Hello reader(s), this week, as part of my project, I:

• Looked at the foreign relations of coconut-producing countries to see how cement replacement usage may affect (or be affected) by those relations in the future.

• Researched and calculated emissions for various SCMs in terms of inherent (contained within the material/reactions) and energy-usage CO2 emissions.

• Finished up the burning 16 kg of the CSA with Nick. Just enough for running strength and other standard tests at Cemex (hopefully).

• Planned my small-scale concrete tests based on literature methodologies.

• Packed my belongings for my Japan spring break trip!

(Map of Fly Ash production from coal-burning for electricity)

(Map of Coconut production)

Geopolitics Investigations:

First, I created visual maps of the production of all the SCMs (Supplementary Cementitious Materials) to better represent the information in terms of geography. It seems that currently, Asia, especially China, has lots of SCMs due to it being a global production hub for Cement, Fly Ash, Steel/Iron, Silicon, etc. In other words, SCM-usage heavily relies on China. Fortunately, China has relations with many developing regions such as other countries in Asia and Africa (Belt and Road Initiative), so China could capture, use and sell more SCMs to also reduce their massive emissions and improve their standing with the “global north”.

Similarly, I found that Indonesia has long held good economic ties with both China but also major western-leaning nations such as the US and Japan (as seen in the chart below). Indonesia also has a fairly large cement industry and high coal usage, so pressure is on for them to massively reduce emissions to meet UN climate goals. Therefore, by increasing SCM usage and importation (trading with China), economic ties can be strengthened and western nations will also be happy with the reduction in emissions from increased SCM usage. On top of that, the coconut farmers (some of the poorest in the world) could have their standard of living raised by this extra income from CSA being used (and perhaps even subsidized by environmental organizations).

The burning of the CSA:

We managed to burn 16kg as of today (Monday 3/25). We collected the material in buckets and will bring them to Cemex for creating concrete for testing. The plan is 10, 15, and 25% replacement and doing shrinkage molds for the 25% to see if the ash has a noticeable effect on shrinkage.

Small-scale testing I’ve been hinting at:

I’ve created a few interesting plans based on alkali and acid (think NaOH and acetic acid) activation of SCMs, and I will use them to create 1.5-inch cubes of concrete at school under Dr. B’s supervision. First, we need to burn more of the ash to be used here though, so this will likely start when I return after spring break

To summarize:

• Increased SCM usage, especially with less carbon-intensive ones, could be a win-win for international trade, relations and climate goals.

• The burning/testing of CSA seems to be on the right track

• We get to perform some interesting small-scale tests soon

Thanks for reading,

Until next time, I have been Max Polosky.

Fun coconut Fact #2: Supposedly, “During World War II, coconut water was used as an IV drip because there was not enough blood plasma available.” – https://international.trendblog.agrana.com/en/fruit-of-the-month/coconut-fun-facts?PageSpeed=noscript&cHash=0df1b1a70c55c9110172b0388c6b4c58