{"id":10875,"date":"2022-09-13T16:18:40","date_gmt":"2022-09-13T20:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/?p=10875"},"modified":"2022-09-14T21:08:40","modified_gmt":"2022-09-15T01:08:40","slug":"concrete-carbon-footprint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/2022\/09\/13\/concrete-carbon-footprint\/","title":{"rendered":"Concrete Carbon Footprint"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Author:<\/strong> Integrated Paving Solutions<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Date:<\/strong> Unknown<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When evaluating the carbon footprint of concrete pavements, it is important to recognize the difference between cement and concrete. While cement is an energy-intensive product, concrete is actually one of the world\u2019s most CO2- efficient and sustainable construction materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CO2&nbsp;emissions from a cement plant are divided into two source categories:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Combustion (40 percent of emissions)<\/li><li>Calcination (60 percent of emissions)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The combustion-generated CO2&nbsp;emissions are related to fuel use. The CO2&nbsp;emissions due to calcination are formed when the raw materials (mostly limestone and clay) are heated to more than 2500\u00b0F and CO2&nbsp;is liberated from the decomposed minerals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the life of a concrete pavement, the concrete that is exposed to air slowly absorbs nearly 60 percent of the CO2&nbsp;released by calcination during the cement manufacturing process (Nordic Innovation Centre Project 03018). The carbonation process continues even after the pavement is demolished and the concrete is crushed and reused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The focus of reductions in CO2&nbsp;emissions during cement manufacturing is on energy use, and the cement industry is striving to continuously reduce its CO2&nbsp;contribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>* From industrial sources only, cement accounts for less than 3% of U.S. CO2&nbsp;emissions, well below other materials such as petroleum (21.8%), chemicals (22.2%), and iron\/steel (9%).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Putting CO2\u00a0Emissions into Perspective<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The manufacture of cement produces about 0.9 pounds of CO2&nbsp;for every pound of cement. Since cement is only a fraction of the constituents in concrete, manufacturing a cubic yard of concrete (about 3900 lbs) is responsible for emitting about 400 lbs of CO2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The release of 400 lbs of CO2&nbsp;is approximately equivalent to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The CO2&nbsp;associated with using an average tank of gas in a car<\/li><li>The CO2&nbsp;associated with using a home computer for a year<\/li><li>The CO2&nbsp;associated with using a microwave oven in a home for a year<\/li><li>The CO2&nbsp;saved each year by replacing 9 light bulbs in an average house with compact fluorescent light bulb<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Analysis:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is just an extra source I throw in to help gain perspective on relationship between concrete and the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cement.org\/docs\/default-source\/th-paving-pdfs\/sustainability\/carbon-foot-print.pdf\">https:\/\/www.cement.org\/docs\/default-source\/th-paving-pdfs\/sustainability\/carbon-foot-print.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author: Integrated Paving Solutions Date: Unknown When evaluating the carbon footprint of concrete pavements, it is important to recognize the difference between cement and concrete. While cement is an energy-intensive product, concrete is actually one of the world\u2019s most CO2- efficient and sustainable construction materials. CO2&nbsp;emissions from a cement plant are divided into two source [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":10876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-focus"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10875"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10997,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10875\/revisions\/10997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}