Being about to pour several tonnes of concrete into the floor of our barn I was interested to read about the environmental impact of cement usage. Apparently, world-wide cement production creates twice as many carbon emissions as the world’s airline industry does. For each tonne of cement that is produced 900kg of CO2 is released into the atmosphere ~ heavy stuff!
Moves are afoot from major producers to green the production process. Geocycle in Belgium provides technology that allows waste products to be used to power the kilns in which the ingredients of cement (limestone, calcium, silicon, aluminium and iron oxides) are cooked into a clinker before being crushed to a powder and mixed with further additives such as gypsum.
However, with no obvious substitutes and a voracious world-wide appetite for concrete the opportunities and needs for technology to address the issue of C02 in cement production is paramount.
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