What is the most used material in the world? Concrete, the basis for building most of the modern world, was invented during the Roman Empire and remains the most used material worldwide. In 2021, cement accounted for 1.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions globally, about 4.3 % of all greenhouse gas generated that year. Meet Grant Quasha, CEO of Eco Material Technology, a New York-based maker of low-carbon cement and materials for making concrete. Eco Materials reengineered the Roman method of making pozzolanic cement using processed fly ash generated by industrial processes. The company uses a low-temperature process to remove carbon when making PozzoSlag®. This material can replace a significant portion of the portland cement required to make durable concrete used in buildings and bridges. The resulting concrete carries an embodied carbon footprint 95% lower than traditional portland cement.
During the conversation, Grant explains that billions of tons of fly ash from the Industrial Era can be recovered to make low-carbon concrete. While the prospect of lowering annual CO2 emissions associated with building homes, skyscrapers, and roads by 95% is sufficiently important to justify enthusiasm about this technology, the opportunity to mine the residual fly ash pollution created and dumped during the Industrial Era should get everyone’s attention. Society can do more than paper over environmental damage while continuing to build and expand a sustainable infrastructure — we can restore nature, making cities and their suburbs greener. You can learn more about Eco Materials Technologies at https://ecomaterial.com/
UPDATE: On October 18, 2023, Eco Material Technologies signed an agreement with Georgia Power to harvest 600,000 tons of landfilled ash each year from a landfill retired coal-fired power plant. The project will remove more than 8 million tons of fly ash over 15 years, cleaning up a polluted industrial site and using the waste to build roads, bridges, and buildings in Georgia and Florida.
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Originally aired Oct 2, 2023.