Storage of Carbon Dioxide in Cementitious Building Materials: A Case Study of Annaba City, Algeria

The annual increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide is 1–3 ppm, a level not reached in the last 650,000 years. This leaves many experts in no doubt as to the essentially human origin of this increase. Among the Algerian cities that have paid the price of industrial development to be confronted with a serious pollution problem, we cite the agglomeration of Annaba where the phenomenon has grown so much that the situation has become alarming and worrying. Limiting and minimizing CO2 emissions are common goals of many environmental research projects, and the development of technologies for capturing and storing CO2 in concrete is a priority. These are mainly mineral sequestration and carbonation. The purpose of this research work is to study the possibility of using the natural carbonation of waste based on cementitious materials, as an innovative process for storing atmospheric CO2. We studied three types of concrete-based waste manufactured according to the three cement dosages (300, 350, and 400 kg m−3) most used in construction in Algeria. The parameters studied are related to the variation of the rate of captured CO2 about time and space, humidity, and outside temperature. The results obtained by thermogravimetric analysis show that the CO2 absorption rate disappoints with the increase in the cement dosage. And consequently with the state of internal porosity, which facilitates the penetration of the fluid loaded with CO2. Ambient pollution, especially acid rain, can make this process reversible in the long term.