Advanced Carbon Standards and Technologies

Summary

Over the last decade, the chemical and materials industries have pursued innovative technologies for greater economic efficiency, while also addressing global dialogue regarding controversial measures of carbon footprint. Credible assessment and reporting of such measures will require a paradigm shift in process evaluation and optimization, requiring widely distributed consensus measurement technologies, collection of vast new datasets, and a greater reliance on, and acceptance of, validated models, while simultaneously respecting economic and other feasibility constraints. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Material Measurement Laboratory (MML) Advanced Carbon Standards and Technologies (ACST) Program seeks to acquire and disseminate the necessary technical knowledge to advance U.S. competitiveness in any potential carbon markets. This includes the fundamental measurements and data needed to evaluate detailed chemical and physical processes underlying carbon dioxide extraction, transport, and use technologies, and advance credible measurement capabilities, standards, and conformity assessment (accreditation, certification, verification, and validation). 

Description

Carbon is an important resource for economic growth and everyday life. As energy demands continue to increase, advanced technologies to efficiently use carbon resources including carbon waste streams are needed. Tapping carbon waste streams can be achieved using a suite of technologies to separate carbon dioxide from industrial point sources, the atmosphere, and the ocean and convert carbon dioxide into products such as fuels, chemical feedstocks, and building materials. Based on outreach to industry, academia, and Federal partners through workshops, conferences, and working groups, and leveraging the NIST Material Measurement Laboratory (MML) expertise, MML is currently focused on measurements and standardization needs for isolating carbon dioxide from gas mixtures and the use of carbon in advanced building materials. To ensure the program continues to meet industry needs and to guide NIST’s pre-standardization research, MML established two consortia that address very different industries at vastly different stages.

STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

• Advanced Cements and Concretes Consortium
• Carbon Dioxide Removal Consortium

For more information or to apply for a membership visit the links above.

Cement and concrete is a long-standing mature industry using well-established codes and standards. However, it recognizes the need for innovative materials to reduce costs and ensure supply chain security, and therefore requires updated codes and standards, as well as reliable metrics for advanced performance. Furthermore, it offers opportunities to increase energy efficiencies, reduce emissions, and create products with captured CO₂.

Extracting carbon dioxide from gas streams, especially dilute gas streams is an emerging industry. Given the variety and complexity of approaches (engineered, natural, and hybrid pathways), comparable measurements are needed to adequately assess performance and inform decisions. Here, MML is working with stakeholders in this nascent industry to educate, advance measurement capabilities, and navigate early-stage standardization activities.

TeCHNICAL WORK

MML is focused initially on 1) the measurement methods of carbon dioxide sorption kinetics on solid sorbents, 2) the quantification of carbonates in cements and concretes, and 3) next generation seawater reference materials. This research is leading to new measurement tools with well-understood uncertainties. Results are being used to validate models and are disseminated through databases and publications. With this foundation, MML is collaborating with industry partners to understand the level of measurement rigor and reproducibility throughout the R&D ecosystem. MML is developing research grade test materials and comparing measurements through interlaboratory comparisons. Furthermore, measurement methods are being formalized through the voluntary consensus standards process in ASTM. 

MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Workshops

• Building Quality and Confidence in Carbon Dioxide Removal, SF Climate Week, April 22, 2024, 3 hours, >300 registrants.
• Building Quality and Confidence in Carbon Dioxide Removal, North American Carbon World, March 18, 2024, 1 hour, >120 attendees.
• Integrating Crystallographic and Computational Approaches to Carbon-Capture Materials for the Mitigation of Climate Change, Eric Cockayne, Winnie Wong-Ng, Austin McDannald, and Yu-Sheng Chen, National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE), 9700 Great Seneca Highway, Rockville, MD 20850, October 31 - November 1, 2023.
• Chu, P.M., Last, N.L., Pokorny, C.D., Hapuwatte, B.M., Agrawal, V. Challenges and Opportunities for the Voluntary Carbon Markets by Georgetown University McDonough School of Business - Issuu, Business of Sustainability, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Georgetown, D.C., Workshop Sept 2023. 
• Schumacher, K., Platt, S., Newman, A., Garboczi, E., Beers, K.L., Chu, P.M., Fostering a Circular Economy and Carbon Sequestration for Construction Materials Workshop Report: A Focus on Concrete, Sept 6, 2023, NIST Gaithersburg, MD, https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.1500-21.

