Rutgers Receives Patents for Making Smaller Carbon Dioxide Footprint in Concrete

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, has received two additional patents over the past year for a system of manufacturing concrete and cement that decreases carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by as much as 70 percent.

The new system has received two patents for reducing the carbon footprint of concrete products because the sequestration can be accomplished in two ways:

1.     By emitting less gas during production; or

2.     By consuming CO2 during the “curing” process (i.e., during the time just after concrete is poured when a precise moisture content and temperature must be maintained).

The new patents are among more than 50 associated U.S. and foreign patents and patent applications that have been licensed by Rutgers to Solidia Technologies of Piscataway, New Jersey. The local start-up is developing and marketing the low-temperature solidification process, which was chosen recently for R&D Magazine’s 2013 R&D 100 Awards. The honor, which is given for “revolutionary technologies newly introduced to the market,” spans industrial, academic and government-sponsored research.


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The inventors of the newly patented technologies are Solidia’s founder, Richard Riman, who also is Rutgers’ Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Vahit Atakan, Solidia’s R&D director and a former doctoral student in Riman’s lab.

“Together, these patents teach a unique method that enables companies to lower their environmental footprint by operating at far lower temperatures than the conventional method and providing a new means for carbon sequestration,” Riman said. “This innovation has broad application in the ceramics industry and in the production of high-performance concrete.”

Solidia’s patented technologies have the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete products by up to 70 percent. Requiring only modest changes to the processes currently used to make cement and concrete, Solidia’s process, which is more energy- and resource-efficient, makes solids out of packed powders without using a high-temperature kiln or furnace. The process produces innovative materials that offer greater strength and durability.

Solidia is marketing its process in the $1 trillion global concrete market, as well as in the $300 billion cement market. Current investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Bright Capital, BASF, and BP.

“When Rutgers licensed these radically innovative patents, we had high hopes for their commercialization, and Solidia Technologies has proven to be an excellent partner for realizing these lofty expectations,” said Kenneth J. Breslauer, Rutgers interim vice president for Research and Economic Development and the university’s Linus C. Pauling Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.

Established in 1766, Rutgers is America’s eighth oldest institution of higher learning and one of the nation’s premier public research universities.