Project GeoDust is a project of H2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie RISE Action. It has started on 1st January 2017.
The main focus of GeoDust project is to contribute to lowering carbon footprint by searching for greener alternative for Portland cement based materials, and help to achieve the 2050 goal of 80% reduction of CO2 emissions.
Portland cement has serious environmental impact due to high energy demands, consumption of raw materials and greenhouse gases emissions. It is estimated that PC production is responsible for approximately 7% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.
The application of alkali activated binders seems to be a very promising option. These binders are often based on the industrial wastes or by-products; blast furnace slag and fly ash are the most common ones.
Connsortium consists of 5 members, three from academia and two from industry
Brno University of Technology - T is the second largest public technical university in the Czech Republic. At the present time BUT has 3 university institutes and 8 faculties
Technical University of Ostrava - is a dynamically developing institution with important activities in science and research, inclusive co-operation with industry and business environments.
CEMMAC a.s. is the smallest cement plant in Slovakia with quite long history. Cement production started in 1929. Actually Cemmac is a member of austrian group ABAG based in Ohlsdorf, Austria. CEMMAC a.s. produces approx. 380 kT of clinker and 550 kT of cement of different types on yearly basis
The Spanish research council (CSIC) is the largest public institution dedicated to research in Spain and the third largest in Europe. Belonging to the Spanish ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. IETcc - Instite of Eduardo Torroja for construction science is one of institutes belonging under CSIC.
The ŽPSV s.r.o. company is a firm with a long tradition history. It is a traditional supplier of concrete products for the building industry specialized in the transport
structures (railway, road) and ground works including panel buildings revitalization, construction of industry and shopping centres, environmental structures etc.
project manager, coordination for BUT research team and objectives
BUT; scientific supervision, specialist for inorganic binders, scientific consultations within the project implementation
BUT; coordination and evaluation of bulk raw material analysis
BUT; results processing and evaluation, specialist for alkali activated materials
BUT; specialist for SEM microscopy and alkali activated materials
BUT; Project Administration
coordinator for TUO, specialist in research of secondary raw materials and its application
VŠB-TUO; Focusing on the environmental aspects of secondary raw materials
CSIC; scientific professor, expert in the field of alkali activation, alternative concretes
CSIC; expert on field of Alkaline Activation of materials (slags, fly ashes, etc.).
CEMMAC; production director responsible for quarry, cement production, dispatch and laboratory
CEMMAC; head of laboratory, organization and realization of chemical analysis and testing physical and mechanical properties of products
CFO, ŽPSV
During the project implementatioon there have been two summer schools:
During the project implementation there have been two workshops:
During the first months of project implementation, consortium members met each other and discussed the details of the work, secondments, data sharing and other necessities for smooth running of the project.
In the first year, the work carried out within the project was mainly focused on the characterization of the raw materials with special attention to CBPD, which is a waste from Portland cement manufacturing and has only very limited possibilities of utilization. The main goal was to find the best set of methods needed for the determination of the chemical and mineralogical composition of CBPD, as well as its physical properties, such as the particle size distribution. Knowledge of CBPD characteristics is essential for a reasonable development of any new system for its usage and helped us to proceed successfully during the following project stages.
Second and very wide task was development of a new type of cementless concrete, which contains CBPD and which will be usable instead of concretes based on Portland cement in some applications. At the same time, its preparation should be as simple and as cheap as possible, which relates to our efforts to use secondary raw materials as much as possible. Our concretes were based on alkali-activated blast furnace slag (AAS)-based binders, whose advantage is that they do not need curing at elevated temperatures. Unlike Portland cement, which hardens in the presence of a suitable amount of water, AAS also requires the presence of an alkaline activator (e.g., alkaline hydroxides, waterglass, etc.), which ensures the dissolution of slag particles to species that can build up a new solid structure with binding ability. Fresh and hardened properties of the prepared AAS-based materials depend on many factors and their combinations, where nature and dose of the alkaline activator and composition and dose of CBPD play crucial roles. Therefore, the effects of these and other factors were investigated in terms of consistency (how the material flows), setting time (period from mixing until the material is no longer workable), sufficient early and long-term strength, durability in various conditions, etc. Volume stability and tendency to surface cracking were also important aspects, as these belong to the most serious obstacles for wider utilization of AAS in practice.
This, was a real challenge, because by improving one parameter, another two were impaired. So, it was necessary to find a certain balance among all the desired aspects, without one significantly problematic. After optimization, we had to transfer our laboratory product to practice and verify its usability under conditions of larger scale of a concrete plant. Pilot production tests were successful and resulted in the production of various prefabricated products, such as concrete elements for railway marking or crash barriers. Along with these elements, many testing specimens were prepared to continue the testing of durability, strength, etc. Considerable attention was paid to the monitoring of the quality of the surface of our concretes, which resulted in further optimization and performance verification, during the pilot production tests. The advantage of developed concretes is that they can be produced using the devices and equipment commonly available in concrete plant.
It can be summarized that the project covered a wide range of scientific fields, from basic research with the participation of sophisticated instrumental techniques, to laboratory experiments with the pilot product produced on a large scale of concreting plants.
There is a list of scientific publications related to the GeoDust project:
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There is a list of posters related to the GeoDust project: