Articles on the cement industry from Global Cement

The cement industry worldwide is facing growing challenges in the context of saving material and energy resources as well as reducing its CO₂ emissions. The International Energy Agency highlighted in its 'Road Map for the Cement Industry' that the main levers for the cement producers are the use of alternative materials, be it as fuel or raw material and in addition the reduction of the clinker/cement factor by utilisation of well tried and proven materials like slag, fly ash, pozzolanas or limestone fines. This underlines that in the years to come cement will depend on OPC clinker to a high degree. New cements will therefore most certainly first take into account higher amounts of main constituents besides clinker which show pozzolanic or latent hydraulic properties.

Alkali-activated 'geopolymer' concrete has been commercialised in Australia under the trade name E-Crete^(TM) and is now finding acceptance among the end-user community and from regulatory authorities. E-Crete is derived from fly ash and blast furnace slag with proprietary alkali activators and is available in both precast and pre-mix forms. The pre-mix concrete is able to be placed using largely standard concrete processing equipment and expertise. A life-cycle analysis of E-Crete has shown savings of around 80% in CO₂ emissions compared to a standard OPC-based binder, which provides the primary driver for the uptake of this technology on a larger scale. Commercialisation of geopolymer technology by Zeobond has been linked closely with both scientific research in this area and a broad process of industry and stake-holder engagement. The combination of these two activities will be highlighted throughout this article.

When a cement plant in the UK experienced operational problems with the drag chain system supplying biomass-derived fuel to its kiln, UK-based John King Chains Ltd (John King) was able to help.