Free Republic

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....

Soaring above the Mississippi River just east of downtown Minneapolis is one remarkable concrete job. There on Interstate 35W, the St. Anthony Falls Bridge carries 10 lanes of traffic on box girders borne by massive arching piers, which are supported, in turn, by footings and deep pilings. The bridge, built to replace one that collapsed in 2007, killing 13 people, is constructed almost entirely of concrete embedded with steel reinforcing bars, or rebar. But it is hardly a monolithic structure: the components are made from different concrete mixes, the recipes tweaked, as a chef would, for specific strength and durability...