I have emailed a shorter version of this letter to Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, AOC, Bernie, my congressional delegation, Secretary (of Transportation) Pete, Chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Peter DeFazio, and others who will be involved in writing infrastructure legislation. I have heard back from exactly none of them. It’s frustrating that people who feel free to hit me up for campaign donations and even volunteer effort from clear across the country don’t want to hear from me unless I vote in their district—and sometimes, apparently, not even if I do.
This is vital, so I’m going to toss it out for discussion, and in the hope that some of you will know how to get it in front of some of the people who most need to consider it. I have a related concern that deserves its own article—diary?—so let’s call this
Rebuilding the Infrastructure Without Destroying the Climate, Rant #1.
------
Our infrastructure is crumbling because it was built with Portland cement, OPC. Invented in 1824 but not used extensively until the 20th century, OPC inevitably cracks; even invisible micro-cracks allow water to penetrate to its rebar, which rusts, expands, and breaks the concrete. Costly toxic additives or expensive high-tech rebar can slow but not stop this process; our bridges fall down in 60-100 years, while portions of the Roman aqueducts, made with a simpler, lower-carbon cement (lime-pozzolana) and no steel, are still standing, and the 2,000 year old Pantheon is still in daily use.
Manufacturing OPC produces 8 percent of global greenhouse gasses; making steel to reinforce concrete emits about 9 percent. Together they are 17 percent of climate change. The entire airline industry is responsible for 2 ½ to 4 percent of GHGs, and we are after them to decarbonize with a vengeance.
If we rebuild our roads and bridges with this same flawed material, our grandkids will have to pay to do it all again. If we rebuild, and China and India “modernize” with OPC, those carbon emissions will increase exponentially, enough to negate all other efforts to contain climate change.
There are several alternative cements. Geopolymer cements, “GPCs,” can be made from coal fly ash and steel mill slag, cleaning up vast toxic waste disposal nightmares. The carbon from those processes is already in the atmosphere; no way to unscramble that egg, but no excuse to burn more coal or make more “dirty” steel,* either; when we deplete those wastes, “pozzolanic” (reactive) volcanic ash will work just fine.
GPCs are stronger than OPC, and while much newer (1980s), appear to be far more durable. They have higher compressive and tensile strength, low drying shrinkage (drying shrinkage is what cracks OPC), are somewhat insulative—up to R-8/inch with the right aggregates—and resist chemical attack much better than OPC. Some GPCs suck CO2 out of the air and turn it to stone as they cure; a useful and beautiful version is Ferrock™. You can improve some GPCs by adding biochar, sequestering more atmospheric carbon.
GPCs should cost us taxpayers much less than OPC, as we pay for the rebuild.
Blue World Sciences, Pompano Beach, FL, has developed a GPC-offshoot they call Blue World Crete™. BWC is fireproof, not just waterproof but hydrophobic—if water can’t penetrate, water/ice can’t damage--amazingly flexible, doesn’t crack, is three times as strong as OPC, and so non-porous that bacteria/barnacles/mold/mildew/algae/zebra mussels can’t grow on it.
BWS claims 20 percent less cost and 1/10 the carbon footprint of OPC. But BWC penetrates, mineralizes, bonds to and protects cellulosic aggregates and bamboo reinforcing from fire and rot; steel rebar is overkill for light construction. Woody biomass is about ¾ carbon, and concrete is often about 5/6 aggregates, so building with wood chips, sawdust, bamboo and BWC would sequester the carbon in those materials, too. You can cut cellulose-aggregate BWC with woodworking tools, and it takes and holds nails and screws. An exterior layer with stony aggregate could be bullet resistant—ever more important in today’s cities.
A portable, mass-producible BWC plant should cost 1/20th to 1/10th as much as a comparable OPC plant, and won’t burn tons of coal or methane every day. And BWS says that BWC super-insulates—R-35 per inch. That’s huge. OPC is a conductive heat sink, so when you build with it you have to build a frame wall inside your structural wall, just to have something to insulate; then mold/mildew wants to grow in the space between those walls. None of that is needed—no sheathing, housewrap, standoffs, siding, paint, framing, insulation, sheetrock, caulking, paint--if your waterproof concrete shell insulates. I think (I’m a solar home designer) that building the shell of a house with BWC might cut the cost by half, maybe 2/3. That house could be utterly fireproof; bury a BWC dome and a ‘way cute Hobbit house could be tornado proof.
