Scientists at the University of Michigan have managed to flip the entire cement production process on its head, drastically reducing carbon pollution in the short and long term.
Alone, cement seems fairly innocuous to the ordinary observer. We walk on it, drive over it, and observe it in everything from bridges to high-rises. It's as common to us as going to sleep and waking up in the morning.
Yet, behind that humdrum facade lies the second-most significant driving force behind adverse pollution in the industrial sector. That's right — the production of cement is a colossal factor.
Fortunately, UM researchers have discovered a new method that changes very little throughout the manufacturing process. Oftentimes, discoveries take significant time to roll out, thanks to cost and labor.
In this instance, the only thing that changes is the limestone, a primary ingredient in cement making. When heated, limestone releases carbon dioxide, not to mention the carbon dioxide released via the heating process.
Since the amount of carbon dioxide captured from the air equals or exceeds the amount that would have been released through the traditional process, the new method is close to carbon neutral at worst and carbon negative at best.
Either way, it's a major improvement over a process that contributes 5% to 8% of carbon dioxide pollution across the planet. The particular here, which is so often the focus, is the fiscal soul of the project. Is it more cost-effective than the traditional method?
As mentioned above, new methods, discoveries, and technologies are so often hindered by the cost consumers are willing to absorb. In this case, the consumers would be the industrial engines of the world.
Capturing carbon dioxide from the air is not a cheap process, though neither is heating limestone in a kiln. According to Tech Xplore, Xiao Kun Lu, a chemical engineering doctoral student at Northwestern University, said, "As the present strategy requires minimal or no modification to the business-as-usual cement plants, it has low entry barriers to be adopted by the large cement businesses."
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Definitely 👍 If that's the case, then the economic factor is negligible at best, making the entire effort an enormous breakthrough in cement manufacturing. If every cement manufacturer in the world adopted this novel methodology, that 5% to 8% would be negated.
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Of course, like everything else, the news should be taken with caution. Rolling out new industrial manufacturing standards takes a long time, and that's assuming there is no resistance to the change.
According to the University of Michigan's website, the director of the project, Volker Sick, said, "It's an exciting confluence of different technologies that, in and of themselves, are groundbreaking, and together they are almost too good to be true."
Wenxin Zhang, a doctoral student and contributing author, made it clear to the university's site what the advantages are: "The strategy can change the cement industry from a gigaton CO2 emitter to a gigaton-scale enabler for clean energy and carbon management technologies."
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