CalStar plans high-quality, low-energy cement

US company CalStar Cement says it will tackle one of the unrecognised sources of greenhouse gases: cement.

CalStar, which is still operating in stealth mode, hopes later this year to unveil plans for a high-quality cement that requires far less energy to manufacture than the conventional stuff. This, of course, means fewer greenhouse gas emissions for a product that uses up a vast amount of energy to make -- some factories use coal-burning kilns (gasp!) for mixing materials at high temperatures.

And according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2.35 billion tonnes of cement are made each year, accounting for five per cent or more of the world's carbon dioxide emissions.

So CalStar wants to cut back, and is following a similar business plan to that of Serious Materials, which has developed an eco-friendly drywall. Serious' drywall will look and function like drywall, but it doesn't require all of the intense cooking procedures of conventional drywall. Serious, in fact, plans to run its first factory on a 100 kilowatt solar system.

As we all know, green building materials invariably cost more than the conventional counterparts, but over time those costs will drop as volumes increase, advocates say. But even so, green building companies insist that they will find customers because contractors can earn LEED certification points to 'green' their projects by selecting these materials.

So far, CalStar has raised around £1.7 million and has cut a deal on a manufacturing facility, but nothing has gone public yet. Right now they're just a bunch of Silicon Valley PhDs tinkering with 'green' cement.

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