New Green Construction Material Innovation_Low energy cement production by Celitement via IOM3: The Global Network for Materials, Minerals & Mining Professionals

"Low energy cement production

Researchers in Germany have developed a high-performance mineral binder, which, they say, can help reduce the energy consumption and CO2 emissions associated with cement production.

Celitement, the material’s trade name, is based on hydraulic calcium hydrosilicates."

Energy Saving

Celitement is made by forming calcium silicate hydrates in a hydrothermal reaction at temperatures between 150 and 200ºC. In a second step the autoclaved material is co-milled with a SiO2-rich material, such as quartz-sand.

‘Production of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) at temperatures of up to 1,450°C is a highly energy-consuming process,’ explains Dr Hanns-Günther Mayer, Managing Director of Celitement, a spin-out of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). ‘In addition, cement plants emit more than two billion tonnes of CO2 annually (2x10^9 tonnes CO2). In comparison to OPC Celitement has the potential to reduce both energy use and CO2 by up to 50%.’

Materials Strength:

 ‘During hydration, Celitement transforms to calcium silicate hydrate gel. This material is the cement hydrate, which defines the mechanical strength and stability of traditional concrete. Thus material properties of test samples made with Celitement, such as strength development and final compressive strength (up to 80 MPa) resemble those of samples made with OPC,’ adds Mayer.

Strength can be regulated by varying the mixing and processingparameters. ‘One big advantage of Celitement is the fact that it can be used just like any other cement.’

 Scale-Up

In spring 2011, a small pilot with a production rate of 100kg/day will start operation at KIT to perform extensive material tests and prepare scale-up.

REFERENCE:

Low energy cement production | IOM3: The Global Network for Materials, Minerals & Mining Professionals

  More on Celitement 

RELATED POSTS:

Materials and Environment-Embodied Energy of Materials

Nanoengineered concrete R & D to cut CO2 emissions (Feb 08, 2008)

WEDGE-A-WAR follows from Theory to Practice (Oct. 18, 2006)

 

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Conversations on Innovations: The Metallurgy of CO2 absorption ...
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Nanoengineered concrete R & D to cut CO2 emissions

Nanoengineered concrete could cut CO2 emissions?

In a previous note on commercial or near commercial innovation, I recorded work on cement manufacturing at lower temperatures, thus saving energy and reducing CO2 emissions.

The MIT report (below_near the end of my entry) appeared to provide an opportunity to record both one high profile longer termed R&D work in Nanoengineering and the more mundane close to production, often overlooked by the main dailey press media.

Having recently received an invitation, among many others, to attend a 2 day conference, Global Fuels Conf. & Awards, held in London on 4-5 Feb. 08, [Link-html] reporting on Industrial progress and R&D work, many of which involved CO2 reduction in cement manufacturing, including it's use in steelmaking slags.

[Link-html]

The following entry "Nanoengineered concrete could cut CO2 emissions? " which was my initial motivation to weblog, appears to belong to the longer termed (LT) research category unless the financial backing from the french company Lafarge pushes forward the project and in doing so achieve quicker and improved ROI-Return on Investment.

Nanoengineered concrete could cut CO2 emissions?
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--While government leaders argue about the practicality of reducing world emissions of carbon dioxide, scientists and engineers are seeking ways to make it happen.
One group of engineers at MIT decided to focus its work on the nanostructure of concrete, the world's most widely used material. The production of cement, the primary component of concrete, accounts for 5 to 10 percent of the world's total carbon dioxide emissions; the process is an important contributor to global warming.

In the January issue of the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, the team reports that the source of concrete's strength and durability lies in the organization of its nanoparticles. The discovery could one day lead to a major reduction in carbon dioxide emissions during manufacturing.

Could be worth repeating that the above reported MIT research was funded in part by the Lafarge Group according to
Eurekalert[Link]

In guise of a conclusion:
WHAT IS PRETTY CERTAIN IS THAT MANY MORE E-MISSIONS WILL CUT CO2 EMISSIONS WITHOUT CUTTING JOBS!

May I take this opportunity to remind my readers that I travel for work missions only according to standard working request procedures, transportation mode being, of course, at the initiative of the requesting firm, however where distance is involved and when possible, rail travel is preferred. The latter is a considerable sacrifice, as I love flying!

Acknowledgements:

1. With thanks to Danish Nano & Nilt News letter who drew my attention to this MIT
work.

2. Global Fuels Awards

Four categories are open for nominations:

1 Outstanding alternative fuel project (cement or lime company)

2 Most innovative technology for alternative fuel use

3 Outstanding electrical energy efficiency project award (cement or lime company)

4 Most innovative technology for electrical energy efficiency

The Metallurgy of CO2 absorption with resulting Hydrogen gas production _Wedge a War

The first post on this theme was entitled "Wedge-A-War: Any Old Iron?, Corrosion & Natures Processes, the latter "Nature's Processes" being the title of a book of poems by John Updike. It draws attention to the role of corrosion of iron in a wet (humid-H20) carbon dioxide (CO2) environment resulting in the production of iron carbonate and hydrogen gas as the products of the reaction. This is repeated in the chemical form below together with a little poem written for the occasion. Full references were given in the previous entry "Wedge-a-War. Any Old Iron?"

