Archive for category: General News

MIT researchers develop emissions-free cement production process

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have demonstrated an experimental way of manufacturing cement that releases no carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Currently, the production of cement for concrete accounts for about eight per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, leading to calls for architects to stop using it.

However MIT’s materials scientists are exploring compromise solutions, including one that they consider “an important first step” towards more sustainable cement.

Their process incorporates an electrochemical method that means that, although carbon dioxide is still produced, it is able to be cleanly captured, so that no emissions enter the environment.

Process captures carbon dioxide emissions 

 A team led by MIT engineer Yet-Ming Chiang team tackled the problem of carbon dioxide emissions at the two points in the cement manufacturing process where they arise: from the burning of coal to create the necessary high heats, and from the gases released during the resulting chemical reaction.

Tackling the first source of CO2 was simply a matter of using electricity from renewable sources — sources that they note are increasingly the lowest-cost option.

The second source of CO2 involved a more novel approach of using an electrolyser to convert the limestone’s calcium carbonate into calcium hydroxide.

Captured CO2 could be used to make fizzy drinks

With this change, the CO2 comes out as a concentrated gas stream that can be easily separated and sequestered. It can be used for products such as liquid fuel or to carbonate beverages.

The CO2 created by current cement production is too contaminated to be used in this way.

The MIT team’s process produces the same Portland cement that is already commonly used around the world. The team wanted to avoid making a new type of cement, knowing it would take a long amount of time for an unknown material to gain acceptance.

In recent years, materials scientists have proposed greener concrete alternatives made with substances including desert sand, nano platelets and human urine.

Small-scale change could be implemented quickly

MIT’s process, if scaled up, is a smaller change that the team think could be implemented more quickly.

They point out that the number of buildings worldwide is expected to double by 2060, producing the equivalent of one new New York City every 30 days.

“How do you penetrate an industry like that and get a foot in the door?” asked Leah Ellis, a postdoctoral researcher and the lead author on a paper about the project, which argues for change “in a stepwise fashion”.

However, experts and activists at the Architecture of Emergency climate summit in London last month said there wasn’t time to redesign concrete and instead urged architects to swap the material for timber.

“If we invented concrete today, nobody would think it was a good idea,” said Michael Ramage, an architectural engineer and University of Cambridge academic.

Commenting on the MIT research Bernard Kennedy, Technical Director at FLI Carlow said,

“Any process which provides the concrete industry with low-carbon alternatives to conventional OPC (Ordinary Portland Cement) is a welcome addition to meeting our customers aspirations for a greener environment.  The claim of the MIT research team of producing identical OPC using novel methods requiring less energy and producing useful CO2 is especially valuable.

 Contrary to the perception that OPC and therefore concrete is not a clean material, its durability, natural resistance to most chemicals, self-healing capabilities in water retaining applications, long service life and complete recyclability have made it ubiquitous in the built environment.  Concrete is analogous to rock, the building material of our planet and  CO2 is a valuable commodity when controlled.   While there are new cement substitutes under development, experience in the manufacture, construction and application of OPC concrete has enormous value and it would be wasteful to dismiss in pursuit of possibly less versatile substitutes meeting discrete metrics only.

 Combined with manufacture using clean energy sources, the development of chemical processes producing OPC and useful CO2 is a win-win scenario adding significantly to society’s need for a clean environment and quality infrastructure”. 

FLI Carlow are at the forefront of large offsite fabrication technology and have undertaken responsibility for the design, manufacture, delivery and installation of some of the largest infrastructural projects in the UK.

Read Tom Beattie’s analysis.

Eagle-eyed history buffs from the North West may already be aware of an important anniversary that occurred on September 15.

On that date in 1830, two of Britain’s true Northern powerhouses were forever linked when the first journey on the Liverpool to Manchester railway line took place between Edge Hill and Liverpool Road stations, respectively.

It was the world’s first inter-city railway line and its introduction would prove to be one of the true seminal moments in Western history. The railway would link the port of Liverpool, then arguably the world’s most significant mercantile hub, with the town of Manchester, the epicentre of the world’s textile industry and would shorten journeys from 36 hours by canal, to just four.

The brainchild of George Stephenson, much like the oft-criticised HS2 of modern times, its establishment had been years in the making and not without its fair share of critics.

In the House of Commons in April 1825, Edward Alderson, the counsel employed by those in opposition to the railway stated “this railway is the most absurd scheme that ever entered into the head of a man to conceive” and made pains to suggest that the money it would require in order to be brought to fruition, some “£400,000 to £500,000”, was not safe in the hands of engineer George Stephenson who he claimed was either “ignorant” or “something he would not wish to mention.”

To those of us that have witnessed the widespread derision of the costs involved in bringing HS2 to fruition, this kind of criticism will seem only too familiar. Within a year, perhaps reluctantly, Stephenson’s plans would be met with approval, the move becoming proving to be the catalyst that would irreversibly make the world a much smaller place over the course of the next decade.

Within a month of the first journey between Liverpool and Manchester by rail, the number of passengers using the service had reached 1,200, wildly outstripping the initial estimates of 250 made by Stephenson.

A reporter in the Observer in September 1830 made the canny observation that prior to the railway, “goods would arrive in a shorter time from New York to Liverpool than they could afterwards be conveyed from Liverpool to Manchester.”

Today, it is difficult to a imagine a world untouched by the ingenuity of those involved in the development of the railway.

There are clear parallels to be drawn between the tumultuous times we are now facing, with an unpopular Prime Minister overseeing our largest political crisis in living memory and the fraught period in British history that was the 1820s.

