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I’d like to start today’s post with some serious words of reminder from Elon Musk, explaining the cause of increased CO2 emission in the atmosphere, its impact on climate change, and the need to transition into renewable energy,  to take actions responsibly to reduce CO2 emission and apply revenue neutral carbon tax quickly world-wide. During his talk in France, Elon Musk suggested a phased-in approach to give companies and industries time to adjust and adapt ways to reduce CO2 emission, below:

Did you know that concrete industry is one of the largest producers of carbon dioxide in the world, producing about 5%-7%  of man-made carbon emissions? Approximately 88% of the of the carbon emissions associated with concrete production is due to fabrication and use of cement.  Even though concrete is usually considered as a “green ” construction material because most of its components are naturally occurring. Its energy used  and its overall carbon dioxide emission have been targets of much efforts to increase the sustainability of the concrete industry (by decreasing it CO2 emission and energy use).

A short film below showing how cement is made, with captions describing the co2 emissions it involves. Cement production is responsible for good percentage of all human co2 emissions. Professionals have been implementing different methods to lessen its environmental footprint.

Examples are listed below:

Below, Michael L. Gentoso, Vice President of U.S. Concrete Inc., describes the benefits of using BASF’s Green Sense Concrete Program. He describes how the use of these concrete formulations reduces the ecological footprint of concrete production. The Green Sense Concrete Program is used in the project of the groundbreaking One World Trade Center in New York City, and  sustainable design is a central theme for the 541-meter-high historic rebuild. Key to being building environmental friendly is reducing CO2 out of the concrete mix designs. Coupled with the Eco-Efficiency Analysis, BASF provided an optimal solution to drive down CO2 emission, conserve resources while still increasing the structural strength and durability needed to meet the costumers demand.

Cement is a main ingredient of concrete, and its production currently generates approximately 7% of man-made CO2 emissions. The CO2 generation is an inherent part of the cement production process, due to the calcination of the most important raw material, limestone: about 60% of the CO2 emissions from cement production are due to this conversion, whereas 40% come from the burning of fuels (which are to a large extent fossil) to provide heat. Energy efficiency measures and use of renewable fuels can therefore only reduce  part of the CO2 emissions. The CEMCAP project addresses this challenge through the testing and analysis of four different technologies for separating CO2 from the cement production process. Costs are calculated and compared and also the retrofitability of the investigated technologies into existing cement plants (or cement kilns) are to be evaluated. Successful results would lead to a portfolio of technologies that will create pathways for future climate-friendly cement production with drastically reduced CO2 emissions. The Project is led by SINTEF Energy Research. Find out more: www.sintef.no/cemcap

Environmental chemist David Stone was seeking a way to keep iron from rusting when he stumbled upon a possible substitute that requires significantly less energy, below:

CarbonCure retrofits concrete plants with a technology that recycles carbon dioxide to make stronger, greener concrete, below:

 A group of interdisciplinary researchers at UCLA has been working on a solution to help eliminate sources of greenhouse gases. They would create a closed-loop process: capturing carbon from power plant smokestacks and using it to create a new building material, CO2NCRETE, that would be fabricated using 3D printers, as “upcycling”.

“What this technology does is take something that we have viewed as a nuisance, carbon dioxide that’s emitted from smokestacks and turn it into something valuable,” according to J.R. DeShazo, professor of public policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and director of the UCLA Center for Innovation. He continued, “I decided to get involved in this project because it could be a game-changer for climate policy. This technology tackles global climate change, which is one of the biggest challenges that society faces now and will face over the next century.”

Direct Air Capture Technology was developed to capture carbon dioxide from the air and transform it into biomass by passing ambient air over solid or liquid substances that act as a magnet or sponge to CO2 particles specifically. When using the Direct Air Capture Technology in the construction industry, it helps ready-mix and concrete producers supply more sustainable concrete. It utilizes recycled carbon dioxide directly in the concrete to increase environmental, material, and economic performance. Below, Climeworks explains the Direct Air Capture Technology:

Photographed, gathered, written, and posted by Windermere Sun-Susan Sun Nunamaker
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