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Splitting seawater offers a path to sustainable cement production

The technique could convert cement manufacture from carbon superemitter to carbon sequesterer

Photograph of a cement manufacturing plant.

Cement production (shown) accounts for a fourth of the world’s carbon emissions. But a new technique using seawater splitting might make its production carbon-negative.

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By Carolyn Gramling

A new cement-making process could shift production from being a carbon source to a carbon sink, creating a carbon-negative version of the building material, researchers report March 18 in Advanced Sustainable Systems.