white sugar makes concrete impossible to set
this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2024
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Could you add a link to anything about that? Not that I'm disbelieving, mostly I want to know how
From https://steemit.com/chemistry/@pinkspectre/sugar-sabotage
When you add water to dry concrete mix, it reacts with chemical components of the cement - calcium, silicon and aluminum oxides - to form a paste which thickens around the aggregate, binding it together as the mixture hardens. Without this hydration reaction, the concrete can't properly bind and remains soupy. Sugar molecules interfere with this process, possibly by preventing the particles in the cement from clumping. However, there may be a more chemistry-based explanation. Aluminum and calcium can react with sugar to form insoluble chemical complexes, meaning they cannot be readily dissolved in water
Apparently, refined white sugar works best, while lactose has only minor effects. Setting can be increasingly delayed by adding more sugar, up to 1% of the cement volume. After this, the concrete will not harden at all! I learned about this from a facebook-circulating antifa post, with the intent of getting activists to use sugar to sabotage a border wall
Companies building plants of this size are likely to have law enforcement or private security protecting the build operation. It would be illegal and dangerous to go anywhere near that site with white sugar while concrete trucks are turning.
You can edit your earlier comments, it's not necessary to reply to yourself
I do it out of courtesy when the follow-up comment is not strictly related, so that it can be folded away by readers
The article cites a corporate document which lists a large number of proposed plants:
LNG Projects:
Guyana
Start-up: 2025 to 2027
Brazil (Bacalhau Phase 1)
Start-up: 2025
Papua
Start-up: 2025
Rovuma Phase 1
Start-up: 2025 and beyond
Product Solutions:
China Chemical Complex
Start-up: 2025
Fawley Hydrofiner
Start-up: 2025
Singapore Resid Upgrade
Start-up: 2025
Strathcona Renewable Diesel
Start-up: 2025
Advanced Recycling
Start-up: 2025-2027
U.S. Gulf Coast Asset Reconfiguration
Start-up: 2028-2030
Next Renewable Fuels
Start-up: 2028-2030
Specialty Products:
Proxxima™ Thermoset Resins
Start-up: 2025-2030
Advanced Coke for Battery Anode Materials (Carbon Materials)
Start-up: 2028-2030
Low Carbon Solutions:
Donaldsonville, Louisiana (CF Industries)
Start-up: 2025
Convent, Louisiana (Nucor Steel)
Start-up: 2026
Beaumont, Texas (Linde)
Start-up: 2026
Gillis, Louisiana (New Generation Gas Gathering - NG3)
Start-up: 2026
Yazoo City, Mississippi (CF Industries)
Start-up: 2028
Baytown, Texas (Blue Hydrogen)
Start-up: 2029
Lafayette County, Arkansas (Lithium Deep Brine Direct Lithium Extraction)
Start-up: 2028
Summary:
ExxonMobil is expanding its operations across Guyana, Brazil, Papua, Rovuma, China, Singapore, the U.S. Gulf Coast (Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas), and Beaumont with new plants expected to start up between 2025 and 2030.