The cement that eats carbon dioxide

Cement, a vast source of planet-warming carbon dioxide, could be transformed into a means of stripping the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere, thanks to an innovation from British engineers.

The new environmentally formulation means the cement industry could change from being a "significant emitter to a significant absorber of CO2," says Nikolaos Vlasopoulos, chief scientist at London-based Novacem, whose invention has garnered support and funding from industry and environmentalists.

The new cement, which uses a different raw material, certainly has a vast potential market. Making the 2bn tonnes of cement used globally every year pumps out 5% of the world's CO2 emissions
- more than the entire aviation industry. And the long-term trends are upwards: a recent report by the French bank Credit Agricole estimated that, by 2020, demand for cement will increase by 50% compared to today.

Making traditional cement results in greenhouse gas emissions from two sources: it requires intense heat, and so a lot of energy to heat up the ovens that cook the raw material, such as limestone. That then releases further CO2 as it burns. But, until now, noone has found a large-scale way to tackle this fundamental problem.

Novacem's cement, based on magnesium silicates, not only requires much less heating, it also absorbs large amounts of CO2 as it hardens, making it carbon negative. Set up by Vlasopoulos and his colleagues at Imperial College London, Novacem has already attracted the attention of major construction companies such as Rio Tinto Minerals, WSP Group and Laing O'Rourke, and investors including the Carbon Trust.

The company has just started a £1.5m project funded by the government-backed Technology Strategy Board to build a pilot plant. If all goes well, Vlasopoulos expects to have Novacem products on the market within five years.

Jonathan Essex, a civil engineer at the building consultancy Bioregional who also sits on the environment and sustainability panel for the Institution of Civil Engineers, welcomed Novacem's ideas to tackle the carbon impact of cement. "In the UK the climate bill commits us to reduce CO2 emissions, and every sector should play its part. The construction industry
needs to take greater responsibility for its own environmental impact." Essex said that, if Novacem can make their cement at a competitive price, the next step could be to take even more CO2 emissions out of the process by using renewable energy to fire the furnaces.

According to Novacem, its product can absorb, over its lifecycle, around 0.6 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of cement. This compares to carbon emissions of about 0.4 tonnes per of standard cement. "From that point of view, it's attractive," said Rachael Nutter, head of business incubators at the Carbon Trust. "The real challenge is what is the supply chain, who do you need to partner with to take it to market? The million-dollar question is what are the applications of it? If it ends up as decorative applications such as floor tiles, it's quite interesting but not as much as if you get into load-bearing structural stuff."

Previous attempts to make cement greener have included adding more aggregate to a concrete mixture, thereby using less cement. But this still does not tackle the problem of the carbon emissions from making the cement in the first place. Other systems use polymers in the mix, but none have yet made a significant impact on the market.

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When does an appliance reach its eco break-even point?

In the manner of a game show, I'm calling this week's ethical dilemma 'scrap or save'. Given that the new year sales are likely to feature tons of cheap-as-chips white goods, scrap seems the obvious conclusion. Except that the smart eco (and fiscal) thing to do is to wait until your current appliance has reached its break-even point - the juncture at which it becomes less efficient to keep it running than to replace it with a new one, factoring in all the resources needed to make and transport it. Unless you're an expert on lifecycle cost analysis, you'll need to make an estimate here. In the 'current climate' where energy prices are high, energy efficiency is the consumer's best bet. Therefore the payback period for installing a more efficient appliance is shorter than usual. Add in the fact that your old machine will be recycled (now EU law) rather than dumped in landfill, and give or take the vagaries of the global recyclates market, white goods are stuffed with metals such as copper cooling lines that can be recovered and reused, this also brings forward the break-even point.

Fifteen years is the usual break point for boilers and fridges. This may sound arbitrary, but remember energy labels for household appliances didn't even exist before 1992/93. They've encouraged manufacturers to prioritise energy efficiency (and lately, resource use), making it the new competitive advantage.

In short, if your washing machine looks like it belongs on Antiques Roadshow, you are missing out on €10bn-worth of innovation (the amount manufacturers are estimated to have ploughed into energy-efficiency research and development over the past 10 years). This translates into cash savings in the home: the Energy Saving Trust (energysavingtrust.org.uk) estimates that replacing an energy-inefficient fridge-freezer with a energy-saving version will save you around £34 a year. However, energy labels need a makeover - too many appliances are A grade. Certainly the best appliances are now so way over the standards required for A that they need to be followed by a line of plusses. Two new schemes are now vying to become the energy label of choice: a calibrated A-G that offers a less generous idea of what constitutes an A grade, or - preferred by the European Manufacturers of Household Appliances group - a numerical system that specifies the eco nuances of water saving and steam drying. When you opt for a new model, avoid deferring all eco responsibility. Researchers have found consumers get complacent once they buy a top-flight appliance - for example, the consumer who washes single socks at 90C in their eco-efficient washing machine. Buy the most eco-efficient appliance you can afford and use it well. Then you'll have the save of the century.

lucy.siegle@observer.co.uk

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Doctor used 'human fat to power car'

A Beverly Hills plastic surgeon who claims to have turned fat, extricated in liposuction, into biofuel for his car has skipped town after US officials raided his surgery in an investigation into his procedures.

Dr Craig Alan Bittner, who runs the Liposculpture clinic on Rodeo Drive, said that he had created “lipodiesel” with his patients’ excess subcutaneous fat.

The cosmetic surgeon told Forbes.com that he used the blubber to power two cars including his four-wheel-drive Ford.

Dr Bittner is under investigation by the California Department of Public Health because it is illegal in the state to use human medical waste to power vehicles.

In addition, WIRED magazine cast doubt on Dr Bittner’s claim that he used the lipodiesel to power his girlfriend’s Lincoln Navigator – which it said does not have a diesel model.

It said the whole scheme could be a hoax inspired by the film Fight Club, in which Brad Pitt’s character Tyler Durden uses waste from liposuction to make soap.

Dr Bittner left a message on his clinic’s website on November 20 to tell clients he was moving to South America to volunteer at a small clinic “where I can help those most in need.”

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'The time of cheap gas is coming to an end'

Russian premier Vladimir Putin sent shivers down the spines of Western consumers today with a chilling warning that gas bills are set to soar.

To ram home the point, he oversaw the setting up of a new international Opec-style 'cartel' of gas producers - unofficially led by Moscow - which critics fear will seek to fix output and prices paid by users.

'Costs of exploration, gas production and transportation are going up - it means the industry's development costs will skyrocket,' said Putin.

'The time of cheap energy resources, cheap gas is surely coming to an end.'

It was the second day in succession that the Kremlin hardman entered the fray in what Western diplomats increasingly see as a policy of 'gas imperialism', holding consumers to ransom because there are often no other available sources of cheaper energy.

On Monday, his government warned that gas supplies to Britain and the rest of Europe could be disrupted during the New Year as part of a battle by Moscow to force its neighbour Ukraine to pay off debts and accept a huge hike in prices for the future.

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