{"id":6694,"date":"2021-08-06T09:54:40","date_gmt":"2021-08-06T01:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/?post_type=nus-news&p=6694"},"modified":"2022-12-15T14:44:33","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T06:44:33","slug":"using-waste-clay-to-make-greener-concrete","status":"publish","type":"nus-news","link":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/news\/using-waste-clay-to-make-greener-concrete\/","title":{"rendered":"Using waste clay to make greener concrete"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From left: Dr Du Hongjian, Assoc Prof Pang Sze Dai, and Mr Anjaneya Dixit with the raw materials, processed clays, and finished concrete<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Concrete is the most consumed man-made material on Earth. While the environmental impact of materials like plastics has been widely publicised, the impact of concrete has been far less talked about.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Each year, about three tonnes of concrete are produced for every person on the planet.<\/p>\n

\n

Concrete is made up of water, cement, and a filler such as sand. The cement industry alone is responsible for about eight per cent of the world\u2019s carbon dioxide emissions, and the production of concrete consumes 10 per cent of the world\u2019s industrial water.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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These considerations led Associate Professor Pang Sze Dai and his team from the\u00a0<\/span>Centre for Advanced Materials and Structures<\/a>\u00a0at<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>NUS Civil and Environmental Engineering<\/a>\u00a0to work on developing greener, more sustainable concretes.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Singapore\u2019s rapid urban development inevitably requires vast amounts of concrete, which in turn, creates a huge demand for water and sand \u2013 resources that the city-state lacks. But now, Pang and his team have come up with an ingenious solution to this pressing problem.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

They showed that they could drastically reduce the amount of sand, replacing it with a common clay material that can easily be obtained as waste from tunnelling and excavation works.<\/p>\n

High performance<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

To activate the waste clay it is heated to 700\u00b0C, a process which enhances its bonding ability in concrete. The activated clay can then be used to replace up to half the fine sand powder typically used in concrete.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Clay waste from excavation and construction sites is typically sent to landfill sites which are rapidly filling up.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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The researchers found this method was capable of producing ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) \u2013 a far stronger type of concrete that can reduce the size of the structural elements, and potentially reduce the amount of concrete needed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Replacing the fine sand powder is also advantageous as this material is expensive, has a large carbon footprint, and is carcinogenic with prolonged exposure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Tunnelling and foundation works generate a large amount of waste materials. Disposing of this waste clay is problematic as land-scarce Singapore has limited available space for landfill.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The NUS team\u2019s discovery is is the first time low-grade waste clay has been used as fillers in concrete. \u201cGlobally, low-grade clay is abundant. Its multi-faceted utilisation in concrete as fillers can not only help curtail the carbon footprint of concrete but also reduce the cost of concrete production,\u201d Pang said.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cOur discovery not only reduces the consumption of valuable resources but also promotes a circular economy with the utilisation of waste clay. It opens an avenue to transform this waste into a potential resource.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

* Article from NUS Engineering news<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Concrete is the most consumed man-made material on Earth. While the environmental impact of materials like plastics has been widely publicised, the impact of concrete has been far less talked about. Each year, about three tonnes of concrete are produced for every person on the planet. Concrete is made up of water, cement, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":6695,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"news_category":[36],"class_list":["post-6694","nus-news","type-nus-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news_category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/6694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/nus-news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/6694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14199,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/6694\/revisions\/14199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=6694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}