OPC is the largest industry on the planet—the only thing we use more of is water—they do a lot of lobbying, and they are resisting the switch to sustainable cements, even though the switch to GPCs and BWC would cost them relatively little, and ultimately make them more profitable. Like the fossil fuel industry, they’re trying to hold us back in the past while the world forges on into the future. Are we really going to let them turn us into a third-world country, and destroy the biosphere, just to maintain their quarterly profit statements?
If we rebuild with OPC, it will all begin to crumble again this century. Given what that much more CO2 in the atmosphere will do to the planet, it may not matter.
------------
If you care to research geopolymer cements and Blue World Crete for yourself, start here: Geopolymer Solutions, https://www.geopolymertech.com/ and here: http://blueworldsciences.com/blue-crete.html. Page down to see the burn test.
---------------
*A team at MIT led by Prof. Donald Sadoway has essentially tweaked the Molten Oxide Electrolysis process used to make aluminum to work with other metals, especially steel. The off-gas is pure oxygen; no CO2. The new process makes better steel less expensively, using 20 percent less energy. It will require lots of clean electricity; we need molten salt fast nuclear reactors, now. But that’s another rant. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature12134
I didn’t mention aluminum above, but making a ton of aluminum emits something between 12 and 17 tons of CO2e (equivalent) GHGs. Much of this is because the carbon electrodes burn as they electrolyze the aluminum oxide, and a team including Alcoa, Rio Tinto, and the Canadian government is developing titanium electrodes, and otherwise tweaking the process so it, too, should emit only pure oxygen. The other 60 percent of cleaning up aluminum is, again, clean electricity, but we need all of that we can get make, anyway. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/10/new-technology-slash-aluminium-production-carbon-emissions
------------------
Some of you might remember my way-too-long rant, This is what we do about climate change, submitted here a couple of years ago. It has grown into 96,000 words, Pumping the Brakes on Climate Change: a Review of the Technologies (and Politics) that could Leave the Future a Future, and needs one more thorough edit before I publish it, however I decide to do that. What follows are my research notes for the chapter on clean concrete, steel, and aluminum. Sorry: they’re even longer than the above rant. I hope someone gets some use from them.
[1] “Alternative Cement,” Project Drawdown, accessed June 10, 2020, https://www.drawdown.org/solutions/materials/alternative-cement
[1] Dean McCartney, “The problem with reinforced concrete,” The Conversation, June 17, 2016, https://theconversation.com/the-problem-with-reinforced-concrete-56078
[1] John Mathews, Professor of Strategic Management, Macquarie Graduate School of Management, “Eco-cement, the cheapest carbon sequestration on the planet,” The Conversation, Dec. 17, 2012 https://theconversation.com/eco-cement-the-cheapest-carbon-sequestration-on-the-planet-10978
[1] Geopolymer Solutions, “Cure Time and Strength Design,” Geopolymertech website, accessed March 21, 2021, https://www.geopolymertech.com/ . This website is a treasure trove of info on geopolymer cements.
