Posted By: Mike1This Cambridge Uni cement recycling invention looks to have great potential -https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/cement-recycling" rel="nofollow" >https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/cement-recycling

There's some more about the trials athttps://cambridgeelectriccement.com/cambridge-electric-cement-industrial-scale-trial-launches-in-uk/" rel="nofollow" >https://cambridgeelectriccement.com/cambridge-electric-cement-industrial-scale-trial-launches-in-uk/

I'd seen some reports of the process, but was waiting to see more. There seems to be some confusion in both articles between 'cement' and 'concrete', or else the process is a lot less useful than it might be. If it really does use 'used cement' then there isn't nearly so much of that around as there is 'used concrete'.

It's an interesting technology but looks inherently rather niche.

The demolition industry can't even manage to use crushed concrete as aggregate for more concrete yet. The idea of collecting old concrete and trucking it around the country to extract the small percentage of used cement seems like pie in the sky.

I believe they could run a successful pilot and maybe even niche business in some European cities where there's demolition construction and steel work all going on.

The main downer for the idea at scale is that geographies that are using most of the cement don't have much demolition concrete. These are economies that we really need solve the cement problem for.

Ukraine has blast furnaces, has some demolition material and will need a bit of cement once the current mess is sorted..........

Posted By: djh

Posted By: Mike1maybe the economies that have the cement no longer have the blast furnaces (or is that just the UK).

Not sure I quite understand but AFAIK Tata want to put in exactly the right type of blast furnace - namely an EAF - for if and when the process reaches production scale.

Sorry, I was being too oblique. It's just that the UK is now a net importer (rather than the major exporter it once was) so we have old concrete from which cement coud be recycled, but are reliant on blast furnaces elsewhere (especially in China) that don't necessarily have the old concrete. For example:

- UK steel production 2023 = 5.6 million tonnes (https://worldsteel.org/data/world-steel-in-figures-2024/)
- UK 'true steel use' 2019 = 16.2 (ditto)
Which leaves a large gap (of course the trade flows are bigger than the gap due to different steel types).

At least the EAF at Port Talbot will have a capacity of 3.2 million tonnes, which is about what is currently produced there (albeit half current capacity), so not necessarily any further decline. Unless the customers have found alternative sources of supply by the time it opens.

Posted By: fostertomBut why are we talking about blast furnaces in connection with recycled cement?

Read the original links about the project we are discussing.