To order bricks and slips contact sales@earth4Earth.co.uk or call 020 8243 4668
Our Technology
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A full life-cycle route to net zero
We have created the world's first life cycle carbon-negative bricks using our DCUS technology. This stands for:
Decarbonisation: Lime is produced with no direct CO₂ emissions and is used to make a unique binder for our bricks. The bricks are compressed, rather than fired.
Carbon Capture: CO₂ is captured by the brick during its service life through Direct Air Capture (DAC).
Carbon Usage: The captured CO₂ further improves the mechanical properties of the bricks and enhances weather resistance.
Carbon Storage: Permanent CO₂ storage during and after the building life.
Decarbonisation
We’ve scaled up a new way to make lime that avoids both major sources of CO₂ in conventional lime production:
(1) fossil-fuel combustion to reach ~1,000 °C, and (2) “process” emissions released when limestone decomposes during calcination.
Instead of heating limestone, we use a low-temperature chemical route first developed at the University of Sheffield, where a naturally decarbonised calcium-based raw material reacts in concentrated alkaline solution at ambient conditions to produce hydrated lime without thermal calcination.
Carbonation
Our bricks remove CO₂ from the atmosphere throughout their lifecycle and permanently store it within the material. They do this through carbonation: a natural mineral reaction where lime-based components in the brick, in the presence of moisture, react with CO₂ in the air and convert into stable carbonate minerals.
In simple terms, the brick is gradually turning airborne CO₂ into a solid, rock-like form that stays locked in. This is why we describe the process as direct air capture (DAC) — the brick passively draws down CO₂ from ambient air over time through its surface chemistry, without fans, filters, or energy-intensive equipment.
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Carbon Usage
The CO₂ our bricks absorb from the atmosphere isn’t just “stored” — it is also used. Through the natural carbonation process, atmospheric CO₂ reacts with the lime-based binder inside the brick to form calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). This reaction produces a solid mineral that precipitates within the brick’s pore network, gradually filling pores and creating new mineral bridges between particles.
As carbonation progresses, these carbonate phases tighten and densify the microstructure, which can increase cohesion and enhance weather resistance. In practical terms, the same process that captures carbon also helps the brick become even more stable and durable over time, supporting improved mechanical performance.
This is the same fundamental chemistry behind the hardening of traditional air-lime mortars and the setting of fresco paintings — materials that have remained intact for centuries because CO₂ from the air is mineralised into stable carbonate within their structures.
Carbon Storage
CO₂ absorption can occur at any point in the product’s lifecycle: immediately after production, during storage and curing before installation, throughout the brick’s service life in a building or structure, or later during demolition and end-of-life processing, after the brick has been crushed.
The rate of uptake can also vary depending on environmental conditions (for example humidity, temperature, airflow, CO₂ availability, but also the presence of a rendering layer, or other factors that affect the exposure of the brick's surface to air).
Crucially, while the timing can vary, the total amount of CO₂ the brick can permanently store is fixed and predictable.
It is determined by the binder content and its chemistry — in other words, the brick will capture a defined quantity of CO₂ over its lifetime, regardless of whether that uptake happens faster (in favourable conditions) or more slowly (in less favourable conditions).
Once CO₂ has reacted with the binder and is transformed into calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). The carbon is no longer present as a gas: it is locked into a solid mineral form within the brick’s microstructure, and it cannot be released back into the atmosphere. This permanence remains true even if the brick is later crushed to a powder and returned to the ground — the CO₂ stays stored as calcium carbonate.