- Written by Dr Robert McCaffrey Editor, Global Cement Magazine
As you can see from the front cover of this month's issue of Global Cement Magazine, we have launched the first-ever Well Cem Conference and Exhibition on well cements, which will take place on 13 - 14 January 2014 in Dubai. The conference will concentrate on cement production and cement performance in place. I thought that it might be useful to give a recap on the basics of well cement (including cement for oil, gas, water and geothermal wells) for prospective attendees. Technology has come a long way since Frank Hill of the Union Oil Co. first mixed and dumped 50 sacks of cement into a well to shut off water flow in a Californian oil well in 1903.
- Written by Dr Robert McCaffrey Editor, Global Cement Magazine
I've recently been reading a very scary document called 'Perfect Storm - energy, finance and the end of growth'1 by Dr Tim Morgan, Global Head of Research at Tullett Prebon, an inter-dealer broker. In this alarming but well-argued and persuasive publication, Dr Morgan suggests that 'the economy as we know it is facing a lethal confluence of four critical factors: the fall-out of the biggest debt bubble in history; a disastrous experiment with globalisation; the massaging of data to the point where economic trends are obscured' and - critically - the end of cheap energy and the resultant collapse of civilisation as we know it. He makes some pretty good points and I'll try and summarise them here.
- Written by Dr Robert McCaffrey Editor, Global Cement Magazine (rob@propubs.com)
We've recently been asked - again - to organise a Global Boards Conference. Some of you may remember that this idea was floated in 2010: we keep on being asked to create such an event, but economic conditions have not been right in the last few years. We had not considered the possibility of 'resurrecting' the Global Boards Conference, until we were asked by potential participants to once again look at the conference. Such a conference would concentrate on 'future boards;' new cement-based and other mineral-system-based board compositions, state-of-the-art manufacturing technology and new board applications.
We are aware that there are other events that cover some of the topics that a Global Boards Conference might cover, so we went out to our large database and asked our many readers and contacts for their feedback.
- Written by Dr Robert McCaffrey Editor, Global Cement Magazine
Have you ever noticed that concrete gets an increasingly bad press in the media these days? A while back I went to see Dredd - a grim and apocalyptic sci-fi movie about a future mega-city and its gun-toting lawmen (it was surprisingly funny). One of the leitmotifs of the film was its ugly concrete. Everywhere, it was dirty, covered in graffiti, crumbling, harsh and unforgiving. Perhaps the film-makers had 'dressed' it like that to make a point, and if they did, they did a good job. I noticed it, but perhaps most of the film-goers didn't. Without a doubt, anyone watching the movie would have received a subliminal message that concrete - at least the concrete of the future - is a dirty and unglamorous material.
I've often noticed in literature as well that both cement and concrete get a rough ride. If it's not James Bond being toughed up on some grey, forbidding concrete floor, it'll be a Kafkaesque anti-hero trying to negotiate a Stalinist-brutalist labyrinth of decaying concrete tower blocks. Concrete needs better PR if it is going to become a sexy, cool and desirable building material in the future.
- Written by Dr Robert McCaffrey Editor, Global Cement Magazine
The news in this month's Global Cement Magazine that Cemex is to institute a global water management strategy for its cement plants (and presumably all of its other industrial assets as well, since cement production is not necessarily a thirsty industry, but concrete production certainly is a major user of water) is a fantastic, far-sighted development.
In common with the other multi-nationals, most notably the signatories to the WBCSD's Cement Sustainability Initiative, Cemex has foreseen that sustainability is crucial for its continued existence. With the news that the company will 'regularise' its water management, with a view to reducing its specific water consumption, Cemex has brought to the forefront of its environmental agenda the issue of a The Last Word column, Dr Robert McCaffrey, thirsty world.
