Concrete Answers

Chemistry is a subject I should have taken more seriously.  I have one class in the eleventh grade under my belt.  Now that chemistry is making its way into more economic subjects as the globe fights off a pandemic and climate change, it might need to be added to Atlas’ knowledge set.   Last Friday we published this note on sand, and now we have another which tangentially touches on the grainy substrate.

Most readers will know the two biggest producers of carbon dioxide (CO₂). It’s the U.S. and China in case you were wondering.  But what about the third largest producer?  You’ll have to look that answer up.  However, if concrete were a nation, it would be the third largest contributor.  As it turns out, concrete’s primary ingredient, cement, releases lots of carbon dioxide while being produced.  It starts with quarrying limestone which is made up largely of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). This ingredient must be heated up and CO₂ is released as an unrefined cement-related product is produced.  According to this article, roughly one pound of the greenhouse gas is released for every pound of cement generated.  Have you ever carried a wheelbarrow of wet cement?  They’re heavy and don’t actually amount to many cubic feet of sidewalk.

Scientists from U.C. Irvine and Imperial College London suggest chemistry could be used to both reduce the CO₂  released into the atmosphere and make the concrete even stronger, thus reducing the amount needed for any given project.  If it sounds complicated, Atlas agrees.  That hasn’t stopped a large online retailer and an auto manufacturer from already using this carbon capture process here in America, however.

Our economic system requires the type of infrastructure that concrete provides.  We cannot just go back to simple structures and small-scale output, especially after much of the rest of the world models itself on our approach.  But we also can’t ignore the changes in climate which are in a large way a result of the complexity of our current system.  Perhaps chemistry can help us move toward a future with familiar comforts that is less taxing on the environment.