Cement News tagged under: research

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Project to target CO2 emissions from refractories

30 August 2022, Published under Cement News

A research project, funded by the European Union, could help lower CO 2 emissions in the refractory industry by up to 800,000tpa. The initiative is known as the ReSoURCE project and involves eight research partners, led by RHI Magnesita. “On average, 60 per cent of all spent refractories, generated by refractory-consuming industries, go to landfill, while only 30 per cent is recycled. With the ReSoURCE project, we aim to increase it up to 75 per cent. This means we can achieve significan...

US$3.2m grant to support algae-grown cement

06 July 2022, Published under Cement News

A team of researchers led by the University of Colorado Boulder, USA, has received a US$3.2m grant from the US Department of Energy to support the development of algae-grown cement. The university’s Will Srubar, associate professor in civil, environmental and architectural engineering, developed a way to harvest cement material from calcifying algae that consume water-dissolved CO 2 to produce limestone by photosynthesis. Algae-grown cement is carbon neutral because the same amount of C...

Wacker opens competence centre for cement and concrete in Shanghai

19 April 2019, Published under Cement News

Chemical company Wacker has opened a new competence centre for cement and concrete applications in Shanghai. The laboratory will develop silicone products that improve the properties of and longevity of cement and concrete in a sustainable way, with a particular focus on performance-enhancing silicone additives. "The new centre of excellence in Shanghai will help our clients face these challenges and capitalise on the opportunities they bring," said Paul Lindblad, president of Wacker Great...

Lafarge starts low-carbon fuel research project

12 January 2018, Published under Cement News

Lafarge Canada Inc, in cooperation with the University of Calgary, Queen’s University and Pembina Institute, is carrying out a million-dollar study on the environmental benefits of introducing lower-carbon fuels at its Exshaw Cement plant in Alberta, Canada. “Our estimates show each 20 per cent incremental replacement of natural gas at the Exshaw Cement Plant with lower carbon fuels could result in the elimination of nearly 75,000tpa of CO2. This is the equivalent of taking over 16,000 ca...

Secret of future cement strength lies in sea urchins?

01 December 2017, Published under Cement News

Research carried out by the University of Konstanz, Germany, has helped to develop a cement that is resistant to fractures. The research highlighted that while the spines of sea urchins are made mainly of calcite, a very brittle and fragile material, the way nature optimises the “brick and mortar”-style architecture gives the spines additional strength. The guiding principle is to alternate hard (ie the brick) and soft (ie the mortar) layers as used by the sea urchin, When strength is ap...

The SEACON project

01 June 2016, Published under Cement News

The SEACON project is a new research initiative into the production of an innovative concrete, containing high-chloride constituents (ie, cement, water and aggregates) in combination with non-corrosive reinforcement. This paper shows goals and preliminary results of one of its work packages. By Federica Bertola, Fulvio Canonico and Manuela Bianchi, Buzzi Unicem, Italy, and Antonio Nanni, University of Miami, USA. Figure 1: partners and collaborators of the SEACON project The SEA...

From flue gas to green growth

02 April 2012, Published under Cement News

While cement producers such as Lafarge have made the commitment to significantly reduce their CO2 emissions, if higher reductions are to be obtained, the industry must find new, non-traditional ways of cutting back levels. The Lafarge Research Center has investigated the conversion of flue gas CO2 into micro-algae biomass. Figure 1: the PBR used in the trial is composed of five ranks of glass tubes. The photograph shows one side of the PBR with 15 loops identified for each of the fiv...