March 19, 2025
Razing a Common Misunderstanding: Early-Age Carbonation vs. Atmospheric Carbonation in Concrete
Atmospheric carbonation (sometimes referred to as weathering or “natural” carbonation), which is the absorption of CO2 into hardened concrete over the course of decades, should not be confused or conflated with early-age carbonation, which is the injection and immediate mineralization of captured CO2 in fresh concrete. To put it another way, there is a misperception that CO2 injection just speeds up or supplants the natural process of carbonation in concrete, but this misses key differences between them and how the latter is moving the needle on concrete decarbonization.
