As a widely used material across the globe, cement has a massive environmental footprint and accounts for around eight percent of our CO2 emissions, but scientists hope to eat into this problem by making tweaks to the recipe. A research team has now come up with an alternative that makes use of mining waste to cut its carbon emissions during production by up to two thirds, while meeting the performance requirements of traditional Portland cement.

The new low-carbon cement was developed by researchers at Germany’s Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and Brazil’s University of Pará, who have taken aim at limestone, a key ingredient in the production of traditional Portland cement. This material first needs to be extracted from the Earth, crushed and baked at high temperatures, which is itself an energy intensive process.

But as the limestone is treated and turned into small lumps called clinker that act as the precursor to ground down cement powder, it releases its stored carbon. This carbon would otherwise remain safely locked away in the Earth, but as more and more limestone is dug up and baked to fuel cement production, it instead finds its way into the atmosphere in significant quantities.

“Portland cement is traditionally made using various raw materials, including limestone, which are burned to form so-called clinker,” explains Professor Herbert Pöllmann from MLU’s Institute of Geosciences and Geography. “In the process, the calcium carbonate is converted into calcium oxide, releasing large quantities of carbon dioxide.”

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