An in-depth look at one company using a carbon-negative material to contribute to a greener building industry
WITH the construction sector contributing to our global carbon footprint, many architects, specifiers and designers are turning to materials that can store carbon within. Embodied carbon – the emissions associated with the materials and construction processes used in the life cycle of a building – make up 20% of the total emissions from the UK’s built environment (according to UKGBC). Finding alternative materials that can help reduce this figure could have a substantial impact; however, with embodied carbon emissions still currently unregulated, the change is reliant on trailblazing innovation being utilised in a much broader capacity.
One duo eager to contribute to finding positive solutions to this dilemma is Allison Dring and Daniel Schwaag, co-founders of Made of Air. Both architects by training, they decided to embark on a project together to create a facade material that could mitigate urban air pollution. Spending time within factories, they became acutely aware of the large proportion of carbon emissions coming from the materials used. Developing this research, they settled on working with biochar, an already established carbon removal technology, and decided to experiment by transforming it into material composites. In 2016, the duo launched Made of Air, producing a biochar-based filler for thermoplastics that securely sequesters carbon within material composites for the duration of their lifespan.
Ninety per cent of this composite material is biochar – which is the result of a process (pyrolysis) that bakes non-competitive waste biomass (like wood chips) into a charcoal-like material, while converting the CO2 stored within it into elemental carbon. Such waste byproducts are otherwise incinerated today – rereleasing carbon back into the atmosphere.
According to the company, this final carbon (biochar) will not release CO2 back into the air for 1,000 years. Taking the process one step further, Made o
