POMPANO BEACH, FLA.—The 200-year-old expensive process of burning fossil fuels and baking limestone in kilns, which was invented in England and is now used worldwide, has seen its day according to scientists in Florida. Blue World Crete Inc. has found a sustainable and superior alternative concrete which does not pollute and is less expensive than Portland.
The Portland process produces 1.25 tons of carbon dioxide for every ton of cement manufactured along with a variety of dangerous amounts of heavy metals. Geo-Blue Crete takes advantage of a natural chemical reaction which emanates from the oceans’ marine life, called bio-mineralization. In a unique and almost paradoxical chemical reaction, the bonding agent is at first hydrophilic, taking in a small amount of water and then, within seconds, becomes hydrophobic, expelling the water and any impurities. It is an exothermic reaction causing a hemical process to take place in which covalent bonds are formed with aggregate material. This sharing of electrons forms a monolithic, cementitious substance as it cures. It has literally become a new molecule.
This natural biological, oceanic process results in a superior concrete in much the same way as a pearl is formed within an oyster. The scientists grow their marine substance in a series of 500 gallon tanks in salt water. After 72 hours, they can extract the patented bonding agent. A single 500 gallon tank can supply enough material to supply 200,000 tons of cement per year from a simple ready mix plant. As more tanks are added, they geometrically increase the production. The bonding agent is only .065 percent of the total mix of this new green cement. Geo-Blue Crete is comparable to Portland white cement; only it has twice the compression strength and three times the tensile strength.
Requires Less Expensive Plant
“A traditional Portland Cement plant can cost upwards of $300 million dollars and is costly to run given the rising costs of fossil fuels,” says Art Galietti, COO of Blue World Crete. “A Geo-Blue Crete portable cement plant may cost well under $20 million dollars fully equipped.
Galietti said that given the present cost of shipping, that it is far less expensive to place a ready mix portable plant at a construction site and manufacture cement at the site rather than to transport cement from the traditional giant Portland cement manufacturing facilities. He suggests that the portable plant can be moved from site to site to keep down costs. Geo-Blue Crete can be mixed with excavated material from construction sites, thus saving money on costly aggregates.
In the case that it needed to be transported, Geo-Blue Crete’s set time can be tweaked from 30 minutes to 24 hours without any compromise to the product. This is accomplished without using any additives, of any kind. Portland has only a two hour window of time and to adjust this additives are most often needed.
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