upated
A secretive Silicon Valley company called Calera says it can stop global warming and ocean acidification by pulling greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere.
It is building a way to grab carbon dioxide from its surroundings during the manufacturing of cement. Cement is a huge culprit of greenhouse gas emissions: It uses about 2.5 billion tons of cement a year, and produces that many tons in carbon dioxide.
Calera, based in Los Gatos, Calif., has raised a round of venture capital to pursue tests of its technology.
Its claims may sound outlandish, but it has credible backers. Khosla Ventures, run by Vinod Khosla, one of the most successful venture capitalists during the first Internet boom, made the investment. The firm has sprayed money into all kinds of clean-technology companies, but most of them have solid credentials.
Calera is active in the area of carbon “sequestering.” Not only are gases not released into the atmosphere, but they are actually pulled out of the atmosphere for the process, according to its founder.
Calera was founded a few months ago by Stanford University professor Brent Constantz (pictured above), a specialist in earth sciences. Constantz has previous started three medical companies involving synthetic materials and medical devices (see his bio here), including cements that helped repair bones. That’s when he learned that a ton of carbon dioxide is created for every ton of cement produced –one of the reasons he says he started Calera. The company is building a test manufacturing facility.
Vinod Khosla tells VentureBeat the company staying quiet on further details. Of the 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide cement creates each year, he said: “If this carbon was eliminated, we would be one third of the way to the target of 7 billion tons per year,” citing the target that some climate experts have defined as necessary.
News of the funding was first reported by VentureWire (subscription required).
11 Comments
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cynic said:
Khosla may have had a knack for identifying tech companies, but he is the definition of dumb money when it comes to cleantech. He invests in company after company that would make any junior engineer in the power industry laugh out loud.
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Hearth said:
Huh!? This is absurd…Khosla is done for…
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Sanjong Thapa said:
“…pulling greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere…”
Who ya gonna call?!
Carbon-BUSTERS!!
what a friggin’ joke.
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Des Emery said:
At last - a sensible deviation from the usual crowd-approved thinking. Earth has a CO2 imbalance and requires a method of pulling the carbon into something. Cement is a concrete (pun intended) way to accomplish this, even though - horror of horrors! - it may not produce quarterly profits, but instead cost us all a penny or two.
Along the way maybe the researchers can find a way to break CO2 into its component solid, carbon, and its gas, oxygen. Carbon would be sequestered within the cement and Oxygen would be released back into the atmosphere.
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Matt G said:
“maybe the researchers can find a way to break CO2 into its component solid, carbon, and its gas, oxygen”
(waits for the next round of alchemists, trying to turn CO2 into diamonds and oxygen)
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Brian Macker said:
“waits for the next round of alchemists, trying to turn CO2 into diamonds and oxygen”
Actually, all it takes is energy.
Em, err, wait, where do we get cheap energy from? I forgot.
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Ulu said:
Calera’s cement is utter balderdash on so many levels - a couple of preliminary takes:
1) Where is the cement??? Calera appears to be making Ca/Mg carbonates via a biological path - ie. their cement is carbonate (magnesian calcite) skeletons - they are collecting the skeletons and drying the sludge. This will give a Ca/Mg carbonate powder akin to powdered chalk and limestone. None of these are cementitous (ie. preformed Ca/Mg carbonates will not set into a cement when combined with water) - unlike Portland cement.
2) Note that Calera is now saying that they will not offer a 100% replacement for Portland Cement, but rather a 50:50 blend. This clearly points to their “cement” simply being a filler - you can acheive the same (very poor results) by using powdered limestone or chalk.
3) Note that Calera has also emended their initial claim that their process captures one ton of CO2 for every ton of cement produced (a pure CO2 cement!??), to half a ton of CO2 capture. Stay tuned for more amendments.
4)Assuming (biological) capture of Ca and Mg from seawater as carbonates via Calera’s technology, one ton of carbonate cement would equate to at least 500 tons of seawater (at > 80% Ca/Mg capture efficiency)- or ca. 250-300 tons of desalination brine. So, to supply just US cement demand (ca. 100 million MT pa), you would need to process 50 billion cubic meters of seawater. The most economic method would be to piggyback the process onto desalination capacity, but even with projected desalination capacity increases, desalination brines could supply at most 6% of US cement demand. And, processing seawater for cement production alone is neither economic (Note: Portland cement sells at $100-120 per MT in the US) nor environmentally friendly.
5) The Calera process will generate a Ca/Mg-stripped brine rich in Na/K. Many studies have indicated the severe environmental impacts that such brines have when discharged into the ocean - so much so that regulations now dictate dilution of such brines, remote discharge or landfill.
6) In summary - Calera’s “cement” is a non-cementitous filler, whose production is non-scalable, uneconomic, and carries huge environmental consequences. -
Martin Ellis said:
I’ve got an even better busniess idea. Why not simply design a device that pulls suckers off the street and strips them of all their assets. Do the country a service - become a mortgage salesman!
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Missy said:
Ulu -
You think you know a lot about the company, when in fact you know only public data. If you knew how they intend to make “real” portland cement, then well… you’d have Khosla’s money and not them. Think of their technology as more of a stepping stone to portland cement, and a huge carbon capture firm.
In terms of scalability, you need to think outside the box on this one. They’re ultra secretive, and by the time you actually take them seriously, you’ll wish you bought the stock earlier.
By the sound of it, I’d say you’re either a competing cement start-up: Calstar?
or a cement worker from any of those global polluters…cemex, la farge…whichever one. In which case, your days are numbered.
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Ulu said:
Missy
If you dont know what you are talking about, you should not comment.
Some facts in lieu of your yours:
I have a bit more than public knowledge about Calera and their process. I happen to have interacted with Brent on several occasions. I have worked on alternative cements for over a decade. I have worked on materials for almost two decades.
Do you even have the slightest of concepts as to the extraordinary properties of OPC?
Before you spout, look around - you walk on OPC, you drive on OPC, the foundation of your dwelling is OPC and the infrastructure of mankind is, and has been since antiquity, based upon OPC….. Please educate yourself about OPC before making any comments!
My days are numbered - hardly - I deal in Real Science.
Perhaps it is the gullible, get-rich-quick types like yourself that need to be worried?
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Senden said:
The only problem by coal burning in powerplants is the emission of CO2.
If you have a real solution, coal is green.
There is a proposal ro combine coal burning in powerplants and alkalislagcement production in one plant. The CO2 emission of PC cement per ton is indeed 1 ton. The emission of CO2 of ASC cement per ton is only 0,5 ton. If you have a proposal to fix these last 500 kg CO2, we are waiting on your proposal.
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