Quest for “green” cement draws big name investors to $300B industry
For Bryan Kalbfleisch, cement is a way of life. “I was born and raised in the ready-mix concrete business,” says the New Jersey-based chief executive, explaining his father worked in the sector for 40 years. “I was the kind of kid who could operate heavy machinery, before I could drive.”
Now he is doing something that he never imagined—developing a new type of concrete that can store carbon dioxide to help combat climate change.
The Solidia Technologies start-up that he runs is part of a growing number trying to solve one of the toughest problems in heavy industry: how to make concrete without producing a lot of greenhouse gas emissions.
Concrete is one of the most used commodities in the world, second only to water, and among the most polluting. The industry accounts for about 2.6bn tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, or about 6 percent of global emissions. If it were a country, it would be the fourth-biggest emitter, just behind India, ahead of Russia and Japan.
This chemical reaction accounts for as much as 70 percent of the emissions from cement making, and a remaining 30 percent come from the energy to heat the kiln. For every 10 tonnes of cement produced, six tonnes of carbon dioxide end up in the atmosphere.
