How to reduce CO2 emissions in cement and concrete manufacturing
A European research project will study how to reduce CO2 emissions in cement and concrete manufacturing. The project, coordinated by Hegoi Manzano, researcher in the Physics Department of the UPV/EHU, will aim to obtain CO2-free cement, through the carbonation of calcium silicates and aluminates.
The challenge is important, since an annual production is estimated at around 4 billion tons of Portland cement, and each kilogram implies the emission of approximately 1 kg of CO2. The technology planned to mitigate the environmental impact of cement production is based on capturing this CO2 and using it as a raw material to develop new, more sustainable and less polluting cements.
The EU’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme, within the framework of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), will finance the project called Contrabass (zero-co2 cement through carbonation of calcium silicates and aluminates) to delve into the aspects of the physics and chemistry of these new calcium carbonate cements. The amount of financing is €2,171,340, of which the UPV/EHU will receive €251,971.
Reduce CO2 emissions in cement manufacturing
“The objective of Contrabass is to understand at the most fundamental level the hydration process of these new calcium carbonate cements, their differences compared to Portland cement, and to look for ways to optimize the properties of the material,” to reduce CO2 emissions in the cement and concrete manufacturing, explains researcher Hegoi Manzano.
To carry out this project, a European Network of Doctorates has been created, coordinated by Professor Manzano from the Department of Physics of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the UPV/EHU. The consortium is made up of 10 universities from 8 European countries, plus 5 additional academic partners (including the CSIC) and 5 industrial partners, including the main cement companies in Europe (HOLCIM, Heidelberg, TITAN) and additive companies. for construction (SIKA and Chryso).
“Each of the 10 participating universities receives funding to hire a doctoral student and cover the costs of their research. Doctoral students carry out their thesis on different aspects of the same problem, and share academic activities as well as exchange stays in centers and companies to improve their training,” says Professor Manzano.
At the UPV/EHU, the doctoral student who will develop his doctoral thesis in this project is the Frenchman Aden Rana. This researcher has a double Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics at the Paris Est Créteil University (2018-2021). His work at the UPV/EHU focuses on atomic scale modeling of calcium nucleation and growth processes.
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