A Concrete Cure for Global Warming

An emerging California company by the name of Calera believes it can reduce the emissions from the Moss Landing power plant in California by converting the excess CO2 released from the facility into concrete. Man, what a concept!!

The Problem:

The Moss Landing power plant currently expels harmful CO2 particles into the air via smoke stacks. This flue gas is super-heated to about 700 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Solution:

Calera says that if that flue gas is channeled into the nearby sea water, they can convert 90% of the CO2 emissions into concrete.

The process for making cement requires a lot of heating and burning of fossil fuels; in result creating one ton of CO2 emissions for every one ton of concrete produced. Calera’s process for making calcium carbonate cement would not only reduce the CO2 emissions but trap half a ton of CO2 per ton of cement created, making it an amazing carbon capture and storage technique that creates necessary building materials simultaneously. Billions of tons of cement are used each year, so, that would in theory convert Billions of tons of CO2 into a usable product instead of releasing it into our fragile atmosphere.

Industry Big Wigs Must be Swayed

One concern is that building companies are conservative and like to keep building costs down and quality up. Calera will present this to the industry this February in order to help ease the industry leaders into the idea of strictly carbonate cement to reduce the CO2 emissions.

Calera is making a smart, carbon-neutral cement by mixing half carbonate cement and half Portland cement (the current industry standard) which balances out the carbon effect. Therefore, the cost to make carbon neutral cement would drop dramatically because sea water and the emissions from the smoke stacks would be free.

Calera is now testing its products in a small controlled plant near Moss Landing. Dynegy the owner of the power plant is interested in working with Calera and so is Caltrans (California Department of Transportation). This could be a great revolution for harnessing the emissions of fossil fuels by power plants and eventually making them emission free. We'll be watching this story closely over the next few months and will report back as developments arise.

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