Biomimicry
Making Cement The Way Coral Does It: Out Of Thin Air
The creation of cement is an incredibly polluting process, but Stanford scientist Bret Constanz has found a way to mimic the way coral works, by creating cement from CO2 and water.Biomineralization expert Brent Constantz of Stanford University got inspiration from the way corals build reefs to make a new type of cement for buildings. The process of making this cement actually removes carbon dioxide--a greenhouse gas, thought to cause global warming--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.[twistage 386ddfed04bba][Image: Flickr user Dawn Endico]