Displaying items by tag: sustainability

India: Adani Cement subsidiaries ACC and Ambuja Cements have launched the Cement and Concrete Research and Development Facility at Kalamboli in Maharashtra. Dion News Service has reported that the focus of the centre will lie in product development, productivity enhancement and increasing the efficiency of cement and concrete production.

Adani Cement CEO Ajay Kapur said "Our new research and development facility is our reinforcement towards our collective commitment to pushing boundaries, driving innovation, and addressing industry challenges."

US: Holcim US has begun selling ECOPact reduced-CO₂ concrete in the Colorado Springs, Denver and Pueblo markets in Colorado. The producer says that the range offers 30 - 90% lower CO₂ emissions than concrete produced using ordinary Portland cement (OPC). Colorado aims to achieve CO₂ emissions reductions of 50% by 2030 and 90% by 2050.

Holcim US' Mountain regional general manager and senior vice president Kevin Peart said "Sustainable construction is essential to building a net-zero future in Colorado and across the nation. Denver has consistently ranked as one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation, and Colorado Springs is projected to become the state's largest city within the next 15 years. Low-carbon, high-performance building solutions such as ECOPact are essential to mitigating climate change and creating a more sustainable, resilient urban landscape."

Austria: Alpacem Gruppe subsidiary w&p Beton has commenced construction of a new ready-mixed concrete plant in Klagenfurt, Carinthia. Recovered industrial heat will power operations at the plant, reducing CO₂ emissions by 40t/yr. It will also use reduced-CO₂ cement supplied by the group's Wietersdorf cement plant. The concrete producer says that the ready-mix concrete plant will cost Euro3m and be ready for commissioning in early 2024.

US: Researchers at Washington State University (WSU) have developed a method for making low-carbon concrete using cement and biochar, a type of charcoal made from organic waste that is nearly as strong as standard concrete. The team, led by doctoral student Zhipeng Li, strengthened the biochar with concrete wastewater. The biochar was able to suck up to 23% of its weight in carbon dioxide from the air.

Previous attempts to add biochar as a substitute in cement have significantly reduced the strength of the resulting concrete. However, the WSU project found that by treating the biochar with concrete washout wastewater it was able to add up to 30% biochar to cement mixtures. The paste made of the biochar-amended cement was able to reach a compressive strength after 28 days comparable to that of ordinary cement. The researchers used calcium in the concrete washout water to induce the formation of calcite, which benefits the biochar and, eventually, the concrete that incorporates it.

Xianming Shi, professor in the WSU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, said, “We’re very excited that this will contribute to the mission of zero-carbon built environment.” He added, “Most other researchers were only able to add up to 3% biochar to replace cement, but we’re demonstrating the use of much higher dosages because we’ve figured out how to engineer the surface of the biochar.”

The synergy between the highly alkaline wastewater that contains a lot of calcium and the highly porous biochar meant that calcium carbonate precipitated onto or into the biochar, strengthening it and allowing for the capture of carbon dioxide from the air. A concrete made of the material would be expected to continue sequestering CO2 for the lifetime of the concrete, typically 30 years in pavement or 75 years in a bridge.

The researchers have been working with the WSU Office of Commercialization to protect the intellectual property and have filed a provisional patent application on their carbon-negative concrete work. They recently received a seed grant from the Washington Research Foundation to produce more data for a variety of use cases. They are also actively seeking industry partners from the building and construction sector to scale up production for field demonstrations and licensing this WSU technology.

Finland: VTT Technical Research Centre subsidiary Carbonaide has concluded its seed funding round, having raised funds worth Euro1.8m. Lakan Betoni, which produces precast and ready-mix concrete, led the funding, along with utilities provider Vantaa Energy. Carbonaide will use the funds to build an industrial pilot plant for its carbon neutral precast concrete product at an existing precast concrete plant in Hollola. The plant will bind captured CO₂ in the product at atmospheric pressure. The process generates 50% lower CO₂ emissions than precast concrete production using ordinary Portland cement (OPC). Suitable raw materials include ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS), green liquor dregs and bio-ash. In trial production, the use of GGBFS gave Carbonaide's concrete a negative carbon footprint of -60kg/m³.

Other sources of loans and in-kind contributions included Finnish state innovation fund Business Finland.

Canada: The city administration of Langford in British Columbia plans to enact regulations requiring all public and private projects to use reduced-CO₂ concrete. It plans to support the rules with parallel measures affecting the design of buildings.

Victoria News has reported that the city authorities previously mandated reduced-CO₂ cement for all projects in June 2022, but subsequently relaxed the regulations after only one company – Butler Concrete and Aggregates – completed the transition. Butler Concrete and Aggregates produces its reduced-CO₂ concrete using slag cement supplied by Lafarge Canada.

US: Prometheus Materials’ microalgae-based biocement has secured certification for use in concrete masonry unit (CMU) mixes. The cement now holds an ASTM C129 certificate for use in non-loadbearing CMUs and an ASTM C90 certificate for use in loadbearing CMUs. Prometheus Materials’ biocement produces concrete with comparable or superior mechanical, physical and thermal properties to ordinary Portland cement (OPC)-based concrete. It offers little-to-no CO₂ emissions and 95% of water used in production is recycled.

Prometheus Materials CEO Loren Burnett said “We are thrilled to have achieved these two foundational certifications as we proceed in full force with our goal of decarbonising construction. Prometheus Materials’ product is poised to change the future of construction, converting one of the most carbon-polluting industries to a low-carbon – and one day net-zero carbon – reality.”

Germany: Mexico-based Cemex says that Sweden-based Volvo Trucks has supplied it with the world’s first fully electric and zero-emission heavy concrete mixer truck at a joint event in Berlin. The Volvo FMX electric truck can be used a full day’s work with a single top-up charge. It will start operating at the Berlin Spandau ready-mix concrete plant in Berlin in February 2023. The two companies signed a deal in 2021 to work together on electromobility solutions on mobile construction equipment and trucks, productivity solutions and uptime services.

Cemex’s chief executive officer Fernando A González said “Our partnership with Volvo has tremendous potential to contribute to the decarbonisation of our business. Rolling out our first fully electric ready-mix truck is a strong progress in that direction.”

Cemex and Volvo Group are founding members of the First Movers Coalition, a collaboration between the World Economic Forum and US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, for companies to make purchasing commitments that create market demand for low-carbon technologies.

Volvo Trucks’ portfolio of electric trucks ranges from 16 – 44t and covers a range of applications from city distribution, refuse handling, urban construction transports to regional haulage. Volvo Trucks is a market leader in heavy electric trucks in Europe and the US. The company’s target is that half of its total truck sales will be electric by 2030.

India: Antony Waste Handling Cell Limited (AWHCL) has won a US$124m contract for construction and demolition waste management services in Mumbai. Press Trust of India News has reported that the contract covers nine municipal subdivisions of the city and will last until 2044. AWHCL said that the contract will enable it to develop the circularity of cement and concrete within the local economy. It expects to commission 600t/day-worth of waste processing capacity by March 2023. The waste management company expects a recovery rate of 25% recyclable materials.

AWHCL chairman and managing director Jose Jacob said "This sub-segment of solid waste management provides tremendous growth opportunities given the number of infrastructure development projects underway, and the government's push to accelerate the economic growth with infrastructure being one of the important growth pillars."

Germany: Cemex Zement has unveiled a fully electric zero-emissions concrete mixer truck, the first in the industry. Sweden-based Volvo supplied the truck, an FMX model.

Mexico-based Cemex said that it is working to discover, pilot and scale technologies for emissions-free transport in the construction industry through its partnership with Volvo.