By-products for sustainable concrete in the urban environment (URBCON)

Researchers:

• Saeid Ghorbani
• Stijn Matthys (supervisor)

Description:

URBCON reduces the use of raw materials and the CO2 emissions from construction and maintenance of buildings and infrastructure in cities. The URBCON project targets the use of concrete as a building material. With the focus on the metropolitan areas of Ghent, Rotterdam and Northern France, by-products such as metallic slags and incineration ashes are used as alternative raw materials for the production of concrete. Replacing primary raw materials with by-products could save an estimated 84 million tonnes of mineral building materials per year. The main objectives of the project are: 1- Development of concretes with 100% by-products (aggregate) as well as with clinker-efficient cements 2- Networking of by-product providers and construction industry by means of a web-based platform for forecasting availability and considering the logistical chains underlying the construction demand; 3- Testing of the concretes developed in the project (URBCON concretes) on the basis of three pilot projects (including a school building in Ghent); 4- Preparation of a Strategic Technology Transfer Plan: proposals for policy frameworks, life cycle assessments, pre-normative work, economic feasibility studies. The consortium combines world-leading know-how in by-product based construction minerals, supplementary cementitious materials, alkali-activated binders, high-alumina cement, digital mapping of resources, and life cycle assessment and costing.