Exports of an all-electric, four-axle concrete mixer from Chinese manufacturing giant Sany have begun, and Singapore's Pan-United Corp. is one of the first to announce its adoption of this greener machine, Electrek reported.
The Sany E-mixer comes in two four-axle configurations with 282 or 350 kilowatt-hour battery packs, and the company claims its truck can be recharged in just two hours, according to Electrek. Plus, they can haul up to 50,000 pounds for nearly 95 miles on a single charge. The truck is also a low-noise vehicle since it's electric and not an internal combustion engine running on dirty diesel fuel.
It's no surprise that China has been developing new technologies to better serve the global environment, especially in the notoriously polluting cement and concrete industries, which make up 8% of the world's planet-heating carbon pollution, according to the Center for American Progress (CAP), among other sources.
The country has the world's largest construction market, but as part of its 14th Five-Year Plan for 2021-2025, it aims to focus on energy-efficient and green building developments. That comes on the tail of a 100-fold increase in cement production from 1970 to 2020, per the CAP.
Sany has its hand in quite a few sustainable technologies, spanning wind farms, hydrogen fuel, and energy storage. It also offers 176 electrified products in its portfolio that it claims have reduced emissions by over 4 million tons, according to a press release.
These greener initiatives align with Pan-United's stance, having pledged to become a carbon-neutral company by 2050, the Electrek report noted.
"Pan-United hopes to eventually operate a substantial fleet of electric concrete mixer trucks for our day-to-day operations," Pan-United CEO Ken Loh shared, per Electrek. "[We have] actively been exploring ways to reduce our embodied and operational carbon emissions. … We will continue to actively explore new and innovative solutions and products to decarbonize and accelerate the global climate transition."
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that around 40% of U.S. cement emissions could be abated by 2050 if we leveraged economically viable and cleaner technologies that are currently available, according to CAP.
Scientists have also been exploring ways to produce cement that would be more resilient and flexible based on materials and concepts from nature. There are also plans to use planet-warming carbon dioxide as building blocks to replace traditional concrete, and others are working on methods to recycle the old material.
We should be emboldened by the variety of products and processes being employed with the environment in mind, both in the construction industry and beyond.
Building or converting heavy-duty machines to run on sustainable electric power will make the air cleaner, reduce worksite noise pollution, and help the industry transition from polluting fuels. The overall health of local populations will improve as a result.
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