14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists working with the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen maintain that adding waste ash from sugar production to the list of ingredients used to make cement could yield both financial and environmental benefits.
Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers say that, according to their investigation, cement made with waste ash from sugar production is far stronger than regular cement.
Specifically, it can withstand higher pressure and is less likely to crumble, Science News details.
In their paper, the scientists explain that said ash makes cement stronger than it normally would be due to the fact that it binds the water in its composition.
“The quality and strength of cement is directly related to how much of the water is chemically bonded. The more the water can move around, the worse it is for the strength and durability,” says researcher Heloisa Bordallo.
By the looks of it, replacing 20% of the chalk and clay used to make cement with waste ash from sugar production is more than enough to make the resulting product more durable and drastically improve on the ecological footprint of the process.
Heloisa Bardallo explains that, as recent reports have shown, “Cement production uses a lot of energy and emits large amounts of CO2, because it needs to be heated up to very high temperatures. Cement production accounts for 5 percent of global CO2 emissions.”
“If you replace 20 percent of the content with ash, you are saving both CO2 emissions and raw materials, as you use 20 percent less by utilizing a waste product like ash,” the specialist goes on to detail.
Interestingly enough, said type of ash is already being used to make cement in countries such as Cuba and Brazil. It is basically the ash that gets produced when fiber waste extracted from sugar cane is burned in order to generate energy.