this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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Form a Fortune article:
From a Techwire article:
I could not find any article on how much the carbon cost was to run such a facility and move the raw materials to/from it.
Well, they're using renewable energy to power it. The limestone looks like it's just constantly recycled, so it would be just the initial transport there. Their output is tanks of compressed carbon dioxide which is sent to a concrete maker, so it really depends on how far away the concrete maker is. There's a thing called industrial symbiosis, where manufacturers co-locate so that one factory's waste easily becomes the factory next door's input.
I'm not very familiar with all this but shouldn't we be hiding the CO2 somehow? I feel like concrete is just going to nudge the can down the road until it breaks down in like 50 years
While in 50 years it might not be a great building anymore, it will still be a fantastic pile of rubble. Basically landfill, but it can be reused as gravel for new building projects, too.
That all makes sense, thank you!
The concrete frkm the berlin wall is probably being used in some industrial parking lot somewhere.
The concrete won't release the CO2 when it breaks down, since the quicklime in the cement reacts with CO2 to form limestone. The catch is that quicklime is mainly produced by heating limestone to release CO2, so making extra concrete won't result in net carbon capture. But if the concrete was going to be produced anyway, I suppose it's better to have it absorb the CO2 sooner rather than later.
Hmm, well that's less exciting than I had hoped but yeah at least it is something and honestly anything to get new tech funded is probably good overall
Roman concrete structures still exist after 2000 years. If you want to "hide" the CO2 somehow, then concrete doesn't seem like a bad idea.