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A Review on Concept of Sustainable Concrete

Conference Paper · March 2018

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 A Review on Concept of Sustainable Concrete
Abhijeet Baikerikar
Lecturer,
Department of Civil Engineering,
KLS’s Shri Vasantrao Potdar Polytechnic, Belgaum, Karnataka, India

Abstract
Sustainability is important to the well-being of our planet, continued growth of a society, and
human development. Concrete is used extensively as a building material all over the world due to
its versatility, durability and sustainability. However, the most important ingredient used in the
production of concrete is Portland cement and production of cement releases enormous quantity
of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. The environmental issues associated with greenhouse gases,
in addition to natural resources issues, will play a leading role in the sustainable development of
the cement and concrete industry during this century. Due to scarcity of natural resources or
growing concern over greenhouse gases or both, time will come when production of cement will
have to be curtailed or cannot be increased to have the ecological balance. Therefore it is
necessary to look for sustainable solutions for the production of concrete. Designing for
sustainability means accounting for the short-term and long-term environmental consequences in
the design.

Keywords: Sustainable Concrete, Portland cement, Sustainability, Durability, recycled materials,

Construction Materials, Embodied energy, Aggregates, Water,

Introduction to Sustainability

In the pioneering report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED),
sustainable development is defined as: “Meeting the needs of the present generation without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.” concept of sustainability is a
balance of social, economic, and environmental principles as illustrated in Fig 1.

Fig 1: The concept of sustainability is supported by a balance of social, economic, and environmental principles.
To meet this goal, all three should remain in healthy condition. Furthermore, it must do so
simultaneously and throughout the entire planet, both now and in the future. At the moment, the
environment is probably the most important component, and an engineer or architect uses
sustainability in having no net negative impact on the environment.
Most recognized sustainability programs primarily focus on Energy Conservation and
Atmosphere, water quality and resources, site selection and development, indoor environmental
quality, material quality and resources. It is the above complex inter-relationships that present
challenges for achieving greater sustainability.

Sustainability of Construction Materials

Production of
Construction Material

Construction

Life Cycle

Demolition

Fig 2: Various stages of construction Materials

Fig.2 shows various stages of construction materials. Any type of construction material is
produced with some raw materials or combination of raw materials and production is associated
with the consumption of energy and releasing some quantity of wastes. Therefore production
phase is important to consider while we deal with environmental impact. There are various
questions which give rise in the production phase such as, Are the resource renewable? Are they
important to environment? How much energy will be spent for the production? And these are the
important questions and this phase probably receives more attention from public as well as from
the government.

The construction process also involves some expenditure of energy and produces some
waste. There are several important questions. How much of each manufactured material is used?
Can materials be used that have less environmental impact? How much energy is used? How
much waste is produced? What is the impact of the waste on the environment? Some of these
questions can only be answered for a specific structure. Increasing attention is being given to the
construction phase as part of global and regional efforts to make development more sustainable.

Next important phase is the life cycle of materials and it has direct impact on
sustainability. Durability has the direct effect on the life cycle of the construction materials. The
lifetime of a structure is influenced by cultural and market forces. When a structure no longer
serves an important function (not necessarily the function for which it was constructed), it is
likely to be destructed. And if it is not aesthetically pleasing, it may be destructed. So materials
and design considerations directly affect the lifetime of a structure and the lifetime must be
considered when computing environmental impact.

The last phase is the demolition phase and it is the phase which we least bother but it has
significant effect on sustainability. How much of the structure can be reused? How much of the
materials can be recycled? What is the Environmental impact of the waste produced during the
demolition? What materials must be disposed of? What is the environmental impact of the
disposed materials? The impact of demolition must be considered when computing the
environmental impact of a structure.

Concrete Sustainability
For over 200 years, concrete has nearly become undisputed building material to human
beings for its long lasting and dependable nature. Due to versatile and flexible nature of concrete,
it is used in every type of structure and in every field, for example buildings, pavements, tunnels,
sea shore structures etc. Concrete is durable in almost all types of weathering conditions and this
makes concrete as extensively used building material. The principles (environmental, social, and
economical) of sustainable development are easily incorporated in the design and proportioning
of concrete mixtures and exhibited readily through applications in service. Particularly because
of its long life, concrete is an economical, cost-effective solution. The use of concrete consumes
minimal materials, energy, and other resources for construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation
over its lifetime, while providing essential infrastructure to society.

Climate change and global warming are current and major concerns for humanity. The
global warming is attributed to greenhouse effect because of gases termed as green house gases.
The world’s energy production is largely dependent on fossil fuel burning that produces CO 2.
Thus major contributor to CO2 emission that is CO2 produced and emitted because of human
activity, is energy production. Hence, higher the energy used in making of a material, the more
its contribution to CO2. Embodied energy is defined as the available energy that was used in the
work of making a product. Higher embodied energy thus contributes to global warming and
hence acts against preservation of environment and ecological balance. A sustainable material
therefore shall have low embodied energy. Embodied energy is the sum of energy consumed in
the production and transport. Basic energy used in producing some materials are given in Table 1
and embodied energy used in production and transportation is given in Table 2.

