Artificial Intelligence Techniques for CO₂ Emission Prediction and Sustainable Optimization in Geopolymer Concrete: A Comprehensive Review
Abstract
The construction industry is one of the largest contributors to global carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions because of its dependence on Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). Cement production contributes nearly 7–8% of global anthropogenic CO₂ emissions due to limestone calcination, fossil fuel combustion, and high-temperature clinker manufacturing. Geopolymer concrete has emerged as a sustainable alternative because it uses aluminosilicate-rich industrial and agricultural by-products such as fly ash, ground granulated blast furnace slag, metakaolin, rice husk ash, silica fume, and sugarcane bagasse ash. These materials reduce reliance on OPC while supporting waste reutilization and circular economy principles. Recently, Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques have been widely applied to geopolymer concrete research for predicting compressive strength, optimizing mix design, estimating CO₂ emissions, improving lifecycle assessment, and supporting sustainable construction decision-making. This review paper discusses AI-based methods including Artificial Neural Networks, Support Vector Machines, Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, XGBoost, Deep Learning, and optimization algorithms for geopolymer concrete. The paper also reviews AI-based CO₂ emission prediction, evaluation metrics, lifecycle assessment integration, optimization approaches, limitations, and future research directions. The findings indicate that AI-assisted geopolymer concrete systems can reduce experimental effort, improve prediction accuracy, minimize environmental impact, and accelerate the development of low-carbon construction materials.
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