Databases

• NIST/ARPA-E Database of Novel and Emerging Adsorbent Materials
• The NIST Registry of Adsorbent Materials
• NIST SRD-173 Standard Reference Simulation 

Standards

Work is underway to enhance the measurement quality infrastructure through standardized measurement methods and reference materials. Examples, at various stages of development, include:

• WK80282 Determination of Total Carbon in Cements, Aggregates and Hardened Mortars, Concretes by Combustion Method in ASTM C01.23 Cement Compositional Analysis
• Benchmark materials are being developed to:
  • quantify CO₂ uptake by solid sorbents, and
  • support various test methods for the quantification of carbon in materials
• Next generation reference materials for seawater, pH, total alkalinity, and dissolved inorganic carbon.

Publications

FY2025

• Hoffman, J.R., Baumann, A.E., Stafford, C.M., The Role of Humidity in Enhancing CO2 Capture Efficiency in Poly(ethyleneimine) Thin Films, Chemical Engineering Journal, March 2025, Vol 507, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2025.160347.
• King, H.; Murphy, R.; Baumann, A.E.; Allen, A.; Nguyen, H.G.T.; DeBeer-Schmitt, L.; Ilavsky, J.; Carbonation of Alkaline Earth Metal Hydroxides: Structures Across Nano to Mesoscales. Energy Fuels, March 2025, 39, 4866-4879. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.4c05924.
• Chremos, A.; Krekelberg, W.P.; Hatch, H.W.; Siderius, D.W.; Mahynski, N.A., Shen, V.K. Development of SAFT-Based Coarse-Grained Models of Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen, Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.5c00536.
• Garboczi, E., Scruggs, B., Landauer, A.K., Suraneni P., The Measurement Context of Carbon Content Quantification, Concrete International, 2024, 46, Issue 12, 45-49. https://www.concrete.org/publications/internationalconcreteabstractsportal.aspx?m=details&ID=51744357.
• Carter M.; Nguyen Huong G.; Allen A.; Yi F.; Yang W.-C.; Baumann A.; McGivern W.S.; Manion J.A.; Kuzmenko I.; Tsinas Z.; Wentz C.; Wenny M.; Siderius D.; van Zee R.; Stafford C.; Brown C.M.; Progress in Development of Characterization Capabilities to Evaluate Candidate Materials for Direct Air Capture Applications, Journl of CO₂ Utilization, Nov 2024, 89, 102975, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcou.2024.102975.
• Rzepa C., Dabagian, D., Siderius, D.W., Hatch, H.W., Shen, V.K., Mittal, J., Rangarajan, S., Elucidating Thermodynamically Driven Structure-Property Relations for Zeolite Adsorption Using Neural Networks, JACS Au 2024, 4, 12, 4673-4690, https://doi.org/10.1021/jacsau.4c00429.

FY2024

• Hatch, H.W., Siderius, D.W., Shen, V.K., Monte Carlo molecular simulations with FEASST version 0.25.1, J. Chem. Phys. 161, 092501 (2024), https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0224283.
• Cockayne, E., McDannald, A., Wong-Ng, W., Chen, Y-S., Gándara Barragán, F., Benedict, J., Hendon, C.H., Keen, D.A., Kolb, U., Li, L., Ma, S., Morris, W., Nandy, A., Runčevski, T., Soukri, M., Sriram, A., Steckel, J.A., Findley, J., Wilmer, C., Yildirim, T.N., Zhou, W., Levin, I., Brown, C., Integrating Crystallographic and Computational Approaches to Carbon-Capture Materials for the Mitigation of Climate Change, J. Mater. Chem. A, Aug 2024,12, 25678-25695, https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TA04136D.
• Baumann, A.E, Yamada, T., Ho, K., Snyder, C.R., Hoffman, J.R., Brown, C.M., Stafford, C.M., Soles, C.L., Measuring the Influence of CO₂ and Water Vapor on the Dynamics in Polyethylenimine to Understand the Direct Air Capture of CO₂ from the Environment, Chem Mater, June 2024, Vol 36, 12, 6130-6143, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.4c00889.
• Ollson, J., Miller, S., Kneifel, J., A Review of Current Practice for Life Cycle Assessment of Cement and Concrete. Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 2024, 206, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2024.107619.
• Siderius, D.W., Hatch, H.W., Shen, V.K., Flat-Histogram Monte Carlo Simulation of Water Adsorption in Metal-Organic Frameworks., J. Phys. Chem. B 2024, 128, 19, 4830-4845. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.4c00753.
• Obrzul, J., Clark, J.A., Baumann, A.E., Douglas, J.F., Dielectric Characterization of H2O and CO2 uptake by Polyethylenimine Films, Langmuir, April 2024, Vol 40,16, 8562-8567 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c00247.
• Hoffman, J.R., Baumann, A.E., Stafford, C.M., Thickness dependent CO2 adsorption of poly(ethyleneimine) thin films for direct air capture, Chemical Engineering Journal, Vol 481, Feb 2024, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2023.148381.