Type of Material Energy (MJ/g)

Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) 5.85
Lime 5.63
Lime Pozzulona 2.33
Steel 42.00
Aluminium 236.80
Glass 25.8

Table 1: Embodied production energy of some construction materials

Energy (MJ/kg)

Transportation
Material
Production 50 Km 100 Km

Sand 0.00 87.5 175

Crushed Aggregate 20.5 87.5 175

Burnt Clay Bricks 2550 100 200

Ordinary Portland Cement 5850 50 100

Steel 42000 50 100

Table 2: Embodied production and transportation energy for some construction materials.

Cement has small-embodied energy and concrete has still smaller embodied energy hence
concrete is relatively more environment friendly than steel or aluminium in the context of energy
consumption. However, concrete is the most popular material on earth and commonly uses
ordinary Portland cement (OPC). In the year 2004, 2.0 billion tones of OPC were produced
globally. In most buildings, concrete is the maximum contributor of embodied energy followed
by steel. Besides, cement production additionally contributes to CO2 emission because of
calcinations of limestone during production of cement. CaCO3 is calcined to CaO and CO2 is
released. Both embodied energy and direct emission contribute to total CO2 emissions. Total
amount CO2 emitted per ton of cement production reported by various researchers vary from one
another, and ranges from 0.74 ton to 1.24 ton. Thus, control of this greenhouse gas emission is a
major issue for sustainable concrete. Judicious use of cement in optimal fashion thus is a
prerequisite for sustainability of concrete. One of the biggest threats to the sustainability of the
cement industry is depleting of limestone in some geographical regions. Limestone is essential to
the production of portland cement. As limestone becomes a limited resource, employment and
construction associated with the concrete industry will decline. Therefore, those involved with
these industries must develop new techniques for creating concrete with a minimal use of
limestone. Use of supplementary cementitious material, especially other industrial byproduct
such as blast furnace slag and fly ash in concrete to reduce OPC clinker consumption is currently
being considered as a major step towards achieving sustainability of concrete.

The aggregates are usually obtained by mining. The coarse and fine aggregates are usually mined
separately. Occasionally aggregate is obtained as a by-product of some other process (e.g., slag
or recycled concrete). Aggregates may be crushed and may be washed. They are usually
separated into various size fractions and reconstituted so as to satisfy the grading requirements.
They may need to be dried. A modest amount of energy is involved in all these processes. The
mining/quarrying of sand from pit or collection from riverbed is now prohibited by court orders
in many parts of the country. Pond ash and/or bottom ash as well as crusher dust can be suitably
used as fine aggregate instead of sand in concrete. In North America, Europe, and Japan, about
two-thirds of the construction and demolition waste consists of masonry and old concrete rubble.
This presents a great opportunity for the concrete industry to improve its resource productivity
by using coarse aggregate derived from construction and demolition wastes. In many parts of the
world, dredged sands and mining wastes can be processed for use as fine aggregate. Recycling
these wastes in spite of some processing cost is becoming economical, particularly in countries
where land is scarce and waste disposal costs are very high. In addition, virgin aggregate
deposits have already been depleted in many areas, and hauling aggregates over long distances
can be much more expensive than using a free or a low-cost source of local recycled aggregate.
Recycled concrete, in some cases, is being used as a road fill, which is better than landfill.

Water resources are being depleted by various uses. Therefore, potable water should be
conserved to serve life-sustaining needs rather than infrastructural needs. So far, fresh water is
abundantly available almost everywhere, and is being freely used for all purposes by the concrete
industry. In fact, construction practice codes routinely recommend the use of potable water for
concrete mixing and curing. But now, the situation has changed. Hawken report that fresh, clean
water is getting more and more scarce every day. Although there is a lot of water on earth, less
than 3% is fresh and most of that is either locked up in fast-melting glaciers and ice caps, or is
too deep in the earth to retrieve. As one of the largest industrial consumers of fresh water, it’s
imperative for the concrete industry to use water more efficiently. Yearly global mixing water
requirement of 1 trillion litres can be cut in half by better aggregate grading and by greatly
expanding the use of mineral admixtures and super plasticizers. Moreover, why should the
industry use municipal, drinking water for mixing concrete? Most recycled industrial waters or
even brackish natural waters are suitable for making concrete, unless proven otherwise by testing
Rainwater and surface run-off water can be used as a water conservation method by recycling
these water resources in construction instead of using potable water. Furthermore, mixtures with
less water should be developed with new technologies to create mortar and concrete containing a
minimal amount of water.

