At present, industrial symbiosis is one of the most important approaches in many countries in terms of sustainability. Cement and concrete sectors play a critical role in the implementation of industrial symbiosis.
Sustainable economic development can not be achieved without the protection of natural resources when the resources of raw materials are decreasing day by day.
In recent years, the amount of waste materials increased by population growth. Storage of waste materials in landfilling areas becomes harmful for human health and causes environmental pollution over time.
However, the capacity of landfilling areas is not sufficient when it is compared to the amount of produced waste. The major elements contained in raw materials that used in cement industry could be basically sorted as: CaO, SiO2, Al2O3 and Fe2O3.
The presence of these oxides in the wastes allows them to be easily used as raw materials, substitution or mineral additives in cement production process.
It is important that not only the natural resources but also environment is protected by using of these waste materials in several industries. The cements, produced by using such materials in the cement industry, are called eco-cement.
Clinkers, which have a different composition than Ordinary Portland Cement clinker, can also be produced as eco-cement one of those which is Calcium Sulpho Aluminate (CSA) cement.
The main reason why they are named as eco-cement is that they can be produced at lower temperatures (around 1200-1300°C) and/or waste can be used.
CSA cement has its own advantages as lower CO2 emissions compared with ordinary Portland cement, lower embodied energy, reduction in consumption of natural resources by substituting a variety of industrial by-products and high resistance to sulfate attack.
The advantage of “blended cement”, which is another eco-cement, is the low amount of clinker and the low natural raw material content with the reduction of environmental impacts.
FISSAC (Fostering Industrial Symbiosis For A Sustainable Resource Intensive Industry Across The Extended Construction Value Chain) Project was funded under the HORIZON2020 Programme by EU, in order to reduce environmental impacts and implement zero waste approach in industrial scale;
It is aimed to use industrial symbiosis and circular economy between Steel, Iron-Free Metals, Mineral, Cement, Ceramic, Glass and Construction sectors.
There are 26 partners from 9 different countries in FISSAC Project. As Turkish Cement Manufacturers’ Association (TÇMB) R&D Institute, we have an active role in FISSAC project since 2015.
We have been working in 9 out of 10 work packages in FISSAC Project and our tasks include the production of CSA and blended cements with waste materials from different industries and construction of 50 m. concrete pavement with blended cement.
We have carried out the characterization studies of waste materials at TÇMB R&D Institute Quality Control Independent Analysis Laboratories. We have selected the best recipes of CSA and blended cement mixes.
After the production of laboratory scale cements from selected recipes, quality parameters analysis of these cements was carried out in our laboratories.
We carried out the pilot production of CSA cement recipes prepared using aluminum slag, glass waste, ceramic waste and ladle furnace slag as waste material at the Çimsa Mersin Cement Plant.
There is a limited production of CSA in Turkey and also in Europe in particular, using waste materials and production of the cement with required specifications will make a great contribution to the cement industry.
In this respect, the FISSAC project is an important example of the widespread use of CSA cement, which is not widely produced eventhough it is very valuable in terms of environmental and technical point of view.
In addition, in the production of blended cement, glass waste, ceramic waste and ladle furnace slag were used as mineral additives. We carried out production of selected blended cement in industrial scale together with OYAK Adana Cement Plant according to its strength and characterization properties.
Another important study in this project is the application of a concrete road with a blended cement recipe which is selected with the utilization of electric arc slag as an alternative aggregate.
One of the most important outputs of FISSAC project, will be completed in 2020, we as TCMA produced eco-cements in this project. Zero waste approach is aimed by using of alternative raw materials and mineral additives in production of eco-cements.
With this innovative approach, the creation of industrial symbiosis and circular economy will help to achieve advantages over classical production methods in terms of conservation of natural resources, waste disposal and energy efficiency.
