演讲题目：A concrete plan for sustainable cement

演讲简介：

水泥是地球上消耗量最大的材料之一——仅次于水——并且它在全球碳排放中所占的比重高达8%。倘若我们能将这个“气候恶魔”变成“英雄”会怎样呢？清洁技术创新者兼连续创业家瑞安·吉利厄姆（Ryan Gilliam）透露了其公司利用现有基础设施，将水泥生产过程中产生的废弃物转化回石灰石的这一惊人的简易流程，由此打造出一种有竞争力且环保的产品，该产品或许可为十亿吨级的气候解决方案铺平道路。



中英文字幕

To solve climate change, we have to focus on the big emissions.

为了解决气候变化问题，我们必须关注大排放。

I'm talking the gigatons, billions of tons of greenhouse gases coming from industries like steel or chemicals or energy, or what I focus on, cement.

我说的是十亿吨，数十亿吨的温室气体来自钢铁、化工、能源等行业，或者我关注的是水泥行业。

Think of it as the glue in concrete, which is the second most-consumed thing on the Earth, second only to water.

将其想象为混凝土中的胶水，混凝土是地球上消耗量第二多的东西，仅次于水。

Cement alone accounts for roughly eight percent of the world's CO2 emissions.

仅水泥一项就约占世界二氧化碳排放量的8%。

So if it were a country, it would be producing more emissions than India and sit in third place, just behind the United States.

因此，如果它是一个国家，它的排放量将比印度更多，并排名第三，仅次于美国。

We have to solve for those emissions.

我们必须解决这些排放问题。

So I have good news.

所以我有个好消息。

We can actually reduce or eliminate those emissions if we focus on technologies that actually work within the existing cement ecosystem.

如果我们专注于在现有水泥生态系统中实际发挥作用的技术，我们实际上可以减少或消除这些排放。

Look, cement and concrete are a risk-averse industry for good reason.

听着，水泥和混凝土是一个规避风险的行业，这是有充分理由的。

It's going into bridges and tunnels and buildings, where performance and safety matter.

它正在进入桥梁、隧道和建筑物，这些地方的性能和安全都很重要。

So if we're going to have a meaningful impact on the CO2 emissions in this space, we have to leverage what the industry already does incredibly well.

因此，如果我们要对这个领域的二氧化碳排放产生有意义的影响，我们就必须利用该行业已经做得非常好的事情。

And that comes down to, really, four things.

这实际上可以归结为四件事。

First is leveraging the same feedstocks that are already used at every cement plant and are already at the billions of tons scale.

首先是利用每家水泥厂已经使用且已经达到数十亿吨规模的相同原料。

Second, it's leveraging as much of the capital infrastructure, from quarry through to product distribution,

其次，它利用了尽可能多的资本基础设施，从采石场到产品分销，

that's already in place to drive down costs and timelines.

降低成本和时间表。

Third, it's producing a product that actually fits within the existing regulations so that contractors will be comfortable putting that product to market.

第三，它正在生产一种真正符合现有法规的产品，以便承包商能够轻松地将该产品推向市场。

And fourth, and most importantly, it's producing a product that's economically competitive with traditional cement, without a green premium.

第四，也是最重要的是，它生产的产品在经济上与传统水泥具有竞争力，而且没有绿色溢价。

So in order to understand how to actually achieve this, we have to look at cement in a little bit more detail.

因此，为了了解如何真正实现这一点，我们必须更详细地研究水泥。

Why is it actually so CO2-intensive?

为什么它实际上如此二氧化碳密集？

Well the main ingredient in cement is limestone.

水泥的主要成分是石灰石。

Limestone is a type of rock that is actually 44 percent, by weight, solid CO2.

石灰岩是一种岩石，实际上含有44%的固体二氧化碳。

So to make cement, you put that limestone into a kiln, and you heat it up to 1,450 degrees Celsius, using fossil fuels like coal and gas.

为了制造水泥，你把石灰石放进窑里，用煤和天然气等化石燃料把它加热到1,450摄氏度。

The whole reason why you're heating it up is to actually drive the CO2 out of that limestone.

加热它的全部原因是实际上将二氧化碳从石灰石中排出。

So not only do you have the emissions from the carbon fuels, you also have the emissions from the limestone itself.

因此，不仅有碳燃料的排放，还有石灰石本身的排放。

So how did it get there in the first place?

那么它最初是如何到达那里的呢？

Well that's where the company I run today got its inspiration, from a company that started 17 years ago, called Calera.

这就是我今天经营的公司灵感来源，来自一家成立于17年前的公司，名为Calera。

Calera took its cues from nature and how nature forms its building blocks.

卡莱拉从自然中得到了启示，以及自然是如何形成它的积木的。

So if you look at coral reefs and shells in nature, what actually happens is you absorb CO2 in the ocean and make this reactive form of limestone,

因此，如果你观察自然界中的珊瑚礁和贝壳，实际发生的是你吸收海洋中的二氧化碳并制造这种反应形式的石灰石，

these little ball structures called vaterite.

