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Directory:Calera Corporation

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Cement from CO2; A Concrete Solution to Global Warming

Calera Corporation operates in the area of CO2 sequestration. They have developed a nature-mimicing process that converts CO2, such as from a coal power plant, into cement. By thus removing CO2 from the atmosphere in the process of making a product that usually produces a lot of CO2 using other methods, the company is in a position to help reverse human-caused global warming and ocean acidification.

Their cement can be mixed with the usual type of cement: Portland cement.

"For every ton of cement we make, we are sequestering half a ton of CO2. We probably have the best carbon capture and storage technique there is by a long shot." -- Brent Constantz, crystallographer and founder of Calera.

1 About
2 Coverage

About

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Official Website

http://www.calera.biz

How it Works

Quoting from http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=cement-from-carbon-dioxide

The Calera process essentially mimics marine cement, which is produced by coral when making their shells and reefs, taking the calcium and magnesium in seawater and using it to form carbonates at normal temperatures and pressures. "We are turning CO2 into carbonic acid and then making carbonate," Constantz says. "All we need is water and pollution."

The company employs spray dryers that utilize the heat in the flue gas to dry the slurry that results from mixing the water and pollution. "A gas-fired power plant is basically like attaching a jet engine to the ground," Constantz notes. "We use the waste heat of the flue gas. They're just shooting it up into the atmosphere anyway."

In essence, the company is making chalk, and that's the color of the resulting cement: snow white. Once dried, the Calera cement can be used as a replacement for the Portland cement that is typically blended with rock and other material to make the concrete in everything from roads to buildings.

Costs

Unit costs as well as energy costs, e.g. cents/kw-h, including factors such as installation, maintenance, decommissioning; relative to other renewable technologies as well as relative to conventional energy products.

Advantages

CO2 sequestration rather than production.

Applications

Cement fabrication

Patents

list here

Profiles

Founder: Brent Constantz

Company: Calera Corporation

The privately-held company was founded in 2007 and is based in Los Gatos, California.

Coverage

In the News

Global Warming > CO2 Sequestration >
Cement from CO2: A Concrete Cure for Global Warming? - While Calera's process of making calcium carbonate cement wouldn't eliminate all CO2 emissions, it would reverse that equation. "For every ton of cement we make, we are sequestering half a ton of CO2," says crystallographer Brent Constantz, founder of Calera. "We probably have the best carbon capture and storage technique there is by a long shot." (Scientific American; August 7, 2008)