Updates
December 22, 2020: a reader asked about "synthetic limestone." From this site, June 4, 2019:
This carbon dioxide removal technology is spearheaded by Blue Planet Rather than have CO2 excess gas from industry be let into the air, it’s captured from the air or industrial exhaust and then turned into a carbonate in solution. (Carbonate is CO2 with an extra molecule of oxygen.) This is combined with either calcium from waste material (another industrial process) or rocks. In the process, limestone forms – calcium carbonate.
Blue Planet breaks this down into pebbles that are used in construction as aggregate – small, coarse stone material added to water and cement to make concrete.
Energy usage: According to Blue Planet, this is a low cost and low energy carbon capture method. Constraints on purity are not that high because the reaction between the carbonate and calcium is itself a kind of extraction that takes care of impurities, serving essentially as another round of extraction.
Goal: Have synthetic limestone used in all concrete projects.
Cost: $ per ton of CO2 removed? Unknown. Per Blue Planet, their process does not add too much of an extra cost; usage depends mostly on willingness to manufacture this way.
Reading through the Blue Planet website, there seemed to be a bit of smoke and mirrors and obfuscation, or perhaps gilding the lily. As soon as a company mentions LifeCycle Carbon Analyses (LCA), I get a bit suspicious of the data. And even more suspicious when Leonardo DiCaprio is a huge financial backer.
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Original Post
Specifics not provided at the press release.
Knife River Corporation today announced it is investing in Blue Planet Systems Corporation to pursue a commercial means of creating and marketing synthetic limestone.
The limestone would be produced using sequestered carbon dioxide.
With Blue Planet's proprietary technology and Knife River providing expertise in construction aggregates, the companies are working together to develop construction-grade rock and ultimately concrete that would have a net-zero or net-negative carbon footprint – while maintaining the strength for which concrete is known.
Knife River is the construction materials subsidiary of MDU Resources Group, Inc.
David C. Barney, president and CEO of Knife River, has joined the five-member Board of Directors at Blue Planet.
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Chinese Flu Watch
Compare to data December 15, 2020.
North Dakota, as of December 21, 2020,
curious as to where they'll get the calcium to produce that limestone...ie, since the major source of calcium on the planet is naturally occurring limestone...elemental calcium reacts with both water and air and hence doesn't occur naturally..
ReplyDeleteI had trouble understanding the process at the Blue Planet website. But that's probably just me. Obviously Leonardo DiCaprio understands it.
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