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■Calstar行政總裁凱恩表示，低溫磚的製作過程較一般磚塊減少85%碳排放量。 資料圖片
忘記微晶片。美國科技之都矽谷有公司憑藉低溫磚，創出賺錢的綠色商機。
磚塊生產商Calstar人才濟濟，而且有風險資本家在背後提供金錢支持，誓要令建築技術慳錢又環保。
「基金資本」合夥人霍蘭表示：「第二次工業革命的時機到了。我們和其他人正為建築界的所有環節注入綠色元素。」該公司投資700萬美元，EnerTech Capital公司也投資了800萬美元。
美國目前的總能源用量中，40%耗費在建築物的暖氣、冷氣和維持一般運作上。
矽谷的公司試圖利用可吸收二氧化碳的水泥和窗戶，取代隔熱效果較差的牆壁和木材替代品，並改善耗能又不環保的傳統製磚方式。
這個市場仍較新進。雖然經濟衰退令綠色建築的投資人歷經大風大浪，但據Cleantech集團統計，這塊新興領域去年卻吸引45宗創投交易，價值達3.5億美元。
Calstar行政總裁凱恩表示，過去3,000年來並無新的製磚方法，但在該公司的科學家手中卻有新面貌。
凱恩續稱，傳統的磚塊須在攝氏1,093度高溫下燒製24小時，製程可達一星期，但新式磚頭卻可在低於攝氏100度的環境下燒製，只需10小時便完工。
此外，新製程將電廠燃煤時產生的大量飛塵變成磚頭原料，解決惱人的污染問題。Calstar稱，與一般磚塊相比，新式磚塊的外形和手感並無分別，但製程卻可省下80%至90%能源，並可減少85%碳排放量。
減少能源開支意味獲利空間大增，可作研究經費之用，並與享有經濟規模的大公司競爭。
新式磚塊的預定售價與陶土製傳統磚塊相同，但磚塊產業協會(BIA)表示，新式磚塊稱不上是磚塊，而且研究並未證實，採用飛塵製造的磚頭和傳統磚塊一樣耐用。 ■路透社 ■資深翻譯員 羅國偉
Silicon Valley Reinvents the Lowly Brick
Forget microchips. Silicon Valley sees a profitable future in the humble brick thanks to a low-energy production process that illustrates the greening of the U.S. technology capital.
Brick maker Calstar Products is heavy on PhDs and backed by venture capitalists whose vision is to create buildings less expensively and in a way that saves energy.
"We think it is time for a second industrial revolution. We and dozens of others are trying to create green alternatives for all the things that happen in the building industry," said Paul Holland, a partner at Foundation Capital, which invested $7 million in Calstar. EnerTech Capital led another round that raised $8 million for the business.
Currently about 40 percent of U.S. energy use goes toward the heating, cooling and general operation of buildings.
Silicon Valley is finding high-tech ways to make age-old materials, pursuing carbon dioxide-eating concrete, windows that insulate better than walls, and wood substitutes.
The field is still new. Venture investments in green buildings have waxed and waned with the recession, but involved 45 deals worth about $350 million the past year, according to Cleantech Group LLC.
Bricks have been made pretty much the same way for 3,000 years, until Calstar's scientists came up with their new technique, said Chief Executive Michael Kane.
Ordinary bricks are fired for 24 hours at 2,000 F(1,093 C)as part of a process that can last a week, while Calstar bricks are baked at temperatures below 212 F(100 C)and take only 10 hours from start to finish, Kane said.
The recipe incorporates large amounts of fly ash–a fluffy, powdery residue of burned coal at electric plants, that can otherwise wind up as a troublesome pollutant.
The process of making the bricks, which look and feel like any other brick, requires 80 to 90 percent less energy and emits 85 percent less greenhouse gas than ordinary bricks, according to Calstar.
Lower energy costs mean higher profit, allowing the company to pay for its research and compete against large companies that have economies of scale.
The new bricks-which the Brick Industry Association says are not actually bricks-will sell for the same price as traditional clay-based ones. The Brick Industry Association says there is also no proof that products using fly ash will last as well as traditional brick. Reuters
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