Cement

Materials

New concrete recipe improves its carbon capture efficiency

Unfortunately concrete production is a major source of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Now engineers at Purdue University have developed a new cement recipe that can absorb CO2 twice as fast as usual, hopefully turning it into a useful carbon sink.

Concrete walls at the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant were found to have become stronger over their lifetime

Materials

Ancient Roman concrete mineral found strengthening nuclear reactor walls

Researchers have found that the concrete walls in a decommissioned power plant in Japan have not only kept their strength over the decades but have actually gotten stronger with use, thanks to a rare mineral also found in ancient Roman concrete.

A new nanoengineered cement could help seal damaged or degraded natural gas wells, like this one in Pennsylvania

Materials

Flexible cement is made to fill the fine gaps around leaky gas wells

Engineers at Penn State University have developed a new type of flexible cement they say can be used to contain methane leaks, by being fed into the the very fine gaps around deteriorating gas wells that traditional cements are unable to fill.

The team's new cement-free concrete (right) alongside conventional but corroded Portland cement concrete

Materials

Cement-free sewerage concrete combats fatbergs and corrosion

Scientists in Australia have developed a new cement-free solution they say is better equipped to handle the corrosive nature of sewerage systems, while also helping avoid the buildup of troublesome and costly fatbergs.

The new self-stressing concrete developed at EMPA

Materials

Leaner, greener, expanding concrete pre-stresses itself as it forms

A new adaptation of a pre-stressing technique has been used to produce concrete that is lighter but with comparable strength, an advance that if widely applied, could save significant amounts of CO2.

Prof. Frank A. Müller, with a sample of the carbon fiber-augmented calcium phosphate cement undergoing load testing

Medical

Carbon fibers allow bone cement to heal itself

A substance known as calcium phosphate cement is commonly used to repair broken bones, both holding them together and encouraging the growth of new bone tissue. Now, scientists have added carbon fibers to the material to also make it self-healing.

The new bendable concrete is put to the test

Materials

Bendable concrete goes cement-free to cut environmental footprint

Strong as it is, concrete doesn’t stand up well against bending. Now, researchers at Swinburne University have developed a new type of concrete that can not only bend better, but doesn’t require cement to make, reducing its environmental footprint.

An experiment illustrates the electrolysis process using dye: pink represents the acid created at one electrode and purple the base at the other end

Materials

Electrolysis technique makes cement CO2 emission-free

Making cement is one of the biggest contributors of carbon emissions. Now MIT researchers have developed a new method that can clean up the process.

A scanning electron microscope image of fly ash particles, which have been used to make an environmentally friendly binder for concrete production that requires no cement

Materials

Coal plant waste helps build environmentally-friendly, cementless concrete

To make concrete more environmentally friendly, the industry has been adding by-products from coal-fired power plants, but doing so had its own problems. Now, Rice researchers have developed a new composite binder that requires no cement, and reduce waste from power plants at the same time.

The enhanced concrete contains nano-platelets derived from carrot and beet root fibers

Materials

Carrots n' beets used to strengthen concrete

It was back in April that we heard about how scientists had made concrete stronger and more eco-friendly by adding graphene to it. Now, researchers at Lancaster University are reporting that they've achieved even better results using cheaper "nano platelets" derived from root vegetable fibers.

On the left is the enhanced concrete, and on the right is a sample of biochar generated from wood waste that was used to make it

Materials

Recycled wood waste makes concrete stronger and more watertight

A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed a novel new method to recycle wood waste by incorporating it into cement and mortar mixtures, making the resulting materials both stronger and more watertight.

MIT researchers say volcanic ash has a number of advantages as an ingredient in the cement manufacturing recipe

Materials

Cement made with volcanic ash can make cities stronger and greener

Scientists are continually searching for greener ways of producing cement, which is an energy-intensive process. Now an MIT team has found that pulverizing volcanic ash and adding it to the mix not only makes the process more environmentally friendly, but the resulting structures stronger as well.