Centro de Território, Ambiente e Construção
Escola de Engenharia da Universidade do Minho
Campus de Azurém
4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal
Phone: + 351 253 510 200 (517 206)
Fax: + 351 253 510 217
Email: geral@ctac.uminho.pt
Title | Introduction |
Publication Type | Chapters/ Papers in International Books |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Authors | Pacheco-Torgal, F., Chindaprasirt P., and Ozbakkaloglu T. |
Abstract Text | This chapter starts by reviewing crucial facts about the climate emergency, resource efficiency, and the circular economy in order to provide a context for the contribution of alkali-activated concrete just because since Humanity is living on borrowed time then classic narrowed approaches are no longer the most effective, nor are they even effective anymore. Every year the world economy uses more than 100,000 million tonnes of natural resources. Of that gargantuan consumption 67,000 million tonnes are transformed into atmospheric pollution or became solid waste and only 8,400 million tones are reused which means each year around 27,000 million tonnes are disposed of. Population growth will further increase resource consumption and waste generation meaning that increasing amounts of waste reuse must be tackled. Alkali-activated concrete has paramount importance in that context because it can recycle a high amount of industrial wastes. And that is why a change in the terminology used for categorizing these materials is necessary. One that gives visibility to the high recycling features of these materials and that helps its wide acceptance and application by the construction industry. Furthermore, the moment that Governments all over the world finally decide to put up in place high taxes on the extraction of virgin raw materials (like the ones that already exist in some Nordic countries) thus benefiting materials that can recycle a high waste content then alkali-activated concrete mixtures could finally gain a cost-competitive edge over Portland cement concrete based mixtures. The chapter includes a brief review on recent alkali-activated concrete developments. An outline of the book is also included |
Book Title | Handbook of advances in Alkali-activated Concrete |
Volume | 1 |
Edition | 1 |
Chapter | 1 |
Pagination | 1-12 |
Date Published | 2021-12-03 |
Publisher | Elsevier |
ISBN | 9780323854696 |
Keywords | Alkali-activated concrete, Circular economy, Climate emergency, Resource Efficiency |
Rights | embargoedAccess (3 Years) |
Peer reviewed | yes |
Status | published |
The Centre for Territory, Environment and Construction (CTAC) is a research unit of the School of Engineering of University of Minho (UMinho), recognised by the “FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia” (Foundation for Science and Technology), associated to the Department of Civil Engineering (DEC), with whom it shares resources and namely human resources.
Currently CTAC aggregates 24 researchers holding a PhD of which 20 are faculty professors of the Civil Engineering Department. Read more
Centro de Território, Ambiente e Construção
Escola de Engenharia da Universidade do Minho
Campus de Azurém
4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal
Phone: + 351 253 510 200 (517 206)
Fax: + 351 253 510 217
Email: geral@ctac.uminho.pt