Sustainable Cements and Concrete for the Climate Change Era – A Review P. Kumar Mehta

This paper includes a brief introduction to the sustainability crisis from climate change that has emerged as the most serious and immediate threat to life and environment on the earth. Latest data confirm that heat-trapping gases, primarily CO2, is the major cause of the problem that must be controlled by drastic cuts in the carbon-emitting sectors of the industrialized and urbanized world. The global cement industry is also responsible for large carbon emissions attributable to portland clinker production. At the same, with middle class population soaring in rapidly developing countries, global cement and concrete industry projects high growth rates. Earlier publications generally failed to reconcile these two contradictory demands on the concrete construction industry. This state-of-the-art review, therefore, is based on a few selected and most recent publications including latest reports by World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and Gigaton Throwdown Initiative. Brief reviews are presented of High-Volume Fly Ash Concrete Technology – a proven, low-cost, technology for reducing cement and clinker consumption, and a holistic roadmap based on this technology for developing sustainable concrete industry