Making cement the way coral does it: Out of thin air

I first saw this a few years back when I visited Renzo Piano´s California Academy of Sciences Building in San Francisco. It is pretty cool. By looking at how corals work, scientist Bret Constanz has found a way to create cement from CO2 and water. This could potentially eliminate the incredible polluting process of making cement today.

The process of making this cement actually removes carbon dioxide from the air. The company Constantz founded, called Calera, has a demonstration plant on California's Monterrey Bay that takes waste CO2 gas from a local power plant and dissolves it into seawater to form carbonate, which mixes with calcium in the seawater and creates a solid. It's how corals form their skeletons, and how Constantz creates cement. Wow!

You can read the article, and watch an inspirational video on the subject here:

http://www.fastcompany.com/biomimicry/making-cement-the-way-coral-does-it-out-of-thin-air

by mikaela grassl