The economy may be creeping along at a snail’s pace, fueling the argument for more federal stimulus, but private money is still flowing quickly and quietly into innovative construction materials that promise to help stretch infrastructure budgets and save the planet at the same time. One such venture is Los Gatos, Calif.-based Calera Corp., which soon is to formally announce big plans to capture carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants and lock them up in concrete, the most consumed material on the planet, besides air and water.
Little is known about Calera’s technology other than it proposes sending green house gases through seawater and using the resulting carbonate to replace traditional port land cement, whose manufacture and transportation contributes to an average 5% of the world’s carbon-dioxide emissions. Sierra Club has already called the technology a “game-changer.” Calerawas to unveil the technology at the World of Concrete trade show, held Feb. 3-6 in Las Vegas.