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INSIGHTS SITE LINES The zero cement game
Will Lavelle of Atkins and Dr Philippa Horton from the University of Cambridge discuss what’s claimed to be the world’s first trial of zero emissions cement, which aims to develop ‘net-zero’ cement for the global construction industry
T
he decarbonisation of the built environment presents a phenomenal challenge to the construction industry, as the global 2050 deadline looms. And with an estimated 80%
of 2050’s buildings already in use today, there has rightly been considerable political and public attention given to the operational decarbonisation of existing UK homes – through improved insulation, installation of heat pumps and a rapid shift towards a decarbonised domestic electricity grid.
But there is also a keen focus on the carbon footprint of construction itself, and a real need to ensure embodied carbon is not left behind in this drive. Which is why the recent launch of zero-emissions cement trials is such an important step in the construction industry’s net zero journey.
Cement 2 Zero is a UK demonstrator project to trial the world’s first zero-emissions cement on an industrial scale. This innovative project, which secured £6.5m of Government funding from UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) as part of the Transforming Foundation Industries Challenge, aims to further advance the construction, cement and steel sectors’ decarbonisation journey to net zero industries of the future, to help meet the UK Government’s commitment of achieving net zero by 2050. Led by the Materials Processing Institute, and supported by the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with key players in the supply chain, Cement 2 Zero, the end goal of the project is to produce ‘zero carbon’ Cambridge Electric Cement (CEC) at scale. It is the first collaborative trial of its kind to address the global construction industry’s biggest challenge of decarbonisation, in response to the climate emergency.
Concrete is the most widely used material on earth, after water. The chemical and thermal combustion processes involved in the production of cement are a significant source of CO2
emissions.
The more than four billion tonnes of cement produced each year accounts for around 7% of global CO2
Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA). Cement-based products can easily contribute more than 50% of the CO2
emissions, according to the
e (‘Carbon Dioxide Equivalent’) emitted during construction of a traditional new-build home. Cement is of course found in many of the key elements including foundations, mortar and screed, but also blockwork and plasterboard, and in the UK, concrete and cement account for 1.5% of CO2
emissions. Project methodology
The Cement 2 Zero project will investigate the technical and commercial aspects of ‘upscaling’ the existing production from CEC
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK
to produce 20 tonnes of zero emissions cement. The first phase of trial ‘melts’ is being carried out by the Materials Processing Institute, initially in a 250 kg induction furnace, before being scaled up to 6T in an Electric Arc Furnace (EAF). Once the process has been substantially trialled, developed and de-risked effectively, industrial scale melts will follow in CELSA’s EAF in Cardiff.
The two-year industrial trial will test each stage of the production process and brings together the expertise of the Materials Processing Institute, the University of Cambridge and key supply chain partners – Atkins, Balfour Beatty, CELSA, Day Aggregates and Tarmac – before using the product in a live UK construction project.
ADF APRIL 2023
In the UK, concrete and cement account for 1.5% of C02
emissions
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