In fact, in response to the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington, who had journeyed north to witness this piece of industrial history, had been met with jeers upon his emergence from the carriage that transported him and other dignitaries to Manchester.

This invites obvious comparisons with his modern-day incumbent, Boris Johnson, who himself faced vocal opposition to his presence in the north, most notably in Doncaster, as he hit the campaign trail this month ahead of a yet-to-be-announced general election.

During Johnson’s largely derided visit to the North, questions abounded regarding the status of the much-vilified HS2, which plans to connect the north with London via high-speed rail. Forming part of the Northern Powerhouse development, official estimates calculate that the scheme will cost £56bn to complete.

Phase 1 of the scheme will link Manchester with London via High-Speed-Rail and is set to be completed in 2028, with phase 2 – which will link Leeds with London – scheduled to be completed in 2035.

The Northern Powerhouse development had become one of the flagship policies of the Coalition Government of 2010-15 and David Cameron’s subsequent majority Government that existed until 2017.

However, in recent times, questions have been raised regarding the true status of the programme. Although the most recent Northern Powerhouse Convention of the North, held on September 13 in Rotherham, attracted representatives from over 300 companies including Santander Group, Vodafone, New Balance and Rolls Royce, any tangible progress has been decidedly slow for a scheme once given such high-profile backing by two previous Governments.

In fact, a report carried out by left-wing think tank IPPR North showed that “current or planned expenditure on transport infrastructure per head of population is £1,943 in London and £427 in the north of England.”

With this considered, it appears that claims that the Northern Powerhouse has been at best put on the backburner or, at worst, quietly shelved by the current Government, may carry a good degree of weighting.

In some ways, this is where the importance of the much-derided HS2 takes on such critical status. For the wide-ranging criticism the scheme has received since it was announced, it undoubtedly holds the key to reviving the stuttering Northern Powerhouse scheme; giving the North a slice of the proverbial pie that the South East has been feasting on since the days of Margaret Thatcher’s premiership.

However tenuous the links are, the parallels that do exist between HS2 and George Stephenson’s railway are striking.

Just as the railway between Edge Hill, Liverpool and Liverpool Road, Manchester helped turn the North West into the industrial epicenter of the Western world in 1830, HS2 has the power to catapult the region into worldwide economic significance once more.

HS2 might not change the world like George Stephenson’s railway once did, however, to the Northern communities that have felt left behind by the South East over the past 30 years, it might well feel that big.

Source: Mancunian Matters

Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan has announced the locations that will benefit from a £95 million heritage boost for high streets in 69 towns across the country.

• 69 high streets in England will be revitalised by a £95 million cash injection
• This is the biggest ever single investment by Government in the UK’s built heritage
• Projects across the country will transform disused historic buildings into shops, houses and community centres
• Funding will help traditional businesses adapt to better compete with online outlets

Increasing competition from online outlets is putting high streets across the country under growing pressure. As part of the Government’s drive to help high streets adapt to changing consumer habits, the £95 million funding will provide a welcome boost that will breathe new life into historic buildings and areas in our towns and cities.

The initiative will be funded by combining £40 million from the Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sport’s Heritage High Street Fund with £52 million from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Future High Street Fund. £3 million will be provided by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to support a cultural programme to engage people in the life and history of their high streets.

The investment builds on the successful Heritage Action Zones programme, run by Historic England, and will turn empty and underused buildings into creative spaces, offices, retail outlets and housing to support wider regeneration in the 69 successful areas by attracting future commercial investment.

Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan said:

“Our nation’s heritage is one of our great calling cards to the world, attracting millions of visitors to beautiful historic buildings that sit at the heart of our communities.”

“It is right that we ensure these buildings are preserved for future generations but it is important that we make them work for the modern world.”

This £95 million will help breathe new life into high streets all over England, benefiting businesses, supporting our much-loved buildings and helping to make our communities more attractive places to live, work and visit.

The funding will be used for a variety of projects, including:

• To complete essential repair works in historic buildings and reveal hidden and forgotten features of buildings by restoring shop-fronts and facades
• Stimulate commercial investment in high streets by demonstrating how historic sites can be successfully repurposed.
• Develop education projects and bespoke events to help reposition historic buildings as community hubs at the heart of local towns and villages.
• Help address the UK wide skills shortage of heritage professionals in expert fields like stonemasonry and conservation by providing local property owners, residents and businesses with the opportunity to train in these areas.

Communities Secretary of State Robert Jenrick said:

“I want to make sure the nation’s high streets continue to be at the heart of local communities. Today’s funding, part of the £3.6 billion we have committed to helping towns across the country, will revitalise much-loved historic buildings, helping to reverse the decline of our town centres. Ensuring that prosperity and opportunities are available to everyone in this country, not just those in our biggest cities, is a priority of this Government in our mission to ‘level up’ the regions.”

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid, said:

We are doubling funding to nearly £100 million to revitalise our heritage high streets, ensuring they remain at the heart of our communities for years to come. This will help places across the country – from South Norwood to Scarborough – protect their treasured historic buildings and support local economies to thrive.

Historic England’s Chief Executive, Duncan Wilson said:

“Our high streets are the beating hearts of our communities. Many have roots that go back hundreds of years. Their historic buildings and distinctive character tell the story of how our towns and cities have changed over time. They are places where people come together to socialise, shop, run businesses and be part of their local community, but now they face an uncertain future.”

‘”Through physical improvements and cultural activities, we will work with partners to find new ways to regenerate our high streets. It is a challenge, but with our experience and track record, as well as the knowledge and passion of local councils, businesses and community groups our historic high streets can be thriving social hubs once more.”

Source: GOV.UK