Concrete and CO2
The fellow sitting next to me on a plane-ride this morning was a magnet for information on renewable energy and environmental sustainability more generally.
He wanted to know things that most people struggle with, e.g., if CO2 is a gas, how can it have weight? It floats about in our atmosphere, and if I put a bottle of it on a scale, the only reading I would get from the scale would be the weight of the bottle itself.
All understandable. I did the best I could at explaining high school chemistry, and he seemed genuinely grateful.
Finally, he asked me why concrete plants are point sources of CO2 emissions. I understand that the issue here is not concrete per se, but cement, the ingredient that binds concrete together. Beyond that, however, I was lost.
I gave him my card, told him that I would research this upon my arrival, write a blog post on it, and invited him to check out the blog later in the day, or tomorrow at the latest.
From this:
When evaluating the carbon footprint of concrete pavements, it is important to recognize the difference between cement and concrete. While cement is an energy-intensive product, concrete is actually one of the world’s most CO2-
efficient and sustainable construction materials.
CO2 emissions from a cement plant are divided into two source categories:
• Combustion (40 percent of emissions)
• Calcination (60 percent of emissions) – the thermal treatment of a solid chemical compound whereby the compound is raised to a high temperature without melting under a restricted supply of ambient oxygen, generally for the purpose of removing impurities or volatile substances and/or to incur thermal decomposition
The combustion-generated CO2 emissions are related to fuel use. The CO2 emissions due to calcination are formed when the raw materials (mostly limestone and clay) are heated to more than 2500°F and CO2 is liberated
from the decomposed minerals.
Now we both know.
In less than two months, we’ll see.
It’s said that there are two different groups of people that constitute human civilization:
Here’s a meme that takes the migration to electric vehicles about as far out of context as one could imagine.
This is funny, but, believe it or not, it appears that one of Trump’s choices is actually acceptable to the Department of Justice.
The actual truth isn’t too distant from what we see depicted here.
Doesn’t it seems that the Republicans are in a horrible position going into the midterms (outside of deep red states)?
Yesterday, I spent a few hours with an old high school chum I hadn’t seen in 50 years. I recalled him as a fairly uninspired student, and he’d be the first to admit I was right.
Prager “University” is not a learning institution, but a conservative advocacy group. The meme here makes a very typical, provocative claim.
A riddle: What’s black and brown and looks good on an attorney?
