(UPDATED*) Scientific American News: Big gas-fired power plant + big cement plant = less CO2 in the air
Fossil fuel plants put CO2 in the air. Cement plants do the same thing. So it comes as a big surprise that working together these two, usually climate-imperiling activities just might put less CO2 into the air than either of them working alone emits. For a profit to boot. Scientific American‘s David Biello writes it up on the outlet’s wire this week. It’s made a small appearance on other news sites recently too.
A pilot effort is getting started near Monterey, CA, at the Moss Landing power plant – its towering twin stacks a landmark for sailors and motorists alike. It appears clever. You know all that talk about sequestering CO2 in basalt, where it turns to minerals resembling cement, or chalk? Well, it says here that maybe a similar process can be done up on the surface, too. The idea is to bubble CO2-rich flue gas through seawater, and use the powerplant’s waste heat to dry the stuff that forms. A company called Calera says the result not only entombs a good share of the CO2 from the powerplant, the product should be about as good and as saleable as Portland cement. So it says. They call the product carbon negative cement. Good luck with that.
LATE ADDITION: Reporter Biello says he spent six months, off an on, pursuing the company’s CEO and other leads to get the story fleshed out. That’s diligence.
Other Stories:
VentureBeat Matt Marshall says the process’s instigator is “a secretive Silicon Valley company,” ;NYTimes Amy Cortese mentioned the company and its process in a July 13 piece on green building methods ;
LATE ADDITION: While it’s not online, freelancer (and Wired staffer) Alexis Madrigal reports he had info on the company and the concept in his article on new building materials in the July issue of Dwell Magazine.
*UPDATE: Sept. 2, SF Chronicle Carrie Sturrock catches up with a p. 1 feature. Hed: “Green cement may set CO2 fate in concrete.”
Grist for the Mill:
Calera Corp. Also, the company apparently has start-up investment from a venture capital outfit called Khosla Ventures (a Sun Microsystems co-founder set it up). On the latter’s website is a ppt listing the maybe-world-saving investments it has made. It’s like a confectionery’s list of goodies that will make greens salivate.
-CP
