Abstract
The contribution of building materials’ production to environmental impacts becomes significant in the new energy efficient buildings that are currently built. Among those materials, cement represents a major part of the embodied carbon footprint of buildings. Development of alternatives to traditional Portland cement have emerged over the last decades; however, their environmental assessment over their life cycle have resulted in conflicting results, which give a confusing picture of the strategic path to be followed. This paper focuses on the alkali-activated cement and concrete and points out the variability linked with the choice of energy source for the production of the activators and precursors. A review of existing studies is then performed in order to highlight the main benefits of these alternative cements in terms of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Finally, the results presented here highlight further research trends for new cements and concrete.
Highlights
Concrete production has an impact on the climate as it accounts for 5-8% of total anthropogenic CO2 emissions [1]. 95% of this CO2 is produced during the fabrication of cement, half of it being released by the decarbonation of the limestone during cement fabrication
When the Féret equation is used to calculate the appropriate amount of cement that will provide the same strength as the studied activated cements (AAC), it is interesting to note that the main unknown parameter in addition to the volume of cement is the volume of paste; which means that, if we consider the same amount of binder paste in both concretes, we can directly define one single solution for the amount of cement
We have been able to confirm that, despite large uncertainties on the exact environmental impact of their different components as well as on the mix design, the new concrete based on alkali-activated cements provide a groundbreaking solution for climate change issues
Summary
Concrete production has an impact on the climate as it accounts for 5-8% of total anthropogenic CO2 emissions [1]. 95% of this CO2 is produced during the fabrication of cement, half of it being released by the decarbonation of the limestone during cement fabrication. Structural optimization, either by better design through structurally informed form-finding software [7] or by high performance material used in smaller volume than low performance concrete [8], can further reduce the need for cement production when the structure scale is considered [9]. All these initiatives are not sufficient to achieve the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommendations, due to the tremendous growth of consumption, especially in emerging countries. The results presented here highlight further research trends for new cements and concrete
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