n m

1

Going Global with Geo-Polymer

Concrete is a vital ingredient in infrastructure development. For several years, the use of cement as a binder in a concrete mixture has often been criticized by many parties concerned with environmental conservation. This is associated with global warming and depletion of significant amounts of natural resources in Portland cement (PC) production that became the main attention during the last decade. Production of one tonne of PC generates about one tonne of CO2 to the atmosphere, which constitutes 5% of the global CO2 emission. Global production of PC contributes about 1.35 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emission annually. Owing to the manufacture of PC, the CO2 emission is likely to rise by about 50% from the current levels in 2020. Recently, to lower the environmental impact from PC production, another class of binder that is produced from an alumino-silicate precursor reacted in high alkali solution has been developed. This cementitious binder is known as Geo-polymer cement (GC). GC is advantageous for two reasons, which are improvement in efficiency of geo-polymer concrete utilisation and reduction of greenhouse gas emission. One of the pozzolanic materials that has been introduced in the construction industry is fly ash (FA), which is a byproduct from coal-fired electric and steam generating plants. Production of GC uses a vibrator for compaction during concrete placement. One solution to alleviate this problem is the employment of self compacting concrete (SCC). The development of admixtures leads to a better control of fresh concrete properties by making the concrete self compactable. SCC transforms the concrete construction process by complete elimination of vibration during compaction and allows the concrete to flow through congested reinforcement under its own weight alone, filling the formwork without segregation of its constituent materials. Such concrete needs a high slump, which can easily be obtained by adding superplasticiser to a concrete mix and carefully controlled mix proportion. Experimental investigations on workability, structural and durability properties of SCC by replacing Portland Cement with Fly-ash up to 35% and 80%, respectively have been carried out. The results showed that SCC made with Fly-ash increased the workability and enhanced the hardened properties. Nevertheless, making large quantities of geo-polymer concrete with acceptable properties (for example British standards and EFNAC guidelines) at a competitive price has not been achieved yet. The present study have come out with an invention to overcome the above-mentioned problems.

www.platcomventures.com

The inventors would like to speak to companies interested in licensing this technology.

E: info@platcomventures.com T: +603 8319 3116)

1

The production of cement-free concrete and in particular, self-compacting geo-polymer (GC) concrete in infrastructural development represents a solution to criticisms of parties concerned with greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. Geo-polymer was developed as a binder, and brought improvements in its efficiency as well as to environmental conservation. With further enhancements of admixtures in self-compacting concrete (SCC) that is eliminated using a vibrator, this technology holds much commercial promise on Malaysia’s global construction scale.

It would appear that globalisation is inevitable, and the process of globalisation must be carried out so that all countries benefit equitably. The Malaysian construction industry is keen to ensure that this is the case. Over the years of maintaining an open construction market, Malaysia has had the privilege of benefiting from the transfer technologies in the construction of elevated highways, monorail and light rail transit tracks, tall buildings and dams. The experience and enhanced skills can in turn be exported in the form of construction services to other countries. So far Malaysia has been successful in procuring contracts overseas. Malaysian contractors are now building highways in India, China, Argentina and Bosnia. To remain competitive in the export of construction services, the Malaysian construction industry need to develop and produce it’s own construction technology rather than remaining merely a purchaser or consumer of technology. As such, the present technology of self-compacting geo-polymer concrete has a high commercial potential. © 2014 PlaTCOM Ventures. All rights reserved.

Composition of self compacting geo-polymer concrete and method of production has been protected via the filing of a Malaysian patent.

2

J

2

• T Has wide application in pavement construction, long span bridges and tall buildings

• Can reduce steel content by about 50% and labour factory by about 60%

• Achieve good consolidation, uniform properties, better quality and durability, strong bond with reinforcement, improved interface between the aggregate and hardened paste, and enhanced microstructure of concrete