Cement is the gray glue that holds our economy together. It’s ubiquitous, if often hidden behind paint or plaster. It holds together the rock, sand, and steel that keep our buildings upright, our bridges spanning chasms, and our dams holding water for irrigation, generation, and recreation. And it’s a carbon … [continued]
When people think of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), it is often solar, wind, and other clean energy generation technologies that come to mind. However, Ana Aday, a materials science researcher in NREL’s Building Technologies and Science Center, is taking on a whole new challenge: decarbonizing the cement and … [continued]
A few days ago I went deep on cement again, using an assessment of the processes of American clean cement startups to define the scope and magnitude of the problem, the chemistry and energy requirements of cement, why fixing it is critically important, and incidentally evaluate a couple of companies’ … [continued]
Every domain brings with it a wealth of new language. Being the domain junky that I am, my head is creaking at the seams with jargon and technical terms from a multitude of places. Cement and concrete are no different. Today’s exploration is of the interesting world of supplementary cementitious … [continued]
An electric arc furnace is like a giant, high-tech kitchen appliance for melting metal. Imagine a huge, robust pot where you throw in scrap metal, like old cars or broken appliances. Instead of using gas or coal to heat things up, this “pot” uses powerful electric arcs — think of … [continued]
As I’ve been looking at solutions that people are proposing for eliminating cement’s high carbon dioxide emissions, a set of criteria are clearly emerging to assess whether they are going to be material. These include the source material availability, cost, and distribution. They include integration into worksites. They include the … [continued]
Cement is the gray glue that holds our modern cities and infrastructure together. We use about 4.1 billion tons of it a year, and every ton has a carbon debt of about a ton of carbon dioxide. That’s about 10% of our global emissions, so it’s a big problem. From … [continued]
One thread I’m pulling on across industrial solutions is the ability of electrochemical processes powered by green electricity to replace industrial processes powered by fossil fuels. Today someone handed me the end of a thread leading to Sublime Systems, a Massachusetts, USA, firm that’s using electrochemistry to make low-carbon cement. … [continued]
Captured carbon can yield carbon nanofibers and green hydrogen, too, which could be a better solution than simply pushing it underground.
After stumbling on biofuel, algae finds its footing and steps up to help the concrete industry cut its carbon footprint, too.
