There’s a lot of talk about ‘Green Concrete’

As a company that is a large supplier of concrete products, we are always investigating what we can do better and the latest in innovation across all areas of concrete.

Last year, I was in Munich at the Bauma World Trade Show, I listened to a speaker who talked about ‘Green Concrete 3D Printing’ and suddenly it occurred to me, that this is the new reality. Sustainability in concrete is the future, and knowing how it’s done, and what companies like mine need to invest in to ensure we don’t become obsolete one day is integral to our business evolving.

The 3D concrete revolution is almost old news, although it is still being talked about quite a bit, and obviously implementation is far from being the norm as the technology is not easily accessible for various reasons. This no doubt will change in the upcoming years.

I have been keen to know more about ‘green’ cement compound from industrial waste geared for use in 3D printing concrete.

This is not only new and innovative, it is something that is drawing a lot of attention world-wide and surprising has come out of an incubator program in Dubai – where you probably would least expect it.

The creation of geopolymer cement from industrial by-products that uses only a 10th of the energy compared to traditional Portland cement (in this instance of research), was founded through a joint venture with Andrey Dudnikov and Alex Reggiani.

Geopolymer cement and concrete is produced from industrial waste; pulverized fly ash and ground granulated blast slag which has greater thermal insulation property than regular concrete, perfect for hot climates resisting heat.

Noteworthy is that fly ash is a fine powder produced from burning pulverized coal during the process of power generation, while granulated blast slag is a by-product of iron and steelmaking.

I, like many of you in the industry am interested to see where this goes and whether it will be easily accessible around the globe. We are also interested in seeing it last the test of time – which is always something only time will tell.

Danterr is always looking for products that are new and innovative to service concrete and construction in Australia, so we will be looking at this quite closely.

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