage of carbon-neutral cement production.
- Produce cements that are physically and chemically similar to commercial Portland cement in minutes, using an ultrafast high-temperature synthesis method powered by renewable energy instead of fossil fuels.
- Combine experiments, thermodynamic and multiphysics simulations, and artificial intelligence to learn which process settings control the speed, efficiency and product quality of both manufacturing stages.
- Build easy-to-use software with built-in thermodynamics and machine learning engines that helps cement manufacturers pick optimal recipes for their production targets.
- Link research and industry networks across 13 countries to build international consensus on best practices, materials, design standards and building codes for 3D-printed concrete.
More about the research
With cement use expected to grow past 6 billion tons a year by 2030, finding a cleaner way to make it is a pressing materials problem. This research tackles concrete construction from two directions. One project redesigns how cement itself is made. The other links researchers worldwide working on 3D-printed concrete.
Why it matters
Cement production is one of the hardest industries to decarbonize. A carbon-neutral, solar-powered way to make it could cut a major source of global emissions as the U.S. rebuilds its infrastructure. Recipe-optimization software could help cement manufacturers adopt the new process. Shared international standards for 3D-printed concrete could help builders and code writers adopt printing for faster, safer and more efficient construction.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Carlos Moro
Texas State University, TX·Engineering
Determine how nanoscale additives change the crystal type, growth and distribution of calcium carbonate formed when cement-based materials are exposed to carbon dioxide, across different stages of carbonation.
Xiangyang Dong
Arizona State University Campus Immersion, AZ·Engineering·Early-career
Determine how pressure and viscosity control how liquid soaks into carbon fiber networks during coextrusion 3D printing of structural battery composites, using multi-scale computational fluid dynamics of capillary permeation.
Xijin Zhang
George Mason University, VA·Engineering
Design biomolecules that control how silicate minerals dissolve and re-form, using first-principles and AI-guided computational chemistry, then synthesize and genetically engineer the selected molecules.
The school
Arizona State University Campus Immersion: 36 labs on PI Pages, $1.0B a year on research, 625 research doctorates a year.
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