AN Irish firm which is a leading global building materials supplier is piloting new technology at its UK operations which could decarbonise the cement production process.
Dublin headquartered CRH, which has offices around the globe, is partnering with Material Evolution, a leader in advanced materials science, to pilot its alkali fusion technology in cement production.
“At the core of this innovation is MevoCem – a next-generation cement technology created through a unique mechano-chemical process,” the firm explains.
“Unlike traditional methods, this approach requires no heat as part of the cement production process,” they explain.
“Instead, it uses alkali fusion to activate non-reactive and less-reactive materials such as various industrial byproducts.
“With the addition of water, these materials behave like traditional cement."
CRH will pilot the new technology at its UK-based firm Tarmac (Pic: CRH)CRH will pilot the use of MevoCem at its UK-based firm, Tarmac – which provides building materials to projecgts across the country.
“The project aims to demonstrate MevoCem’s performance under a new set of performance-based guidelines developed by the British Standards Institution with the objective of making it simpler to use advanced cement technologies like MevoCem in everyday construction projects.” A CRH spokesperson said.
The firm claims their innovation has the potential to offer a “range of benefits for the cement industry”.
These include turning underutilised materials into high-performance cements, simplying the cement production process and “giving new life to materials previously considered as waste”.
“What’s more, by eliminating heat, the process reduces the production of carbon emissions by up to 85 per cent compared to traditional Portland cement," the firm adds.
