Our cities the hub of economic, social and political life are concrete jungles. The industrial revolution could not have flourished if it were not for concrete, the world’s most widely used material.
Nevertheless the production of cement, the primary component of concrete, accounts for 5 to 10 percent of the world’s total carbon dioxide emissions, there by rendering it an important contributor to global warming.
Scientists are working to understand the nanostructure of concrete, Franz-Josef Ulm, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering are quoted to have said:
If everything depends on the organizational structure of the nanoparticles that make up concrete, rather than on the material itself, we can conceivably replace it with a material that has concrete’s other characteristics-strength, durability, mass availability and low cost-but does not release so much CO2 into the atmosphere during manufacture
If engineers were to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the world’s cement manufacturing by even 10 percent, that would accomplish one-fifth of the Kyoto Protocol goal of a 5.2 percent reduction in total carbon dioxide emissions.Though the work is in its infancy and will take at least five years to bring results.
Via: RedOrbit
