Los Gatos green cement manufacturer to test product in Santa Cruz

The San Jose Mercury News ^ | December 3, 2010 | Kurtis Alexander

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

SANTA CRUZ -- The Los Gatos startup that pledged to turn greenhouse gas into cement has landed its first job: a sidewalk in the city of Santa Cruz.

While a relatively small project, the 400-foot walkway off Morrissey Boulevard will serve as a big test for plans by the environmentally minded Calera Corp. to capture carbon dioxide exhaust from the Moss Landing Power Plant and fashion it into commercially viable construction materials, like cement.

"We're at the point where we want to start using our materials in the built-in environment," said Martin Devenney, vice president of materials development at Calera. "It's part of the process of getting your material accepted in the concrete industry."

City officials won't be the only ones watching what the company can do. So too will local and state transportation managers who have control over lucrative construction contracts and may be partial to using a cement that helps in the fight against global warming for future road projects.

"This is the way to bringing it forward," said Kim Shultz, Highway 1 project manager for the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission.

The Regional Transportation Commission coordinated the sidewalk deal with Calera in hopes of bringing Calera's environmentally superior cement to other projects, such as Highway 1 widening.

For three years, Calera has been testing its technology at a plant in Moss Landing, making small batches of cement there. In the process, it's lured tens of millions of dollars of investment to its Los Gatos research facilities, including $20 million of federal stimulus funds this summer, all going toward scaling up operations.

[tallyhoe]

Why don’t they try to harness the gas coming out of congress and the White house to make concrete?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Interesting. Normally the production of cement RELEASES huge amounts of CO2 due to the calcining of calcium carbonate to lime. I wonder how in the world they are using CO2 in their cement when the normal process emits it.

[al baby]

Can one still write initials on it ?

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[GeronL]

“environmentally superior cement”

Sure it is.

Is it three or four times more expensive?

Its not their money, what do they care?

[Charles Martel]

...capture carbon dioxide exhaust from the Moss Landing Power Plant and fashion it into commercially viable construction materials, like cement.

I'm betting that their concept of "commercially viable" won't quite agree with mine.

[bareford101]

“it’s lured tens of millions of dollars of investment to its Los Gatos research facilities, including $20 million of federal stimulus funds...”

---

that is 20 MILLION ($20,000,000. OF OUR MONEY (remember those shovel ready jobs??). The federal government doesn’t HAVE money except the money we give them! Wonder hw much of the rest of the “tens of millions” came in? and from where?

This is such a joke and typical for pelosi’s state.

[dalereed]

Stupid!

[smokingfrog]

You can turn carbon dioxide into cement?

Who knew?

If you’re really worried about CO2 just plant more trees.

[Vendome]

LOL

I was just going write nearly the same thing. I don’t think most people understand cement basically cooks itself to harden and cure.

I’d go into it further but some other smar guy can explain it fully as I am on cell phone and it would take forever.

I don’t even get how they reach a supposed 1for 1 ratio

[bunkerhill7]

That`s only $4000 per inch!

Wow! What a great saving over regular cement!

[Skepolitic]

This article makes no sense at all. It completely fails to explain the process whereby CO2 effluent is sequestered in its product.

This article appears to be about alchemy rather than chemistry.

Until Calera reveals its process in a patent application or a public disclose, its claims should be viewed with skepticism.

Laudatory newspaper articles on scientific topics, of course, should always be doubted. Journalists tend to shy away from math and the hard sciences in their academic work and ill-prepared to write on the topic. I’ve read many stories in reputable newspapers that tout perpetual motion machines and other inventions that appear to defy the laws of thermodynamics.

[Walmartian]

Two questions; 1)What does it test out at p.s.i. wise? 2) How much is a cubic yard?

[screaminsunshine]

Total insanity on display.

[hinckley buzzard]

My guess is they are using CO2 for entrainment in place of plain atmospheric air. Air takes up about 5-8% of volume of entrained concrete, and could easily be replaced by CO2 if one has an economical supply of it. I don't see where it would take millions to develop such a derivative process, but then this IS Los Gatos. Pretty high rents I'm told.

[garbanzo]

That was my first thought here too...my guess is that they are “offsetting” the CO2 produced by using some organic materials in the process at some point.

[garbanzo]

FTFA...The Calera process works by allowing carbon dioxide from the power plant to be absorbed into seawater, which gives rise to solid mineral carbonates and bicarbonates that can be spray-dried into cement, according to the company.

[HardStarboard]

>>> I wonder how in the world they are using CO2 in their cement when the normal process emits it. <<<

Bingo!

I seem to remember some enviro group railing against cement and concrete for just this reason....the emitted CO2 will destroy the earth.

Evidently these people don't exhale....and it destroys their brains!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

OK, so they spray dry seawater carbonates into a heated furnace. Marine carbonates are mainly CaCO₃, the same stuff as limestone. Unless I'm missing something here, heating the seawater carbonates in a furnace would cause the carbonate to calcine to CaO + CO₂ -- so you're right back where you started, i.e, lots of CO₂ coming out of the process.