NREL Researchers Pave the Way for Carbon-Negative Concrete

Comments

• TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Cement contributes to ~8% of the Earth’s CO2 emissions. Almost 4x aviation, and not too far off all of the Earth’s combined agriculture.

  If concrete was a country, it’d be the 3rd highest polluting country on Earth, after China and the US.

  Even if this headline is overly ambitious, any improvement is a good one.

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• JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Roman concrete would cure by reacting with the carbon dioxide in the air, fixing it into the concrete. It doesn’t sound like that’s how this concrete works, but I wonder if a methodology like that would be carbon negative.

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  • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    For obvious reasons, I imagine that would only react on the surface level, and I’m willing to bet the CO2 generated in mining the materials, creating the concrete, and transporting the concrete outweigh some surface-level reactions with CO2.

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    • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yeah you need to pour it differently, in thin layers. I’m guessing that extra time might make it too expensive?

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  • EarthShipTechIntern@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Roman methods are not how modern concrete is produced. As the article mentions, concrete production involves heating massive amounts, spewing loads of carbon dioxide & other toxins into the atmosphere.

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    • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      That’s why I was proposing using the older method that would sequester CO2 instead of emitting it.

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  • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Isn’t the formula for Roman concrete unknown? I’m wondering how they can tell it is carbon negative

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    • hamsterkill@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Isn’t the formula for Roman concrete unknown?

      Yes, though a lot of research has been done to figure out its not important properties. A secret of its durability was just figured out last year. news.mit.edu/…/roman-concrete-durability-lime-cas…

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• technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The real problem is that we’ve paved over the planet. We don’t need more concrete. We should be tearing it up and banning cars.

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  • ArtikBanana@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Concrete is also used in buildings and other facilities like pumped storage hydropower.

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