Abstract
The main challenge for concrete industry is to serve the two major needs of human society, the protection of the environment, on one hand, and - on the other - the requirements of buildings and infrastructures by the world growing population. In the past, concrete industry has satisfied these needs well. However, for a variety of reasons the situation has changed dramatically in the last years. First of all, the concrete industry is the largest consumer of natural resources. Secondly, Portland cement, the binder of modern concrete mixtures, is not as environmentally friendly. The world’s cement production, in fact, contributes to the earth’s atmosphere about 7% of the total CO2 emissions, CO2 being one of the primary greenhouse gases responsible for global warming and climate change. As a consequence, concrete industry in the future has to face two antithetically needs. In other words, how the concrete industry can feed the growing population needs being – at the same time - sustainable? Sustainability in construction industry can be achieved through three different main routes based on the “3R – Green Strategy”: Reduction in consumption of gross energy for construction materials production, Reduction in polluting emissions and Reduction in consuming not renewable natural resources.
Highlights
With a production of more than 10 billion tons, concrete is the most widely used building material in the world, especially in areas affected by intense economic and demographic growth, such as China and India
The concrete industry is the largest consumer of natural resources
How the concrete industry can feed the growing population needs being – at the same time - sustainable? Sustainability in construction industry can be achieved through three different main routes based on the “3R – Green Strategy”: Reduction in consumption of gross energy for construction materials production, Reduction in polluting emissions and Reduction in consuming not renewable natural resources
Summary
With a production of more than 10 billion tons, concrete is the most widely used building material in the world, especially in areas affected by intense economic and demographic growth, such as China and India. The geopolymers or in general the alkaline activated binders can be considered "environmentally friendly" since it is not necessary (except for the metakaolin) to burn materials used as precursors From this point of view, it has been highligthed how a ton of geopolymers produced with fly ash and alkaline activators releases an amount of CO2 (Global Warming Potential: GWP) equal to 20% than that emitted during Portland cement production; ▪ “sulfoaluminate cements” whose production requires a lower consumption of primary energy deriving from both lower kiln temperature and grinding of the lower hardness CSA clinker (Table 1). ▪ “a reduction of transport distances of building materials” using both the local natural raw resources and by-products available in each country With this in mind, use of alternative binders to those based on Portland cement clinker must take place avoiding special materials produced only in technologically advanced countries. - Use of SCMs in concrete production (High Volume Fly Ash Concrete, etc.); - Use of binary or ternary blend binders; - Reduction of organic polymers in production of special products; - Reduction of VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) - Reduction of transport distances of building materials; - Use of PCM (Phase Change Materials)
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