Best of Earth911 Podcast: Eco Materials Technology’s Grant Quasha on Cutting Cement’s Carbon Footprint

Best of Earth911 Podcast: Eco Materials Technology’s Grant Quasha on Cutting Cement’s Carbon Footprint

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What is essentially the most used materials on the earth? Concrete, the premise for constructing a lot of the fashionable world, was invented in the course of the Roman Empire and stays essentially the most used materials worldwide. In 2021, cement accounted for 1.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions globally, about 4.3 % of all greenhouse fuel generated that yr. Meet Grant Quasha, CEO of Eco Material Technology, a New York-based maker of low-carbon cement and supplies for making concrete. Eco Material reengineered the Roman technique of constructing pozzolanic cement utilizing processed fly ash generated by industrial processes. The firm makes use of a low-temperature course of to take away carbon when making PozzoSlag®. This materials can exchange a good portion of the portland cement required to make sturdy concrete utilized in buildings and bridges. The ensuing concrete carries an embodied carbon footprint 95% decrease than conventional portland cement.

Grant Quasha, CEO at Eco Material Technology, is our visitor on Sustainability In Your Ear.

During the dialog, Grant explains that billions of tons of fly ash from the Industrial Era may be recovered to make low-carbon concrete. While the prospect of reducing annual CO2 emissions related to constructing properties, skyscrapers, and roads by 95% is sufficiently necessary to justify enthusiasm about this know-how, the chance to mine the residual fly ash air pollution created and dumped in the course of the Industrial Era ought to get everybody’s consideration. Society can do greater than paper over environmental harm whereas persevering with to construct and develop a sustainable infrastructure — we will restore nature, making cities and their suburbs greener. You can study extra about Eco Materials Technologies at https://ecomaterial.com/

UPDATE: On October 18, 2023, Eco Material Technologies signed an settlement with Georgia Power to reap 600,000 tons of landfilled ash every year from a landfill retired coal-fired energy plant. The undertaking will take away greater than 8 million tons of fly ash over 15 years, cleansing up a polluted industrial website and utilizing the waste to construct roads, bridges, and buildings in Georgia and Florida.

Originally aired Oct 2, 2023