Mitsubishi Corporation takes a portfolio approach to sustainable building materials with Green Concrete Consortium

February 23, 2022 | Case Study

Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) is a diversified industrial conglomerate whose business groups include Mineral Resources, Industrial Materials, Petroleum & Chemicals, Natural Gas, Industrial Infrastructure, and Urban Development. As the company positions itself for the transition to a more sustainable global economy, managers in several business groups came together to form a carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) task force. Viewing CO₂ mineralization as a promising pathway for CCUS, they decided to leverage existing positions in the value chain (both upstream and downstream) to develop low-carbon building materials. MC invested in CarbonCure Technologies and Blue Planet Systems and arranged partnerships with the CO2-SUICOM business (co-developed by Denka, Kajima Corporation, and others) and O.C.O Technology (formerly known as Carbon8 Aggregates; a technology licensee and joint venture of Carbon8 Systems). These efforts came together as a coherent initiative called the Green Concrete Consortium. The four technology developers in the consortium are pursuing three different approaches to using CO₂ and avoiding emissions: curing ready-mix concrete with CO₂, mineralizing CO₂ in aggregates for concrete, and CO₂-curing precast concrete that has been made with a special cement substitute.