This startup is using microalgae to make carbon-neutral cement
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Cement production is responsible for around 8% of global carbon emissions. Using microalgae to make a key ingredient could drastically cut that carbon footprint.
During a trip to Thailand on his honeymoon, while swimming above a coral reef, Wil Srubar was thinking about the beauty of nature—but he was also thinking about cement. In the reef, microalgae were growing calcium carbonate, a key material used to make cement, the glue that holds together concrete. Srubar, a materials scientist who teaches at the University of Colorado Boulder, realized that this type of algae could help lower the concrete industry’s massive carbon footprint.