Feature Project
Re:Generation Edition 02
Sustainable construction - the potential of low carbon concrete
Courtesy of Stiff & Trevillon
Office redevelopment writes blooming great new chapter
Low carbon concrete holds the potential to massively reduce the industry’s contribution to climate change.
The sheer scale of concrete production is astounding, with a staggering 10 trillion cubic meters of concrete manufactured every year. However, the use of standard cement in concrete production contributes to a substantial amount of climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions, accounting for 8% of the world’s total CO2 emissions. It is imperative to shift towards low carbon concrete, which has the remarkable capability to reduce concrete-related carbon dioxide emissions by 50%. One effective method of emission reduction is producing cement using blast furnace ash or fly ash.
Tucked in the corner of the Borough of Camden, you’ll find Bloomsbury, the intellectual and literary capital of London. (We wouldn’t have Harry Potter without Bloomsbury Publishing.) Historical, beautiful, and oozing bookish charm, Bloomsbury is an intellectual’s playground. In fact, Bloomsbury’s actually pretty cool – so it’s no surprise that General Demolition felt right at home during work at 21 Bloomsbury Street. Located at the corner of Bloomsbury St and Bedford Ave, the building, formerly the headquarters of Sports England, underwent its own high intensity workout – with General Demolition as its own Ted Lasso head coach.
Spanning multiple floors, the restoration process began with General Demolition’s meticulous approach to skeletonizing the atrium and executing a full strip-out. This page-turner involved the painstaking removal of all fire protection from the steel ‘I’ beams throughout the entire building – a messy, time consuming and labourous opus. Once achieved, the beams were sandblasted and reprotected with the latest fire proofing material.
Get in touch for the full case study. Email: enquiries@general-demolition.co.uk
Using cement made using blast furnace ash or fly ash is the most effective way to reduce emissions from concrete production.” “
Slower strength development
The LOIKKA project
“Low-carbon concrete is by no means a new phenomenon,” says Dr Jouni Punkki, Professor of Practice in Concrete Technology at the Department of Civil Engineering at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland. “Using cement made using blast furnace ash or fly ash is the most effective way to reduce emissions from concrete production.” However, according to Punkki, concrete using blast furnace ash cement is not more popular because of its slower strength development, compared to standard concrete. In the precast industry, for example, low carbon concrete can take up to 18 hours after casting to be ready – much longer than normal.
Punkki is leading Aalto University’s contribution to the LOIKKA project. LOIKKA is a joint venture consisting of the Confederation of Finnish Concrete Industries, Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries, Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, Aalto University, and five companies, including precast concrete technology expert Elematic. The project began in March 2022 and is due to run for two years. LOIKKA’s ambitious objective is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from concrete construction in Finland by 50% .
Low carbon concrete + waste saving precast techniques One of the companies supporting the project is Finnish precast concrete technology expert Elematic. “Elematic’s customers have hundreds of factories around the world,” says Jani Eilola, Director of Floor and Acotec Technologies at Elematic. “If we can help them make the transition to low-carbon concrete, it will have a big impact on the climate.”
“With LOIKKA, we want to develop production technology in a way that maintains the current mould cycle,” says Elematic’s Eilola. “To speed up the introduction of low-carbon precast concrete elements for our customers, we are looking into alternate formulations of low-carbon concretes. Heat treatment of the concrete mix can also speed up drying and strength formation. The know-how we gain from this project can be shared with our customers around the world.”
Carbon neutrality by 2025?
Despite its current limitations Punkki estimates that low-carbon cement production volumes will overtake conventional cements globally after the end of this decade, and carbon neutrality in concrete production could be achieved as early as 2035.
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