The cement manufacturing process depends on burning vast amounts of coal and produces huge amounts of CO2, yet it’s one of the least-talked about sources of pollution. Treehugger has written about how dirty the cement industry really is in the past, and now they’re reporting that a new, green type of cement has been created. This cement isn’t just carbon neutral – an amazing feat in itself – it also absorbs tons of CO2.
From The Guardian, via Treehugger:
Making traditional cement results in greenhouse gas emissions from two sources: it requires intense heat, and so a lot of energy to heat up the ovens that cook the raw material, such as limestone. That then releases further CO2 as it burns. But, until now, noone has found a large-scale way to tackle this fundamental problem.
Novacem’s cement, based on magnesium silicates, not only requires much less heating, it also absorbs large amounts of CO2 as it hardens, making it carbon negative.
According to Novacem, its product can absorb, over its lifecycle, around 0.6 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of cement. This compares to carbon emissions of about 0.4 tonnes per of standard cement.
This new technology is already attracting the attention of the industry and investors. The only question that remains is whether the cement will perform as well as traditional cement, and used on a wide scale. If so, imagine how much good that could do for the fight against global warming – we’d actually be removing ton after ton of CO2 from the air. It’s an exciting thought – hopefully this technology will become popular around the world!
Link [The Guardian] + [Treehugger]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
