A while back Ecohome was pleased to find and report on some upcoming technologies that were producingLow-carbon and carbon-neutral concrete.Buildings account for the majority of climate change causing emissions, and concrete is the most carbon intensive building product that goes into houses and buildings. Reducing concrete (and emissions from concrete) in homes can be done a few ways – first by building smaller houses, secondly bychoosing a slab on grade instead of a basementas a design starting place, and thirdly by using concrete with recycled content.
Even when builders have made such emission reducing efforts, concrete would still end up responsible for the lions share of the total carbon footprint of a home, as can be seen in charts on this page aboutEcohome’s Low carbon footprint LEED Platinum prefab kit house. So we were very please to see that a one of our picks ended up winning the grand prize.
These companies were part of a large pool of innovators vying for the $20 million Carbon Xprize, an initiative that encourages industry innovation to reduce carbon emissions. It was Launched in 2015 by U.S. power company NRG and Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance to incentivize the development of technologies that can capture carbon dioxide and put it to valuable use. 48 teams entered the contest, and nine reached the final round to showcase their technology working at a pilot scale.
The two grand-prize winners were Alberta-basedCarbonCure Technologies Inc. and California-based CarbonBuilt Inc., each will receive $7.5 million each. CarbonCure injects CO₂ into concrete as it hardens, dramatically cutting the carbon footprint of their product, and it also reduces water consumption. CarbonBuilt captures CO₂ coming directly from the exhaust of a power plant, and cuts the use of cement to make the end product.
CarbonCure is currently operating at commercial scale and you can find out if there is areduced carbon ready mix plant near you here，而CarbonBuilt仍在朝着这个目标努力。另外还有两个奖项将分别授予加拿大的初创公司Carbon Upcycling-NLT和Carbon Corp.，以表彰它们将碳纳米颗粒纳入建筑应用的技术，以及将碳纳米管用于工业应用的技术。
在比赛的下一阶段，Xprize基金会在2021年4月22日的Earthday开放了碳去除技术的参赛项目。这1亿美元的奖金将得到马斯克基金会的支持，该基金会是由特斯拉公司和太空探索技术公司的首席执行官埃隆·马斯克创建的非营利组织。将有3名获奖者，分别获得5000万美元、2000万美元和1000万美元，将在2025年地球日宣布。
Given global delays in cutting carbon emissions over the past few decades, the scientific community studying climate change (and the likelihood of us avoiding a total climate crisis meltdown in the future) are convinced that carbon-capture technologies such as these will be needed to reach global climate change emission reduction targets. These technologies fall in two categories: trapping emissions from concentrated sources like power plants or manufacturing facilities, and removing carbon directly from the atmosphere. Also keep an eye on Prometheus, a CO based startup that is commercialising azero carbon ready mix concretein the near future that uses zero cement.
Now you know about the Carbon Xprize encouragingcarbon capture and emission reductions, read more here abouthow to reduce the carbon footprint of homes & sustainable construction...Find more pagesaboutsustainable and resilient green building techniques here:
Find more about green home constructionin the EcoHomeGreen Building Guide pages |
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