Cement is one of the most significant single sources for carbon emissions, due to the intense energy required for its production and the volumes of it that are produced annually, as well as from material itself, but an alternative is now available. It doesn't just reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted, it actually binds more CO2 than is emitted from its production, which makes its production carbon negative.
Novacem has developed a new cement that uses magnesium silicate instead of calcium compounds. The new material is supposed to have performance and cost comparable to ordinary Portland cement. Furthermore, because the production of magnesium silicate is a lower energy process, it can be manufactured using biofuel, instead of requiring more intensive and polluting energy sources.
The company also notes that "production of our cement is carbon negative; more carbon dioxide (CO2) is absorbed during the process than is emitted." Manufacturing a tonne of this cement results in the absorbtion of up to 100 kg (220 lbs) of carbon dioxide more than is emitted in the process.
Magnesium oxide is widely available as well, so there should not be an issue of material scarcity with the use of this as a Portland cement replacement. The company is not producing the material itself, but is instead seeking to license its technology to producers.
via: Jetson Green
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written by mark jeremy, February 18, 2011
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written by Jimbo, February 20, 2011
This is a cool innovation in construction materials, and I hope they find many, many uses for it. If it's cheap and easy to use, then it might change the market and we'd be able to fix a problem that we have with one aspect of carbon production. That's good news. Try to look on the bright side, eh?
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written by John, March 13, 2011
Cement dust, sanding dust, pottery dust, glass dust, fiber glass insulation dust, rock dust, the list goes on and on. I thought silicates were the most plentiful minerals on the planet.
Fortunately they are easily controlled with the other really plentiful compound, water.
Buy some N95 dust masks, use them, and chill. This is a wonderful development.
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written by UK sciientist, March 19, 2011
CO2-absorbing concrete sounds an excellent idea especially if it really sequesters 100 kg per tonne of building weight; that's minus 6 tonnes of CO2 on a small building. Besides, with concrete being a wet material, the exposure to dust on building sites should be limited.
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written by John Daglish, January 29, 2013
An alternative fabrication technique EMC (Energetically modified cement) uses very finely ground cements that are made from mixtures of cement with sand or with slag or other pozzolan type minerals which are extremely finely ground together. Such cements can have the same physical characteristics as normal cement but with 50% less cement particularly due to their increased surface area for the chemical reaction. Even with intensive grinding they can use up to 50% less energy to fabricate than ordinary Portland cements
http://www.emccement.com/landing4a.htm
http://www.sintef.info/upload/Performance_of_energetically_modified_cement.pdf
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