The construction industry worldwide is heavily dependent on concrete, which is the second most used material in the world after water. Unfortunately, concrete is characterized by a very high CO2 footprint, mostly related to the usage of Portland cement. There are several approaches to improve that situation. Typical include reducing the amount of Portland cement by substituting it partly with secondary cementitious binders (SCMs) and alternative binders. The concrete mix designs and production technologies have been optimized to reduce emissions. Unfortunately, as of today, none of these approaches enabled the production of truly zero-emission neutral sustainable concrete. Test results showed that producing new high-quality structural concrete is possible using only materials recovered from old concrete, including coarse and fine aggregates, fillers, and binders. The recovery method is based on a combination of crushers and ball mills that enable the mechanical activation of fines. The method used old concrete waste from a precast concrete factory yard. The material was crushed and sieved into several fractions, i.e., particle sizes 4–8 mm, 2–4 mm, and a fine powder < 2 mm. The fine powder was MCA-treated (Mechanical activation using intensive ball milling). All these materials were mixed, and the produced concrete reached the 28-day compressive strength of 30 MPa. The only new ingredient for that concrete was water with a little superplasticizer to improve the workability. The application of this technology in Europe could result in the annual production of 34 million tons of ZERO-emission cementitious binder.

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Carbon-Neutral Recycled Concrete

  • Andrzej Cwirzen,
  • Magdalena Rajczakowska,
  • Thanyarat Buasiri

摘要

The construction industry worldwide is heavily dependent on concrete, which is the second most used material in the world after water. Unfortunately, concrete is characterized by a very high CO2 footprint, mostly related to the usage of Portland cement. There are several approaches to improve that situation. Typical include reducing the amount of Portland cement by substituting it partly with secondary cementitious binders (SCMs) and alternative binders. The concrete mix designs and production technologies have been optimized to reduce emissions. Unfortunately, as of today, none of these approaches enabled the production of truly zero-emission neutral sustainable concrete. Test results showed that producing new high-quality structural concrete is possible using only materials recovered from old concrete, including coarse and fine aggregates, fillers, and binders. The recovery method is based on a combination of crushers and ball mills that enable the mechanical activation of fines. The method used old concrete waste from a precast concrete factory yard. The material was crushed and sieved into several fractions, i.e., particle sizes 4–8 mm, 2–4 mm, and a fine powder < 2 mm. The fine powder was MCA-treated (Mechanical activation using intensive ball milling). All these materials were mixed, and the produced concrete reached the 28-day compressive strength of 30 MPa. The only new ingredient for that concrete was water with a little superplasticizer to improve the workability. The application of this technology in Europe could result in the annual production of 34 million tons of ZERO-emission cementitious binder.