Greener Concrete, LLC Zeolite Composites: Smarter Solutions for Sustainable Change™
REDUCED CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2) CONCRETE
A Collaboration with Zeolite Composites, LLC
and
The University of Washington
Department of Materials Science & Engineering
WA Governor Elect Bob Ferguson Learning About Zeolite
As Governor, Bob Ferguson will support carbon reduction projects and environmental initiatives like ours. We look forward to collaborating with Bob's climate team.
Posted with Permission from Bob Ferguson
Our Approach Is Smarter!
Concrete accounts for more than 10% of all planet-overheating pollution. To reduce this statistic, our company has developed an innovative new method of significantly reducing carbon dioxide emissions during the concrete manufacturing process. Our solution is effective, affordable, scalable and easy to implement.
We believe that preventing CO2 emissions upfront is a better and smarter approach than figuring out how to capture and store CO2 on the back end after it is already in the atmosphere.
Zeolite is simply the best SCM alternative to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) in concrete and concrete products. It is eco-friendly and natural.
Scalable, affordable, and Sustainable Product Design
Zeolite Composites, LLC in collaboration with C-Crete Technologies, Heidelberg, and Don Davies
First ever 20-ton 100% zeolite concrete (zeolite + activator from C-Crete) pour with 100% OPC replacement:
- Commercial project located in Seattle, WA
- More than 5,000 psi in compressive strength
- Flows and pumps like conventional concrete
- Meets industry standards set by ASTM International for mechanical and durability properties
- Cost-parity with traditional concrete made with OPC
"What is exciting about this pour are the additional implications of using zeolite," says Donald Davies, owner of the Seattle building and chair of Building Transparency, a nonprofit organization dedicated to enabling the building industry to address embodied carbon's role in climate change. "This is a potentially new feedstock material that is not in the market today as a supplementary or in this case a fully alternative cementitious material [SCM or fully ACM]. This was a field trial of a new material to show what is possible. It was batched from a ready-mix truck, pumped and finished using normal construction procedures on the site."
The zeolite from Zeolite Composites is uniquely suited as an alternative SCM material for the replacement of OPC in traditional concrete materials and products because of its naturally occurring silica, alumina, and other key elements in the right amounts and ratios important for OPC replacement.
CO2 => CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING
Other than water, concrete is the most used material on the planet.
By one estimate, the world will add 2 trillion square feet of buildings by 2060 - the equivalent of putting up another New York City every month for the next 40 years.
Even small changes to the formulation of concrete with lower carbon footprint ingredients, such as zeolite, can help lower CO2 emissions resulting from cement and concrete production.
A major component (ingredient) of concrete is cement. The cement industry is one of the main producers of carbon dioxide (CO2), a potent greenhouse gas contributing to climate change.
Cement manufacturing releases CO2 in the atmosphere when calcium carbonate is heated, producing lime and CO2. The cement industry produces about 10% of global human-made CO2 emissions, of which 60% is from the chemical process, and 40% from burning fuel.
A 2018 study estimates that 4 billion tons of cement produced annually accounts for 8% of worldwide CO2 emissions. Most of the CO2 emissions (approximately 60%) in the manufacturing of cement is produced from the chemical decomposition of limestone to lime, an ingredient in cement.
CO2 emissions may be reduced by lowering the CO2 emitting ingredients in cement production with pozzolan type minerals including zeolite.
Pozzolans are a broad class of siliceous and aluminous materials. In the presence of water, they react chemically with calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) to form compounds possessing cementitious properties.
During the life cycle, concrete can reabsorb some CO2 from the atmosphere through a process known as carbon mineralization.
Carbon mineralization is a chemical process where atmospheric CO2 reacts with the Calcium Oxides (CaO) in the concrete to form calcium carbonate (CaCO3).
Research has shown that the CO2 absorption capacity of concrete can be increased by substituting zeolite powder/granules for the sand and aggregate in traditional concrete formulations.