When cement is combined with water, sand, and gravel, it hardens into concrete—the second-most-used substance on the planet (after water).
Within the typical cement-making course of, emissions largely come from two sources. First, ground-up supplies equivalent to limestone and clay are heated in kilns to over 1,400 °C (2,500 °F) to prime the combination. Reaching these temperatures sometimes requires burning coal or different fossil fuels, which produces carbon dioxide and different greenhouse gasses.
The chemical course of within the kiln additionally requires peeling carbon dioxide away from the beginning minerals to depart the reactive cement powder that builders use. That carbon dioxide is often troublesome to seize earlier than it’s emitted into the environment.
Chic Programs has invented a course of that tackles each of these points.
First, the corporate makes use of electrochemical reactions slightly than excessive temperatures to make its cement, avoiding the necessity to burn fossil fuels. Fueling the reactions with electrical energy signifies that Chic’s crops can finally be powered by vitality sources like photo voltaic and wind as a substitute of by burning coal or pure fuel. The method may also use totally different beginning supplies that don’t essentially emit carbon dioxide after they’re reworked into cement components.
Key indicators
- Trade: Cement
- Based: 2020
- Headquarters: Somerville, MA, USA
- Notable reality: The primary reactions that cofounder Leah Ellis ran in a lab at MIT made solely a few die-sized quantity of fabric.
Potential for impression
If Chic is ready to run its course of on the large scales required to be related within the trade, the startup’s expertise would scale back emissions related to cement by 90%.
And whereas a number of paths to decarbonizing the sector are beneath improvement right this moment, Chic’s method may finally make cement that may compete with typical strategies on price, making a convincing financial case for adoption.