Importance of Durability in Sustainable Concrete

Durability is the ability to resist weathering action, chemical attack, and abrasion while
maintaining desired engineering properties. Concrete structures require different types of
durability depending on the exposure environment and desired engineering properties.
Sustainable concrete must be durable. A durable material benefits the environment by conserving
resources, reducing waste and the environmental impacts related to repair and replacement.
Service life allows for quantification of durability. A structure, if maintained regularly, may
exhibit a very long physical life far beyond intended design life. Physical life may be curtailed to
shorter economic life by human intervention when maintenance cost becomes too high and
economical maintenance becomes unviable. At the end, for sustainability, materials in the
structure shall be recycled and reused without any waste left for disposal. Now steel in reinforced
concrete can be reused and concrete demolition wastes can be used for landfill or processed
further for use as aggregate. As a result recycling industries grew up. Many governments
throughout the world have now introduced various measures aimed at reducing the use of
primary aggregates and encouraging reuse and recycling, where it is technically, economically,
or environmentally acceptable. Recycling industries in many parts of the world converts low
value waste into secondary construction material such as aggregate grades, road materials and
aggregate fines. A more durable element would exhibit higher service life. At the end of the
service life an element would demand repair and rehabilitation or replacement. Repairs or
replacement implies additional effort, energy and disruption of primary activity for which the
structure was constructed. Inspection is also a part of maintenance and repair. Sustainable
concrete structure shall exhibit longer service life and longer repair cycle. Exposure environment
and nature of loading say, static or fatigue, is more severe than static ones. Other issue related to
durability is the quality of concrete. Quality control is the means of meeting the specifications
and a better quality control ensures the product meets the specifications with sufficient closeness.
The short repair cycle is often due to poor quality control during construction. Use of Fly Ash
and GGBFS again enhances the service life largely by making the concrete impervious and by
increasing the electrical resistivity of concrete especially when produced under adequate control.
Thus for improving the sustainability by enhancing the service life it is necessary to adopt large-
scale mechanization in concrete production and make use of eco-friendly fly ash etc, with
chemical admixtures.
 Conclusions
The discussions presented above leads to the conclusion that there is a need for being
concerned about sustainability of concrete and minimising the CO2 emission. Increased use of
supplementary cementitious material. Since the production of Portland cement is so energy
intensive and responsible for CO2 generation, the substitution of other materials, especially those
that are byproducts of industrial processes, such as fly ash and slag, is bound to have a major
positive impact. Increased reliance on recycled materials. Since aggregate constitutes the bulk of
concrete, an effective recycling strategy will lessen the demand for natural materials. There is
also a need to minimize wastage of precious natural resources by making their efficient and
judicious use. This is possible by large-scale mechanization of concrete construction in the
country through extensive use of batching plant, RMC practices and prefabrication wherever
possible. Improved durability, by doubling the service life of our structures, we can cut in half
the amount of material needed for their replacement. Further we should encourage use of six
components namely, coarse aggregate, fine aggregate, water, OPC cement with mineral
admixture/blended cement and plasticizer for production of engineered concrete, instead of non-
engineered/semi-engineered concrete production with four components, can make concrete
sustainable. Finally, I would like to close with a quote from the German poet Goethe: “Knowing
is not enough, we must practice; willingness is not enough, we must act.”

References
1) Steven H. Kosmatka and Michelle L.Wilson, Design and Control of Concrete Mixtures,
Fifteenth Edition, Portland Cement Association, 2011
2) Mehta, P.K., Greening of the concrete industry for sustainable development, Concrete
International, July 2002, pp. 23-28.
3) Mehta, P. K., “Reducing the Environmental Impact of Concrete,” Concrete International,
Oct. 2001, pp. 61-66.
4) B. Bhattacharjee, Sustainability of concrete construction in Indian context, Indian Concrete
Journal, July 2010, pp. 45-51.
5) Tarun R. Naik, Sustainability of concrete construction, Practice Periodical on Structural
Design and Construction, ASCE, May 2008, pp. 98-103
6) Leslie Struble and Jonathan Godfrey, How sustainable is Concrete?, pp.201-211
7) Christian Meyer, Concrete materials and sustainable development in the United States.
8) Hawken, P.; Lovins, E.; and Levins, H., Natural Capitalism–Creating the Next Industrial
Revolution, Little Brown and Co., 1999, 369 pp.
9) Abhijeet Baikerikar, A Review on Green Concrete, Journal of Emerging Technologies and
Innovative Research, November 2014, pp. 472-474
10) Jayanthi, R.V., Role of insulation in energy consumption in commercial and office buildings,
M. Tech thesis, IIT Delhi. 2007.
11) Reddy, B.V.V.,Embodied energy in buildings,www.ese.iitb.ac.in/events/other/renet_files/21-
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12) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embodied_energy

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