i watched Catalyst on ABC 22nd May 2008 and a segment was about a new product available called Green.
'An Australian company has started to make concrete which promises to dramatically cut the carbon dioxide ordinarily emitted during production. Concrete is the second most widely used material on earth, after water. Figures vary, but it's estimated that the manufacture of cement, the reactive ingredient in concrete, is responsible for over 5% of the world's CO2 emissions.
Using a technique to make geo-polymers is similar to those found in some natural volcanic rocks, a concrete alternative called E-Crete is now being manufactured in Melbourne , which claims to have reduced the amount of CO2 ordinarilt emitted in the manufacture process by an estimated 80-90%'
Quote from Catalyst program (narrator is Graham Phi
llips) :
Professor van Deventer: You This is fly ash which comes from the combustion of coal, so coal fired power stations, and we add to that also in this case slag - a waste product from iron making
And that is available in abundance through out the world. I’m also putting in some sand just ordinary sand that we use in normal concrete, because that is what we use as a filler.
Then what we add is just some water and also a little bit of alkaline solution, which turns this mixture of ash and slag and sand into a concrete which will help to bind the particles together.
Narration: The activator dissolves out aluminium and silicon molecules from the slag and ash.
These molecules then link together, forming much longer molecules…they’re the geopolymers.
The geopolymers themselves link together, creating a vast three dimensional network. That’s what gives the cement its strength. And no carbon dioxide is produced.
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stroies/2244816.htm
access: 24th May 2008
Above is an image fromhttp://www.zeobond.com/ecr.htm. it shows that the E-Crete can support a large load. for the concrete slab you can see the individuals standing next to is E-crete. Very interesting material that Australians invented!!!