这些被称为球陨石的小球结构。

When you do that, you end up making this beautiful white powder that is actually 44 percent, by weight, CO2.

当你这样做时，你最终会制造出这种美丽的白色粉末，实际上二氧化碳含量为44%。

And when you add water to it, it's going to want to transform back to aragonite or calcite, going through a cementing reaction.

当你向其中加水时，它会想转变回文石或方解石，经历固连反应。

So what this allows us to do is take CO2 from being a waste and actually put it into the product.

因此，这让我们能够做的就是将二氧化碳从废物中剔除，并将其实际投入到产品中。

It's a brilliant concept.

这是一个绝妙的概念。

So problem solved, right?

所以问题解决了，对吧？

Unfortunately, no.

不幸的是，没有。

The concept worked technically, but it wasn't grounded in economics, and it was competitive, as opposed to additive, to the cement space.

这个概念在技术上可行，但它并没有建立在经济上，而且与添加剂相反，它对水泥领域具有竞争力。

So we had to look at the problem in another way.

所以我们不得不从另一个角度来看待这个问题。

How do we use that, or how do we fit within the existing cement industry as it is today,

我们如何利用它，或者我们如何适应今天的现有水泥行业，

making a product that's cheap enough and can actually get to the gigatons of savings?

制造一种足够便宜并且实际上可以节省数十亿吨的产品？

And so what we figured out is we could take that technology and put it at existing cement kilns, alongside existing cement manufacturers.

因此，我们的想法是，我们可以将这项技术与现有的水泥制造商一起应用到现有的水泥窑炉中。

In doing so, we can bolt onto the back of their process,

在这样做的过程中，我们可以深入到他们的过程中，

capture the CO2 that's coming out of the kiln with the lime that we produce from that limestone,

用我们从石灰石中生产的石灰捕获从窑炉中流出的二氧化碳，

and produce this product that can then be blended with traditional cement or utilized as a 100-percent cement replacement.

并生产这种产品，然后可以与传统水泥混合或用作100%水泥替代品。

By capturing that CO2 and turning it back into a product, we effectively double the amount of product we make,

通过捕获二氧化碳并将其转化为产品，我们实际上将产品产量增加了一倍，

which is what makes it economically competitive.

这是它在经济上具有竞争力的原因。

So a little bit comically, we're taking limestone and we're turning it back into limestone,

所以有点滑稽的是，我们正在取出石灰石并将其重新变成石灰石，

but we're going from an inert rock to a form of limestone that is actually a cement.

但我们正在从惰性岩石变成一种实际上是水泥的石灰石。

And in doing so, we're able to reduce CO2 emissions by 70 percent per ton when still using the fossil fuels,

这样一来，我们就可以在使用化石燃料的情况下，每吨减少70%的二氧化碳排放量，

and if we integrate with clean electricity or green fuels, we get all the way to a zero-CO2 cement.

如果我们与清洁电力或绿色燃料相结合，我们就可以一路实现零二氧化碳水泥。

So by dropping directly into existing plants, utilizing the existing product-distribution channels,

因此，通过直接进入现有工厂，利用现有的产品分销渠道，

we can work with the big cement players that already understand how to get to scale and how to get to a cheap cost.

我们可以与那些已经了解如何扩大规模以及如何降低成本的大型水泥企业合作。

And that's how we get to gigaton reductions.

这就是我们实现十亿吨减排的方式。

And this is real.

这是真的。

While Forterra is only a four-year-old company, we were able to scale quickly to our first commercial plant, because we worked with the industry.

虽然Forterra只是一家成立四年的公司，但我们能够迅速扩大规模，成为第一家商业工厂，因为我们与行业合作。

Our plant in northern California came on line early in 2024 and proves this ability to bolt onto an existing plant and make a product that the industry can actually use.

我们位于加利福尼亚州北部的工厂于2024年初投产，证明了这种利用现有工厂并生产该行业实际使用的产品的能力。

And we're not stopping there, with plans to scale globally.

我们并没有就此止步，我们计划在全球范围内扩大规模。

And thankfully, we're also not alone.

值得庆幸的是，我们并不孤单。

There's a host of other companies working on trying to solve emissions in cement and concrete.

还有许多其他公司正在努力解决水泥和混凝土的排放问题。

But our secret sauce is fitting within the existing cement ecosystem and developing a product that's better from a pollution standpoint,

但我们的秘密武器是适应现有的水泥生态系统，并开发一种从污染角度来看更好的产品，

while at the same time providing all the performance you need and that the contractors can work with.

同时提供您所需且承包商可以使用的所有性能。

By scaling this way and working with the industry, we can get to these gigaton savings.

通过这种方式扩展并与行业合作，我们可以节省数十亿吨。

So again, by working with industry, as opposed to competing with industry,

所以，通过与工业合作，而不是与工业竞争，

we can pave the way to zero-CO2 cement and solve the four billion tons coming from the cement industry in the next few decades. Thank you.

我们可以为零二氧化碳水泥铺平道路，并解决未来几十年水泥行业产生的40亿吨问题。谢谢。