[1] “UA Invention-Turned-Startup Offers Revolutionary Eco-friendly Substitute for Cement,” Tech Launch Arizona, The University of Arizona, Nov. 4, 2014, https://techlaunch.arizona.edu/news/ua-invention-turned-startup-offers-revolutionary-eco-friendly-substitute-cement
[1] PBS New Hour, “This cement alternative absorbs CO2 like a sponge,” YouTube, Apr. 13, 2015, 7:25. Excellent journalism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWPzERdNh50
[1] Home page, Blue World Crete Inc. Accessed June 10, 2020, http://www.blueworldcrete.com/
[1] Press Release, “Green Cement Company Emerges as Leader in New Sciences for Agriculture and Energy Industries,” Newswire, Mar. 13, 2014; BWC joint venture with Navrattan Free Power. https://www.newswire.com/green-cement-company-emerges-as/265795
[1] “Welcome to Blue World Sciences, Revolution in the Cement Industry.” Lots of good information here. See the fire tests, bottom of page 3. http://blueworldsciences.com/blue-crete.html
[1] Glenn Hasek, “Blue World Crete Develops Sustainable Concrete Product,” greenlodgingnews, July 5, 2012, https://www.greenlodgingnews.com/blue-world-crete-develops-sustainable-concrete-product/
[1] daniel panitz panitz, (Rev. Daniel Robert Panitz) “The First True Alternative to traditional forms of Portland cement.” You tube, Sept 29, 2012, 9:11, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozc1mIxGGnI
[1] Lia Miller, “Smog-Eating Cement,” The New York Times Magazine, Dec. 9, 2007 https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09smogeatingcement.html
[1] Kate Ryan, “This Pollution-Absorbing Cement Could Clean Up Smoggy Cities,” Good, Dec. 21, 2017. https://www.good.is/articles/pollution-absorbing-cement
[1] George Swanson, “Magnesium Oxide, Magnesium Chloride, and Phosphate-based Cements,” accessed June 10, 2020. http://geoswan.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/MgO-GENERAL.pdf
[1] Zoubeir Souissi, Reuters, “How the great phosphorus shortage could leave us all hungry,” The Conversation, Feb. 11, 2016, https://theconversation.com/how-the-great-phosphorus-shortage-could-leave-us-all-hungry-54432
[1]James Murray-White, “New Developments: Environmentally Friendly Concrete,” Sustainable Build, Update Jan. 18. 2020, http://www.sustainablebuild.co.uk/environmentally-friendly-concrete.html
[1] Tim Dickinson, “Study: U.S. Fossil Fuel Subsidies Exceed Pentagon Spending. The world would be richer and healthier if the full costs of fossil fuels were paid, according to a new report from the International Monetary Fund.” Rolling Stone, May 8, 2019, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/fossil-fuel-subsidies-pentagon-spending-imf-report-833035/
[1] Fei Zhang, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College, London, “Magnesium oxide based binders as low-carbon cements,” Doctoral thesis, 2012, accessed 2019. https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/11000/1/Zhang-F-2013-PhD-Thesis.pdf
[1]Vivian Volz, Eric Stovner, “Reducing embodied Energy in Masonry Construction,” Structure Magazine, May 2010, https://www.structuremag.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/C-StructSustain-Volz-May101.pdf
[1] Annie Kane, “Making concrete green: reinventing the world's most used synthetic material,” The Guardian, March 3, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/mar/04/making-concrete-green-reinventing-the-worlds-most-used-synthetic-material
[1] Francesco Pomponi, Vice Chancellor's Research Fellow, Edinburgh Napier University, “So much for COP23 – there’s a whole class of carbon emissions we’re totally ignoring,” The Conversation, Nov.15, 2017, https://theconversation.com/so-much-for-cop23-theres-a-whole-class-of-carbon-emissions-were-totally-ignoring-87544
[1] Real Engineering, “How We Will Colonise The Moon,” YouTube, Oct. 5, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dL28N5yPmQ
[1] David L. Chandler, “One order of steel; hold the greenhouse gases,” MIT News Office, May 8, 2013, http://news.mit.edu/2013/steel-without-greenhouse-gas-emissions-0508
[1] Antoine Allanore, Lan Yin & Donald R. Sadoway, “A new anode material for oxygen evolution in molten oxide electrolysis,” nature, May 8, 2013, https://www.nature.com/articles/nature12134
[1] Donald Sadoway, “Steel Production without CO2 Emissions,” at EmTechnology MENA 2019, said current steel production emits nine percent of global GHGs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg5M5WjGx5M
[1] Fiona Harvey, Environment correspondent, “New technology could slash carbon emissions from aluminium production,” The Guardian, May 10, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/10/new-technology-slash-aluminium-production-carbon-emissions
------------