Do you remember the story of the three little pigs? In that fairy tale, the pigs used straw, sticks and bricks when building their houses. And when that big, bad wolf came along, which house stood up to all his huffing and puffing? The one made of bricks, of course. That’s because the bricks were held together with a mixture of cement, sand and water called mortar. So cement must be pretty tough stuff, right? Well, not on its own. But mixed with other things, cement is REALLY useful.
A Concrete Example
If you mix cement
with gravel, sand, certain chemicals and water, you get concrete. And concrete
is used EVERYWHERE. It’s the world’s most commonly used human-made
material. Buildings, bridges, sidewalks, patios, foundations — they can all be
made from concrete.
Now that we know how important concrete is, and that you need cement to MAKE it, we need to learn a bit more about the creation of cement.
A Carbon Dioxide Dilemma
Cement is made by combining
materials like limestone and clay and then heating them up to SUPER hot
temperatures in a cement kiln (we’re talking over 1400 degrees Celsius!).
During this process, carbon dioxide (also known as CO2) is released.
And that’s a problem.
Because as you know, brilliant Earth Ranger, extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere traps thermal energy, which causes the greenhouse effect and leads to global warming. That’s why we need to control how much CO2 is produced and released by manufacturing. Thankfully, some clever people at Ash Grove Cement have figured out they can capture the carbon dioxide before it enters our atmosphere.
Capturing Carbon Dioxide
Carbon dioxide can be captured when it’s released, but before it exits the chimney of the cement manufacturing plant. When it’s captured, there are two things that can be done with it: the carbon dioxide can be stored deep underground, or it can be used in the production of other products like plastics, concrete, biofuel, and even carbon nanotubes. The second option is obviously the best one — if we can reuse CO2 instead of just storing it somewhere, that’s best for everyone…and for the Earth!
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I never Learned something like this until this article
I think it’s great that you are doing that for the earth and all the animals
REUSE ME!!! -Mr. Carbon Dioxide
Way to go ASH GROVE!
Just one question, how soon is the world going to start using this?
Amazing
Concrete, like cement, is the 3rd biggest cause of Co2 emissions.
I choose reusing it for everyone! Why store it or put it underground or use it for any other harmful things for the Earth. Our Earth is in danger already. Us Earth Rangers need help. We cannot do it all on our own! We just do our best! Others need to step in and do their part.
@Ranger-Kathy
This is why I love Earth Rangers: It saves animals and we need people like you who will write long texts.
Let’s find a way to get ride of Co2 all the way.
@EverEarthRangerInTheWord!(Ever Earth Ranger in the word!)
Let’s save animals, save the world.
We joined to save our planet, so let’s do just that.
Earth Rangers we choose do this, we WILL save the world, we WILL save our planet.
Let’s do just Earth Regardless save the world!
(Note to the Earth Rangers team, please add a voice recorder of the comments as it would be been usefully know)
ANOTHER NOTE TO THE EARTH RANGERS TEAM!
Please add @ as it will make kt even better!
why are you going to stop me! – Mr streets
That’s an ingenious idea!
Bye Mr Carbon Dioxide! I never you were a problem with cement! Shame on you Mr!