Research and Technological Development in the Cement and Concrete Industry

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Research and Technological Development in the
Cement and Concrete Industry
Mastertitelformat bearbeiten
Dr. Wolfgang Dienemann, HeidelbergCement
Technology Center
Master-Untertitelformat bearbeiten

• Sustainable Development a Challenge for European
  Research
• Parallel Session 7
• Brussels, 26 May, 2009

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The Cement and Concrete Industry

• History
• Cement like material already used by Romans (Opus
  Caementitum)
• Development of hydraulic lime (Roman Cement)
  late 18th / early 19th century
• 1843 W. Aspdin develops Portland Cement
• Since 1850s rapid industrial development

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The Cement and Concrete Industry

• Facts and Figures
• Concrete is the worlds most versatile, durable
  and reliable construction material
• In the same time concrete is a very economical
  product
• Around 2,9 billion tonnes of cement in 2007
• Equals 7 billion m3 of
• concrete per year
• Next to water concrete is
• the most used material

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The Cement and Concrete Industry

• Rising demand
• Volumes are expected to more than double in the
  next decades
• Infrastructure development in developing
  countries
• China and India with high growth rates

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The Cement and Concrete Industry

• Cement and CO2
• Cement manufacturing releases 800 kg CO2 per ton
  of cement
• Around 60 results from chemical reaction of
  limestone
• 40 burning of fuels, ? 5 electrical energy
• Globally 5-7 of manmade CO2 emission
• ? Key industry challenge

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Technical Developments Process Optimization

• Optimizing Energy Efficiency
• Energy accounts for 40 of production costs
• Optimization of burning process
• Efficiency of preheater
• Efficiency of cooler
• Waste heat power
• generation

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Technical Developments Process Optimization

• Valorization of Waste as Alternative Fuel
• The clinker burning process is ideally suited to
  use alternative fuels
• Minimized emissions due to long residence time
  and high gas temperatures
• No residues as ash is incorporated in clinker
• Overall reduction
• of CO2 emissions
• and fossil fuel
• consumption

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Technical Developments Process Optimization

• Valorization of Waste as Alternative Fuel
• Significant progress has been made in replacing
  fossil fuels
• Individual plants already use ? 90
• alternative fuels
• Burning technology optimized

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Technical Developments Process Optimization

• Replacement of clinker
• Clinker manufacturing accounts for 90 of fuel
  and energy consumption and CO2 emissions
• Can partly be substituted by latent hydraulic or
  pozzolanic materials
• Blastfurnace slag from steel industry
• Fly ash from coal fired power plants
• Natural and artificial pozzolans
• Wide range of composite cements covered by EN
  standards

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Technical Developments Process Optimization

• Conclusions
• Three main pathways successfully applied in
  cement industry
• Enabled through RTD and innovations in
  engineering technology and material science
• Optimization of concrete recipes and
  manufacturing technology further reduced embodied
  energy
• European companies clearly at the forefront of
  this development

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Sustainability Challenges and Opportunities

• Reducing the Environmental Footprint
• High pressure to further reduce CO2-emission
  significantly (Emission Trading) requires
  additional improvements and radical changes
• Reduction of emission limits require further
  technological developments in process and filter
  technologies
• Rising prices for electricity and fossil fuels
  demand further process optimization
• Potential through incremental development limited
  due to high level of optimization already achieved

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Sustainability Challenges and Opportunities

• Adaptation to Climate Change
• Optimized use of concretes inherent thermal mass
  enables design of energy efficient buildings

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Sustainability Challenges and Opportunities

• Adaptation to Climate Change

Durable and safe construction needed also in case
of extrem events to protect humans and economic
values
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Sustainability Challenges and Opportunities

• Adaptation to climate change
• Optimized cements and concretes required to
  better exploit alternative energy sources

Low-heat concrete for hydro dams
UHPC for offshore foundations
Special well cement for deep drillings
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Sustainability Challenges and Opportunities

• Barriers to Change
• Construction industry very conservative in
  general
• High safety requirements for buildings and
  infrastructure, guaranteed longterm performance
• High degree of regulation through Eurocodes,
  standards, etc
• New products and applications must be
  scientifically sound and technically proven
• This requires substantial investments in research
  and development

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New Approaches How can RD help?

• Increasing Biodiversity
• Quarries are ideally suited to even increase
  biodiversity through dynamic and rare habitats
• Rocks, steep faces
• Wetland
• Grasland
• Standing water
• RD needed to develop biodiversity indicators and
  management plans

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New Approaches How can RD help?

• Increase use of Alternative Fuels even further
• Valorization of waste only realistic possibility
  to reduce fossil fuel consumption (plus
  CO2-savings)
• Assimilating more and new types of fuels requires
  RTD in
• Burner technology (including O2-enrichment)
• Control of manufacturing process
• Impact on product quality
• Environmental performance (e.g. leaching)

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New Approaches How can RD help?

• Further reduce Clinker Content
• Increasing the ratio of cementitious materials
  beyond todays values still is the most promising
  route short- and midterm.
• Extending the use of conventional and new
  cementitious materials requires a better
  understanding of fundamental mechanisms that
  control performance
• Structural / mechanical behaviour
• Corrosion resistance
• Durability
• Environmental performance (e.g. leaching)

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New Approaches How can RD help?

• Developing new low-CO2 materials
• For radical changes new materials are needed that
  have lower inherent CO2 content, i.e. less
  Calcium, e.g.
• Supersulfated cements, based on slag
• Alkali-activated alumosilicates (geopolymers)
• New, low Ca clinker, Belite, Ca-Sulfoaluminate
• MgO-based systems
• Significant RD activities required to understand
  their reaction mechanism and predict their
  performance

Beton-prüfung
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New Approaches How can RD help?

• Knowledge based Development and Innovation
• RD in cement and concrete technology has been
  very fragmental, incremental and often
  trial-and-error based.
• Needs to be converted into knowledge based
  approach
• Develop fundamental understanding of reaction
  mechanisms
• Develop and employ appropriate analytical tools
• Develop models to predict field performance
• Validate models vs field conditions
• Holistic approaches needed to create confidence
  in new materials and overcome barriers in
  standardization shorten time to market.
• Cradle-to-Cradle concept might lead to new,
  creative approaches to develop positive footprint.

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Research and Technological Development in the
Cement and Concrete Industry

• Conclusion
• Significant improvements have been made to reduce
  environmental footprint of cement and concrete
  industry
• Potential of current optimization pathes almost
  exploited
• Substantial RTD investments needed to further
  improve sustainability of the industry.
• In applied research, product development,
  innovation
• In basic research / fundamental understanding
• Potential to develop a positive footprint

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for better building
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The Cement and Concrete Industry

• Cement and Concrete manufacturing

Sand
Clay
Gypsum
Gravel
Lime
Clinker
Cement
Mixer
Mill
Kiln
Additions
Iron
Admixtures
Water
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Technical Developments Process Optimization

• Replacement of clinker

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New Approaches How can RD help?

• Cradle-to-Cradle Concept for Building Materials
• Ensure optimal recycability of concrete
• Positive list of concrete constituents
• Develop new recycling technologies
• Valorization of wastes and by-products from other
  industries
• Turn the footprint positive / Eco-Effectiveness

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New Approaches How can RD help?

• Cradle-to-Cradle Products
• Develop products with positive environmental
  contribution

Air-cleaning concrete
Fine dust reducing concrete