The circular chemistry that could make cement carbon-negative

Anthropocene Magazine reports that researchers from ETH Zurich and Heirloom Carbon Technologies have proposed a way to make cement production carbon-negative. The plan pairs clean-electricity kilns with a direct air capture method called calcium looping, which uses the same chemical steps as cement making to pull carbon dioxide out of the air. The team calculates this could cut the climate impact of cement by seventy-eight percent by twenty fifty, and the process could have a net-negative carbon footprint over its entire lifecycle. Heirloom already runs a commercial-scale plant in California that captures one thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

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