Fe(s)+ H2O(l) +CO2(g)=> FeCO3(s) +H2(g)
iron +water+carbon dioxide => iron carbonate + H2
(where s=solid, l=liquid, g=gas.)

Let the Heavenly Steel Chorus hear -
Metallurgists, Steelmakers, Geologists, dear
Chemical Engineers and Ecologist's plea.
From humble steelmaking, sometime war-mongering,
To white knight planet saviour - eco-engineering,
For "Now's the time and now's the hour" for CO2 sinking,
For scientific method and controlled tinkering.
The above corrosive reaction begs the question:
Any old iron?

ref: to initial back-ground from "Corrosion Mechanisms & Control in Hydrocatbon Exploration and Production Operations", by Dr. Dan Kirkwood in the now, out of print; "Journal of the Metallurgical Club -Strathclyde University" 1992-93, p43-58.

In fact it is well known that several other metals behave in a similar fashion in these matters. A fairly recent reference to such metals and reactions has been echoed by Kurzweil [Link] reported initially and at more length in CNet news [Link].

Both tech watchers, Kurzweil and CNet report two approaches:

I. Involves Aluminium catalysed,dis-inhibited by Gallium,The method is outlined, costs estimates given, patents filed and a company, "AlGalCo", created to exploit the inventions and innovations.

"Purdue University professor Jerry Woodall has discovered a way to make hydrogen out of a reaction of water and an alloy of aluminium and gallium. Woodall estimates that the technique could produce fuel that would compete with gas at $3 a gallon (assuming current prices for aluminium, which are above $1 a pound). Woodall considers that the higher actual fuel cost could be off-set by the higher efficiencies of hydrogen engines.

The Purdue Research Foundation holds title to the primary patent, which has been filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and is pending. An Indiana start-up company, AlGalCo, is licensing the patent and will try to commercialize the idea."

II. Involves Magnesium. The company Ecotality associated with the Jet Propulsion Lab (USA) managed by CalTech [Link] to exploit the the so called Hydratus principle[Link]. More on the uses of magnesium may be found at Magnesium.com's[Link]

III. Involves extracting hydrogen from a reaction between sodium, water and silicon. The company exploiting this avenue is New York's Signa Chemistry [Link]

IV. Last but not least is the EU and Israel's Weizmann Institute, Zn powder produced H2, Solzinc process[Link] Unlike the previous examples whereby hydrogen is obtained from corrosion like processes the Solzinc project is a classical reduction of zinc oxide by carbonaceous material at elevated temperatures (>1000°C)readily depicted by the Richardson-Ellingham Diagramme. High temperatures are obtained by using mirror concentrated solar power installation at the Weizmann Institute in Israel.



If this is not sufficient, the biologists too, seem keen to "Wedge some Wars" from their angle, if only to keep the metallurgists on their toes. CNet news reports again
"Stanford University professor James Swartz, who by contrast,has found a micro-organism that takes sunlight and splits water molecules. Swartz's work has generated a start-up called Fundamental Applied Biology."

I would not like to end on a note highlighting our biologist colleagues no matter how highly distinguished.

Let me point out that there is a very interesting list of metals and their carbonates all of which by definition are capable of absorbing CO2, and most likely producing Hydrogen subject to determining the correct thermodynamic, kinetic conditions. Choices will subject to the economic, "social and environmental" climate in which they are required to operate.

The efficiency of the hydrogen energy vector for combustion has been dealt with in depth in a very well reference section of the free Encyclopaedia "Wikipedia" [Link].

Metallurgy, Materials Science,Applied Science

Wedge-A-War: Any Old Iron?, Corrosion & Natures Processes

Fe(s)+ H2O(l) +CO2(g)=> FeCO3(s) +H2(g)
iron +water+carbon dioxide => iron carbonate + H2
(where s=solid, l=liquid, g=gas.)

Let the Heavenly Steel Chorus hear -
Metallurgists, Steelmakers, Geologists, dear
Chemical Engineers and Ecologist's plea.
From humble steelmaking, sometime war-mongering,
To white knight planet saviour - eco-engineering,
For "Now's the time and now's the hour" for CO2 sinking,
For scientific method and controlled tinkering.
The above corrosive reaction begs the question:
Any old iron?

[Link to poems & more ]

References to CO2 Corrosion and Hydrogen Production:
1. Corrosion Mechanisms and Control in Hydrocarbon Exploration and Production Operations, D. Kirkwood, Journal of the Metallurgical Club N° 27 1992-1993,The University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland.
2. NIMS-National Institute for Materials Science,Japan.[Link]

Full report on environmentally benign engineering [Link] (3.5Mo format Pdf .

3. Why not use iron? .[Link]format pdf