Building-Integrated Carbon Sequestration Techniques: Towards Mitigating Climate Change

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of building-integrated Carbon Sequestration (CS) techniques focusing on their potential environmental impact and associated costs. CS techniques are classified into three categories: 1) Biotic (Green Roofs, Vertical Greenery Systems (VGS), and Algae Facades); 2) Materials (carbon-negative and carbon absorb- ing building materials); and 3) Equipment (filter towers). Preliminary literature review shows that Green Roofs and VGS can capture 150gC/m2 – 650gC/m2, while algae facades go up to 2430gC/m2 – 2970gC/m2. Biomass and filter towers could absorb a relatively high amount of approximately 1 x 10^15 gC and 687.5 x 10^9 gC, respectively (without normalization). By analyzing and summarizing each CS technique based on performance indicators like prerequisites, CS potential, costs and area required, it was found that Biotic techniques can be applied to a structure’s roof and facades for a large range of projects having low to high budgets. Biomass must be highly encouraged to be mixed with all the construction materials which can sequester up to 10^15 gC. Equipment, which has one of the highest potentials to sequester carbon and are highly expensive, can be used in urban spaces like parks and markets. A comparative analysis is finally done specifically showing the CS potential associated with the Biotic CS techniques to allow architects and designers to evaluate these technologies and analyze their integration potential in architectural practice.