Background on the Project

I lived in two cities (Qingdao and Shanghai) China for four years during a time of unprecedented growth, where new skyscrapers popped up seemingly in weeks, and the sky was gray with smog most of the time. Then, back in California, I experienced the wildfires that turned the sky red and flooding from unprecedented rains. I saw how development without restrictions led to a worsening planet for everyone. I knew I needed to do something environmental to prevent this.

 

In 10th grade, I joined ASDRP Research and discovered the world of sustainable concrete and SCMs (Supplementary Cementitious Materials). I never knew that the concrete industry contributed so heavily (4-8% of all man-made CO2 emissions, mostly from cement manufacture) to the climate issue, and I wanted to do more. So, in 11th grade, I embarked on this project, seeking to characterize novel cement replacements (since CO2 is inherently created in the cement-creating reaction), looking at agricultural cement replacements specifically, since the developing world is projected to have massive growth in the coming decades, and they have more access to agriculture and less access to common SCMs (like Fly Ash from coal burning, or Silica Fume from silicon production). 

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The previous part of the project involved contacting a supplier in China to ship 50kg of coconut shell ash over, and cold-calling many companies to help me do concrete testing. All of this resulted in weaker-than-usual concrete and other issues, so I'm seeking to rectify these problems in the current project, and add on thorough literature research to determine if coconut shell ash works, not only from a scientific standpoint, but also from an economic, industrial and geographical standpoint.