Project: To harvest magnesium-based low-carbon cement from the ocean for future construction

Institution: Columbia University

Team Lead (PI): Dr. S.H. Chu (Columbia)

This team will harvest Magnesium-based cement from both the ocean and locally available waste as a low-carbon alternative to the Calcium-based cement traditionally used in concrete production. Not only would the production of this novel cement be more CO2- and cost-efficient than that of traditional cement; the resulting concrete will also absorb and store large amounts of CO2 in the curing process. Finally, Dr. Chu will explore the scale-up potential of this cement production process in New York State.

https://carbontech.columbia.edu/research-projects

Selected grants

2023-2024   New York State Funding                                                              USA

·        Project: To harvest magnesium-based low-carbon cement from the ocean for future construction

·        Funds approved^: USD 75,656       Project No.: [G16377-09]

·        Role: PI (Principal Investigator) 100% | Status: Awarded

2024-2024   Materialize Impact (NY) & Columbia Technology Ventures                         USA

·        Project: Bio-manufacturing of smart mineral bacterial capsules for sustainable self-healing

·        Role: PI | Status: Selected top 12 teams for cohort

2023-2024   Columbia SEAS Dean’s Research Funding Support                                    USA

·        Project: Research on low-carbon and modeling

·        Funds approval^: USD 8,640

·        Role: Recipient/PI (100%) | Status: Awarded (approved in Oct 2023)

2024-2025   The U.S. Nationwide Entrepreneurship Fellowship Program                      USA

·        Project: Developing smart capsules for self-healing by ocean-derived CO2 removal materials

·        Role: PI (100%) | Status: Finalist (75 out of 1000+ from U.S. nationwide)

2023-2024   Seed Fund Project, Columbia University                                               USA

·        Project: Combatting climate change by developing low carbon cement and concrete for sustainable cities of tomorrow

·        Funds approval^: ~USD 27,000

·        Role: Lead PI | Status: Approved

2023-2025   New York State, Carbon Development Initiative                                       USA

·        Project: Accelerated CO2 mineralization for ultra-lightweight high-performance concrete

·        Funds approval^: ~USD 200,000

·        Role: Proposal preparation (80%) | Status: Approved

2024-2025   New York State, Carbon Development Initiative                                       USA

·        Project: To harvest reusable carbonation seeds by aqueous carbonation of brucite into magnesium carbonates

·        Funds approved^: ~USD 100,000

·        News released: https://carbontech.columbia.edu/research-projects

·        Role: Full proposal preparation (100%) | Status: Approved

^ funds, after approved, were subject to relocation due to internal management or administrative reasons.

PAST GRANTS

(Grants by ITC published in HK Gov. website: https://www.itf.gov.hk/l-eng/Prj_Search_Index.asp)

Summary: Total grant amount: ~HKD 60 million (equivalent to ~USD 7.6 million)

04/2021-01/2024     Ministry of National Development, Singapore Gov.             Singapore

·        Project: Production of MgO cement using waste reject brine from desalination plants

·        Funds approved: ~SGD 579,240 Award No: CoT-V1-2020-1, 01/2021.

·        Role: Research Fellow in Singapore (Cities of Tomorrow R&D Program)

08/2020-03/2021     Strategic Public Policy Research Funding Scheme, PICO        Hong Kong

·        Project: Towards zero waste smart cities in the Greater Bay Area (Joint HKU-PolyU research)

·        Funder: Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office of the Government of HKSAR

·        Funds approved: ~HKD 3,414,212             Project No: S2018. A8.010

·        Develop standards, specifications, and information platforms to facilitate policymaking

·        Role: Researcher

01/2019–12/2023    Theme-Based Research funded by Hong Kong RGC          Hong Kong

·        Project: Sustainable marine infrastructure enabled by the innovative use of seawater sea-sand concrete and fiber-reinforced polymer composites

·        Funds approved: ~HKD 52463,000 (50 million) Project no.: T22-502/18-R

·        Role: Research participant

09/2015–05/2016    Hong Kong Government, ITC Support Seed Project            Hong Kong

·        Project: Fire resistant high-performance concrete with hybrid fiber reinforcement and nanomaterials

·        Funds approved: ~HKD 3,166,000 (4 teammates) by Innovation & Technology Commission

·        Bond investigation of steel fibers with modified surface coating in concrete by fiber pull out

·        Concrete mix design, hybrid fiber design, nano structure design and final report preparation

·        Role: Research team member

09/2014–10/2015    Hong Kong Government, ITC Support Program                   Hong Kong

·        Project: Development of lightweight hydrophobic concrete acoustic board

·        Funds approved: ~HKD 1,823,000 (Four team members) Award no.: [ITP015/14NI]

·        Formulation development, characterization, prototype design and full-scale verification

·        Formulation development on foamed concrete and design of the noise barrier

·        Role: Research team member

04/2014–11/2015    Construction Industry Council (CIC) Support Program            Hong Kong

·        Project: Development of advanced thermal insulation coating materials

·        Funds approved: ~HKD 794,000 (Three team members) Award no.: ITT/020/13NP

·        Implement systemic experiments of testing, adjustment, data analysis and writing reports

·        Role: Research team member

12/2013–11/2014    The Chinese University of Hong Kong Research Project        Hong Kong

·        Project: MPC of underwater gliders based on a recurrent simplified dual neuron network

·        Dynamic modeling of the underwater glider and get the equation of motion

·        One-layer recurrent neural network (RNN) to solve the MPC problem based on QP

·        MATLAB-based gliding stabilization simulation

·        Role: Credit-bearing research project student

09/2013–01/2014    The Chinese University of Hong Kong Research Project        Hong Kong

·        Project: Research on the Kinetic Energy Harvested from the Piezoelectric Floor

·        State-of-the-art review and the prospect of energy conversion from mechanical motions and vibrations in the floor to electrical energy based upon the piezoelectric effect

·        Role: Student researcher

01/2013–01/2014    Department of Sys. Eng. & Eng. Mgt. (SEEM), CUHK          Hong Kong

·        Project: Optimal Operations Research on Foulke Consumer Products, Inc., USA.

·        Optimum production and transportation cost analysis subject to various constraints

·        Role: Student researcher (in collaboration with 3 other team members)

* All funding information may not reflect the latest updates and is subject to change. This information does not constitute any legal promise or advice. Such information cannot be disclosed, circulated, or released in any form without the owner’s written permission, as it contains sensitive information.