Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Re: [papercreters] Re: 26lbs of CO2 per bag of Portland

My father worked in the cement and lime production industries most of his life.  From what I've seen from his work, most cement kilns are fired with coal.

Greg

----- Original Message ----
From: Mikey Sklar <sklarm-yahoo@screwdecaf.cx>
To: "papercreters@yahoogroups.com" <papercreters@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 8, 2007 10:32:47 AM
Subject: Re: [papercreters] Re: 26lbs of CO2 per bag of Portland

When Portland cement is being made from limestone, natural gas or
propane is used to heat the limestone. White portland would have a
even higher CO2 footprint as it is cooked longer.

On Aug 8, 2007, at 9:21 AM, "slurryguy" <slurryguy@yahoo. com> wrote:

> Does clinker outgas CO2 as it is getting fired? How much?
>
> I'm not disagreeing with your overall point. I actually agree.
>
> --- In papercreters@ yahoogroups. com, Mikey Sklar <sklarm-yahoo@ ...>
> wrote:
>>
>>
>> I have been tormented by a few local adobe and straw bale builders
>> for my use of Portland cement. They point out to me that by using
>> a high energy product that I am destructive to the environment. I
>> had my doubts and decided to run some numbers this evening about
>> just how much CO2 was being produced to create a bag of portland.
>> The answer I came to was less than 26lbs of CO2 per 94lb bag of
>> portland. I suppose I can now point out to the so called green
>> builders who are hauling straw bales or pre made adobes from across
>> state boarders that their CO2 footprint is orders of magnitude
> larger
>> than my own.
>>
>> - portland cement 4,700,000 million btu per ton
>>
>> - convert btu's per ton to one bag of Portland (94lbs)
>> * 1 ton 2000lbs
>> * 2000 / 94 = 21.28
>> * 4700000 / 21.28
>> * 22,0864.66 btu's per bag
>>
>> - convert btu's of natural gas to pounds of CO2
>> * 1 million BTUs (NG) will produce 117.08 pounds of CO2
>>
>> - convert btu's per ton of portland to pounds of CO2
>> * 4,700,000 / 1,000,000 = 4.7
>> * 4.7 * 117.08
>> * 550.276 lbs of CO2 per ton of Portland made from Natural Gas
>>
>> - convert lbs of CO2 per ton of Portland to bag of Portland
>> * 550.276 / 21.28
>> * 25.86 lbs of CO2 per bag of Portland
>>
>> When we consider that jet fuel, diesel, and car fuel all produce
>> about 20 lbs of CO2 per gallon we can see that a bag of Portland
>> is producing the same amount of CO2 as driving 20 miles in your
>> truck.
>>
>> If you want to bring yourself to neutral on CO2 for your Portland
>> usage. Consider that the average tree will absorb 26lbs of CO2 per
>> year.
>>
>> Keep in mind that we humans on average exhale over 2lbs of CO2 per
>> day.
>>
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