The concrete industry is known to leave an enormous environmental footprint on Planet Earth. First, there are the sheer volumes of material needed to produce the billions of tons of concrete worldwide each year. Then there are the CO2 emissions caused during the production of Portland cement. Together with the energy requirements, water consumption and generation of construction and demolition waste, these factors contribute to the general appearance that concrete is not particularly environmentally friendly or compatible with the demands of sustainable development. This paper summarizes recent developments to improve the situation. Foremost is the increasing use of cementitious materials that can serve as partial substitutes for Portland cement, in particular those materials that are by-products of industrial processes, such as fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag. But also the substitution of various recycled materials for aggregate has made significant progress worldwide, thereby reducing the need to quarry virgin aggregates. The most important ones among these are recycled concrete aggregate, post-consumer glass, scrap tires, plastics, and by-products of the paper and other industries.

The greening of the concrete industry

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, efforts are needed to develop environmentally friendly construction materials. This paper presents the development of fly ash-based geopolymer concrete. In geopolymer concrete, a by-product material rich in silicon and aluminum, such as low-calcium (ASTM C 618 Class F) fly ash, is chemically activated by a high-alkaline solution to form a paste that binds the loose coarse and fine aggregates, and other unreacted materials in the mixture. The test results presented in this paper show the effects of various parameters on the properties of geopolymer concrete. The application of geopolymer concrete and future research needs are also identified.

On the development of fly ash-based geopolymer concrete

This Research Report describes the first part of the work carried out by the geopolymer research group at Curtin University of Technology. It describes the development and properties of heat-cured low-calcium fly ash-based geopolymer concrete. This Report will be followed by two other Reports describing the long-term properties of geopolymer concrete, and the behaviour of reinforced geopolymer concrete beams and columns.

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Development and properties of low-calcium fly ash-based geopolymer concrete

In recent years, attempts to increase the utilisation of fly ash to partially replace the use of Portland cement in concrete are gathering momentum. Geopolymer concrete is a ‘new’ material that does not need the presence of Portland cement as a binder. Instead, activating the source materials such as fly ash that are rich in Silicon (Si) and Aluminium (Al) using high alkaline liquids produces the binder required to manufacture the concrete. Hence, concrete with no cement.This paper presents information on fly ash-based geopolymer concrete. The paper covers the material and the mixture proportions, the manufacturing process, and the influence of various parameters on the properties of fresh and hardened concrete.

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Fly Ash-Based Geopolymer Concrete

Properties of sustainable concrete containing fly ash, slag and recycled concrete aggregate

Environmental issues will play a leading role in the sustainable development of the cement and concrete industry in the 21st century. The World Earth Summits in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992, and Kyoto, Japan in 1997, have made it abundantly clear that unchecked increased emission of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere is no longer environmentally and socially acceptable for overall sustainable development. The primary greenhouse gas emissions discussed in the sessions of the above conferences are carbon dioxide emissions. Other greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide and methane, are of serious concern, but the amount involved is relatively small compared with that of carbon dioxide. Consequently, developed countries are considering regulations and mandatory quotas on the emission of these gases, and the main thrust is to stabilize these emissions to the 1990 level by the year 2010. Since the manufacture of portland cement contributes significantly to carbon dioxide emissions, this article discusses the increase use of large volumes of fly ash and other supplementary cementing materials in the construction industry and its role in reducing these emissions.

V. M. Malhotra

Papers

Making concrete greener with flyash