Cement Australia has used its GreenCem technology for the first time in a South Australian infrastructure project.
In collaboration with Holcim, Cement Australia has used GreenCem to reduce the embodied carbon in the concrete used during the construction of the Yitpi Yartapuultiku Cultural Centre in Port Adelaide, South Australia.
“Cement Australia has invested hugely in the last seven to eight years in the development of the GreenCem range of technologies,” national technical support manager at Cement Australia Bruce Perry said.
“This has led to innovative mixtures of concrete whereby the low-carbon aspects of concrete can really be quantified and demonstrated to the construction market
“High-performance fly ash and high-performance slag are readily available throughout Australia and can be used at any concrete batch plant to achieve, in effect, concretes with lower levels of embodied carbon than any geopolymer concrete without comprising the performance of the concrete.
“That is very critical because adoption of low-carbon concrete must not come at the expense of prolonged construction times, and this is where the GreenCem technology really scores.”
According to Cement Australia, the technology in GreenCem enables up to 80 per cent replacement of general-purpose cement with fly ash and/or slag, sourced entirely within Australia as a waste by-product from power stations and steel manufacturers, while achieving comparable concrete strength to general purpose cement.
Cement Australia and Holcim are using high-performance fly ash along with the GreenCem technologies and Holcim’s ECOPact Active for the facility’s construction. According to the companies, this has provided up to a 38 per cent embodied carbon saving.
“One of the things we see today is people that talk about ‘green’ cement. Normally what they’re trying to do is emphasise the fact they are starting to blend their cement with products like fly ash and slag,” chief executive officer of Cement Australia Rob Davies said.
“We’ve been doing that since 1980, but we’ve also been continuing to innovate our products, and that’s where GreenCem came from. What we’re able to do is not talk about green cement; we’re able to deliver a product for our customers so that their concrete will have even less embodied carbon in it.
“You have got to start with the community and community expectations, and I think we all need to ensure that we’re doing everything we can to improve the environment.”
