Researchers make concrete production carbon neutral

[Stuart] Licht's latest trick has been to examine a way to make concrete production climate neutral, cheaper and more efficient. His idea is, essentially, to graft on a small C2CNT plant to the concrete factory's exhaust flue, catching all of the CO2 that would otherwise be pumped out. The process would then separate out the carbon dioxide, which would be spun into carbon nanotubes, and oxygen.

The oxygen would then be pumped back into the concrete plant's furnaces, making them burn far hotter with far less fuel need, saving money. The carbon nanotubes, meanwhile, could then be sold on the open market at a for-profit cost that would make it highly persuasive to any business-type. After all, Licht's calculation is that for every $100 of cement produced, the factory would have $60,000 worth of nanotubes to sell.

Endgadget.com, March 20, 2017 - Researchers make concrete production carbon neutral.

Upcycling. One of my favorite topics. So people, this is how it is done. You create one product in this case concrete. The so called "waste" product, CO2, is captured. Separate out the CO2 and O2 (in this case), add some electricity and a catalyst, out pops carbon nanotubes and O2 to burn in the furnace. You could add the CNTs back into the concrete making it stronger and more durable. Or like they say, have a bunch to sell back on the open market. You get a second product out of one manufacturing process. That is upcycling at its basic essence.

Considering that 5% of the CO2 generated today (same source) is used to make concrete this sounds like a winner!

and

Personally, this is the future of manufacturing. Everything is going to eventually go this way. Every single ounce of energy created will be utilized in one manner shape or form. It just makes sense.

So ATS, great idea? About time? Give it a break TEOT you tree hugger! Trump blah-blah-blah?! Meh...? Shave the whales?!

Anything that helps us be less wasteful as a species i'm down with.

-Alee

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF Yeah, the goat will give more milk now. Big deal....

a reply to: Argentbenign

It kind of like grocery shopping. Do you buy something, take one bite, and chuck the rest in the bin? No. You stick things in the refrigerator and freezer to try and maximize your money.

So that goes for this idea. Why trash the earth if you can make two products at once while not making a waste product?

Stage 3, profits! Got it?!

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
a reply to: Argentbenign

Why trash the earth...

Actually, I'm more for "Thrash the Earth" instead... www.youtube.com...

I wonder how many "LEED" points would be gotten for including this concrete in a building design, if this product ever goes mainstream.

a reply to: NerdGoddess

It is nice to know that some people are trying to think ahead! I'm down with it too! Let's hope this makes it a demo plant stage!

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

Not sure about LEED points but the notion is good!

The article makes it seem that not doing anything useful with waste byproduct does not make economic sense. The plant in India that converts their CO2 to baking soda did not do it to save the world; the guy needed a source of baking soda so he captured CO2 from his power plant! It was purely economics. The argument Licht makes is also economic in nature with the added benefit of not polluting so much.

I think that most people are going to have that light bulb go off moment too! There could be a CO2 "gold rush" when that happens!!

We’ve developed a process in which cement is replaced as the binding ingredient in concrete with ground steel slag [!!!], and where heat-and-steam curing is replaced by curing with carbon dioxide.

Steel slag is a by-product of the steel-refining process. Because it is generally considered to be waste, the bulk of it is destined for landfills and is far less expensive to procure than cement.

But because of its chemical composition, steel slag is CO2-reactive. We leverage this property using a process called carbonation activation. CO2 is injected into the wet concrete to give it its strength. The strength gain is attributed to the formation of calcium-silicate-hydrates coupled with calcium carbonates through the carbon activation of calcium silicates.

The cement required to produce a standard size concrete block, often referred to as a “cinder block”, results in 2kg of CO2 emissions. Our process avoids that. Additionally, we capture 1kg of CO2 in every block during the curing process.

Huff Po - A Concrete Solution to CO2 Emissions

The Carbon XPrize is to be awarded this year. The article is about one solution being tried in Canada. A firm offered up 35 million to try various solutions which is even more than the XPrize (a mere 20 million, lol)! Like the OP, the thoughts are to capture CO2 from a flue then make it into something useful. The slag concrete is a pretty crazy idea that I had to share!

And what would the cost of this carbon nanotube plant be?

My guess is that it's completely in feasibly expensive, large, or unmanageable.

60k in nanotubes for every $100 in concrete?
What about timeframe? Would that mean they'd have to scale down concrete production to $100 worth a year for the nanotube plant to keep up?


Don't get me wrong, I'm all for this idea- but my guess is that if it worked in reality it would be happening already.
If I could spin 60k worth of carbon nanotubes (and sell them off) easily, I'd be flooding the market with them already. co2 isn't hard to come by.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Personally, this is the future of manufacturing. Everything is going to eventually go this way. Every single ounce of energy created will be utilized in one manner shape or form. It just makes sense.

Its good news. We need to close other loops as well. Nothing should be produced that cannot be broken down again by either man or nature..

a reply to: lordcomac

Sticking on a carbon capture device should not be that expensive. The trick is what to do with all that CO2. You can store it but it is better to use it. I think the nanotube market is overvalued because it is rare. Once it is produced at manufacturing levels the price drops so not sure those numbers are realistic.

There is plant in South Korea that is coming online next year that will be making 400 tons of carbon nanotubes per year.

a reply to: purplemer

There so many options to capture CO2. There is a company in Canada that has 50 of these things but they said they have 10,000 they would need and that would only cover them and not the other guys.

It is the mindset that needs changing. It is slowly starting to happen with stories like these. Even the XPrize guys say they will not solve the CO2 problem but no longer contributing to it is also a solution!

originally posted by: lordcomac
And what would the cost of this carbon nanotube plant be?

My guess is that it's completely in feasibly expensive, large, or unmanageable.

60k in nanotubes for every $100 in concrete?
What about timeframe? Would that mean they'd have to scale down concrete production to $100 worth a year for the nanotube plant to keep up?


Don't get me wrong, I'm all for this idea- but my guess is that if it worked in reality it would be happening already.
If I could spin 60k worth of carbon nanotubes (and sell them off) easily, I'd be flooding the market with them already. co2 isn't hard to come by.

How many cement plants would saturate the nanotube market? This might work for plant one, but soon, the nanotubes would flood the market, the price would drop and may even have negative value. At that point, it would not be economic to produce nanotubes and that process would be shut down as stranded capital.

This entire scheme depends on the market demand for nanotubes and will be limited by that demand.

I would love to be excited about this. However I pour a lot of crete, and sadly I have to add that we are required now to have fly ash added to our mixes. For those who don't know, it's the ash that come from exhaust towers of power plants. It's not nice stuff , many of us get sick playing with this sh#t. Also Vma fibers are added which are supposed to be recyled fiberglass, however sometimes it has an shale like glisten to it which makes me suspect abestos.

However, carbon neutral is a good thing.

a reply to: Natas0114

Thanks for info on fly ash! I didn't know that that was a requirement.

I forget sometimes that this is more than just science and in the real world sh# still needs to get done. Sometimes that means no cool science stuff.



CBC.ca - Companies seek to turn captured carbon into concrete, fish food, and even toothpaste.

Some more examples of people thinking about CO2 as a resource not a waste by product.

Cool!

We're all still going to die...

and most species will also croak along with us on this chemical spill we call a planet, barring some miracle ... but at least someone is trying!

a reply to: Baddogma

LOL

Nero played violin... I'll be drinking beer!

The micro plastics is starting to worry me. CNTs as an inhaled material needs some attention too.

But at least someone is thinking about the issue. And as material scientists tie things together this will gain momentum. I wish that we do this across the board like I was taught in elementary school about recycling! Which is my naive belief in "upcycling" and my threads on the topic. I will keep it on message as much as possible.

a reply to: Argentbenign

Venom!! Sweet!

Like first album Opeth myself! And am more "surf the earth" too. As in snow!

It is all good!

Well, I admit I'm not overly excited about the 'carbon neutral' thing, but I am excited about cheaper concrete, less fuel used to make it, and carbon nanotube production! Beautifully innovative idea, and with increased nanotube production will come lower nanotube costs and more availability to do more with them.

... and I'm sure the idea will make some Global Warming alarmists feel all happy and stuff inside (until they realize it makes the carbon tax look unnecessary)...

Good find OP!

TheRedneck

I know... it is kind of difficult to jump and down over concrete.

So while browsing around I ran across something a little more close at hand for the masses: beer!

After considering several applications that might benefit from reusable microcapsules that can rapidly absorb CO2, including waste gasification, fertilizer production and deep-water diving, he didn't have to go far to find the next promising lead. Lab-Corps happened to be held in Golden, Colorado, the home of Coors Brewing Company (link is external) and part of the Denver metro area, which boasts more than 200 microbreweries.

The team's entrepreneurial lead, Lionel Keene, an LLNL [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory] engineer who once founded his own software company, suggested contacting Coors, and the group talked their way into touring the facility, which they found had an aging CO2 reclamation system.

"Luck plays a big role in a lot of these things and frankly, we got lucky," Keene said. "We had a flexible product, so if one thing didn't work out, we could find somewhere else where it might be useful. Sometimes it's just a matter of talking to the right person."

In meeting with Coors and a local CO2 supplier, Ye and Keene learned that during the fermentation process, breweries produce about three times the amount of CO2 needed for carbonization and packaging. Coors, for example, generates roughly 300 million pounds of carbon dioxide per year [!!!] during the fermentation steps, but only needs 80 million pounds, most of which is currently purchased through suppliers. Furthermore, typically 80 percent of the cost of purchasing CO2 comes in transportation. If breweries could capture and reuse CO2 using the microcapsules, Ye thought, they could be self-sustaining and sell the excess to other nearby consumers.

Independetnews.com - Lab-Corps experience inspires application of carbon capture technology to untapped industry.

The guys at LLNL are also taking a swing at the "CO2 as waste" problem. They had a capture solution then had to figure out which industry could benefit from their method. As stated, the lucked out and talked one of the big guys in brewing, Coors! Some numbers I was not aware of! In brewing, you pass the CO2 out of the fermentation vessel through a one-way tube called an air lock. Some companies reclaim the CO2 for bottling/kegging the rest is typically vented. So with so many breweries around it looks like they found a winner!

LLNL's method is having a bunch of pellets of CO2 friendly grabbers that can be processed to release the CO2 after it has been collected (a centralized system that stores the gas off in cylinders). The team decided that instead of charging Coors they would show them how it works and then make money off of selling the excess CO2! That is pretty cool of them to do!

Upcycling at it finest!