Green Concrete?
September 2, 2008
I had always thought of concrete as forever, as in not particularly environmentally friendly. However with new technologies it seems I may have to rethink my position….
I read an article tonight on Clean Technica (http://cleantechnica.com/2008/09/02/green-cement-is-carbon-neutral-sequesters-co2-from-power-plants/#more-996) where a process has been developed where inconjunction with a power plant carbon neutral concrete can be manufactured.
Excerpt: “In Constanz’s vision, the green cement factories are built next to power plants, and exhaust gas released from the power plants is bubbled through seawater. The resulting chemical process creates an important ingredient for the cement. It also sequesters a half ton of CO2 from the smokestacks for every ton of cement produced.“ 
The other amazing development in concrete is one where light can pass through a piece!
It is amazing to contemplate concrete structures that aren’t cave like and actually have a light somewhat airey feel! I rana across this on the ProductDose.com website (http://www.productdose.com/article.php?article_id=1474)
Excerpt: “A Hungarian company has patented and is now marketing light-transmitting concrete blocks, originally designed by architect Aron Losonczi. Called LiTraCon, the blocks are a combination of “optical fibers�? and concrete, mixed so that the fibers create a fine glass aggregate within the concrete. The glass fibers then transfer light from one side of the block to the other, creating the effect of light transmission.“
The company website can be found here: http://litracon.hu/
Of course concrete is still pretty hard to get rid of once it is in place and so it isn’t the greenist of construction materials. However it is a lot of fun to blow up as evidenced by the Implosion World website to be found here: http://www.implosionworld.com/gallery.htm
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Entry Filed under: Design, Environment, Technology. Tags: Concrete going green, green building materials, green technology.
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