Project description
Low-carbon cement from metallurgical wastes and CO2
It is possible to produce low-carbon cement by utilising carbonated ferrous metallurgical slags (FMS), a by-product of the CO2-mineralisation process, combined with ordinary Portland cement (OPC) to form a composite similar to Limestone-pozzolana-OPC cement. The EU-funded CO2Slag Cement project has the potential to avoid approximately 500 Mt CO2/y. It will investigate the carbonation mechanism using various types of FMS and synthetic analogues of calcium/magnesium-rich minerals present in them. It will also optimise the CO2 mineralisation process and environment to enhance the cementitious reactivity of carbonated FMS. Additionally, the project will analyse end-of-life recycling solutions and conduct detailed environmental impact assessments. CO2Slag Cement will also examine the hydration reaction of carbonated FMS with OPC when introduced as a supplementary cementitious material.
Objective
Nearly 580 million tonnes per year (Mt/y) of ferrous metallurgical slags (FMS) are produced as by-products of iron, steel, and alloy production. The accelerated reaction of CO2 with Ca/Mg present in these FMS can result in the formation of Ca/Mg-carbonates, offering a relatively simple and low-energy pathway for CO2-abatement. This CO2-mineralization process has the capacity to directly sequestrate ~140 Mt-CO2/y globally, leading to the potential availability of ~720 Mt/y of carbonated-FMS as a by-product. The carbonated-FMS are expected to be rich in amorphous alumina-silica and Ca/Mg-carbonates: when used in combination with Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), they are expected to form a composite cement similar to the presently marketed Limestone-pozzolana-OPC cement. In this context, this study focuses on the utilization of the carbonated-FMS to produce low-carbon cement with potential CO2-avoidance of ~500 Mt-CO2/y.
To maximize the cementitious reactivity, the carbonation mechanism will be studied using different types of FMS and synthetic analogues of the major Ca/Mg-rich minerals present in them. The CO2-mineralization process and environment will be optimized to maximize the cementitious reactivity of carbonated-FMS by controlling their phase compositions, microstructures, and morphologies. When introduced as supplementary cementitious material (SCM), its hydration reaction with OPC will be studied to maximize its
utilization potential. For the final mortar/concrete products containing carbonated-FMS, the environmental leaching will be studied. Moreover, pathways for the end-of-life recycling of the product will be analyzed through cradle-to-cradle scenario analyses. Finally, for easy acceptance by the practitioners, the product will be subjected to detailed life-cycle analyses and environmental impact assessments.
Fields of science
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-AG-UN - HORIZON Unit GrantCoordinator
90014 Oulu
Finland