Technology not growing fast enough to decarbonize steel and cement industries by 2050, says study
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-12-technology-fast-decarbonize-steel-cement.html
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-12-technology-fast-decarbonize-steel-cement.html
9 Comments
CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 2y
The problem isnt technology, its insatiable growth requiring infinite construction projects. The system is the issue, the technology is a symptom
silence7@slrpnk.net · 5 pts · 2y
That's part of it, but it's also necessary that whatever construction continues to happen not add CO2 to the atmosphere.
Candelestine@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y
Fortunately there was an advance in this field in just the past year:
https://newatlas.com/materials/carbon-negative-concrete-treated-biochar/
silence7@slrpnk.net · 4 pts · 2y
The problem with concrete has long been that you can make carbon-removing-concrete, but architects won't specify it and contractors won't use it. Making it happen at scale isn't just a technical problem around material manufacturing, but a social one around getting people to trust the new material and use it.
Candelestine@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y
Yeah, social attitudes are harder to change than material science for sure. Still have to just tackle it one step at a time though.
silence7@slrpnk.net · 5 pts · 2y
We've had people creating carbon-absorbing cement versions for at least 15 years at this point. There are even ones where the end product is chemically identical to Portland Cement.
It's purely a social (and depending on the choice, cost) problem at this point.
soupcat@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 2y
Seems like the sort of thing governments should be incentivising.
silence7@slrpnk.net · 5 pts · 2y
There's a little bit of that happening, in the form of the US government having recently adopted a low-carbon construction materials requirement, so that architects and contractors will get experience using the new concrete versions on government projects.
soupcat@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 2y
hurrah, now let's just hope they do like 100 times more of that, and maybe enact some actual meaningful climate policy and we'll be fine.