FY2023

• Jahrman, E., Nguyen, H.G., Kalanyan, B., X-ray Characterization of a Metal-organic Framework During Dehydration and CO2 Adsorption, Advances in X-ray Analysis, 66, 2023. 
• McGivern, W.S., Nguyen, H.G., Manion, J.A., Improved Apparatus for Dynamic Column Breakthrough Measurements Relevant to Direct Air Capture of CO₂, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., May 2023, 62, 21, 8362-8372, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.2c04050.
• Wentz, C. M.; Tsinas, Z.; Forster, A. L. A Synthetic Methodology for Preparing Impregnated and Grafted Amine-Based Silica Composites for Carbon Capture. J. Vis. Exp. 2023 (199), e65845, doi:10.3791/65845.
• Allen, A.J., Selected advances in small-angle scattering and applications they serve in manufacturing, energy and climate change, Journal of Applied Crystallography, June 2023, 56, 787-800 https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600576723003898.
• Allen, A.J., Cockayne, E., Wong-Ng, W., Culp, J.T., Kuzmenko, I., Dynamic structural and microstructural responses of a metal–organic framework type material to carbon dioxide under dual gas flow and supercritical conditions, J. Appl. Cryst. (2023). 56, 222-236, https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600576722012134.
• Hatch, H.W., Siderius, D.W., Errington, J.R., Shen, V.K., Efficiency Comparison of Single- and Multiple- Macrostate Grand Canonical Ensemble Transition-Matrix Monte Carlo Simulations, J.Phys. Chem B 2023, 127, 13, 3041-3051. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c00613.
• Bobbitt, N.S., Shi, K., Bucior, B.J., Chen, H., Tracy-Amoroso, N., Li, Z., Sun, Y., Merlin, J.H., Siepmann, J.I., Siderius, D.W., Snurr, R.Q., J. ChemEng Data 2023, 68, 2, 483-498 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jced.2c00583.

FY2022

• Siderius, D.W., Hatch, H.W., Shen, V.K., Temperature Extrapolation of Henry’s Law Constants and the Isosteric Heat of Adsorption, J.Phys. Chem. B 2022, 126, 40, 7999-8009 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.2c04583.
• Choudhary, K., Yildirim, T., Siderius, D.W., Kusne, A.G., McDannald, A., Ortiz-Montalvo, D.L., Graph neural network predictions of metal organic framework CO2 adsorption properties, Computational Materials Science, 210, 2022, 111388, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.commatsci.2022.111388.
• McDannald, A., Joress, H., DeCost, B., Baumann, A.E, Kusne, A.G., Choudhary, K., Yildirim, T., Siderius, D.W., Wong-Ng, W., Allen, A.J., Stafford, C.M., Ortiz-Montalvo, D.L., Reproducible sorbent materials foundry for carbon capture at scale, Cell Reports Physical Science, Oct 2022 3, 101063, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2022.101063.

NEWS

NETL Expertise To Help Develop Standards for Direct Air Capture Industry       Read More
"NETL will help guide the development of new science-based performance metrics, testing methods and standards for direct air capture (DAC) — a critical emerging technology to address climate change by removing carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere and meet the nation’s decarbonization goals." 

NIST Develops New Testing System for Carbon Capture      Read More
"NIST scientists have developed a high-precision testing apparatus for benchmarking the performance of the materials, called sorbents..." 

Computer Simulations Help Speed up the Search for Carbon Capture Materials       Read More
"The traditional way of screening materials is to synthesize them, then test them in the lab, but that is very slow going... Computer simulations speed up the discovery process immensely."