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To make cement, you "cook" limestone (CaCO3) or dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2 ) , which drives off the CO2. So cement production is a contributor to carbon emissions, and ultimately we will need to find new ways to make cement and concrete.
An Ozzie firm has plans to produce "green concrete", which doesn't use cement, but instead actually uses CO2 instead of emitting it.
An Australian pilot project capturing carbon emissions and storing them in building materials aims to have a full-scale production plant by 2020.
Mineral Carbonation International, an Australian company developing carbon-utilisation technology will officially launch its technology and research program at the Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources on Friday.
The launch will include a demonstration of the hour-long process bonding CO2 - stored in large cylinders at one end of the warehouse - with crushed serpentinite from the nearby Orica Kooragang Island operation, permanently converting it into solid carbonates.
“This mimics but greatly speeds up the natural weathering by rainfall which produces common types of rocks over millions of years,” MCI said. “These carbonates and silica by-products have the potential to be used in building products such as concrete and plasterboard to create green construction materials.”
[read more here]
I talked about converting CO2 to stone here, which is a similar idea, except that in the case of green concrete, they have a product they can sell. Given just how much CO2 will need to be removed from the atmosphere if we are to avoid 3 degrees C of warming, this process by itself isn't going to make a huge difference. But consider: if concrete production can go from contributing CO2 to the atmosphere even just to zero emissions, let alone negative emissions, that will be a huge step forward. And obviously (as always) a carbon tax would help.
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