The National Council for Cement and Building Materials organised a symposium on Blended Cements for Sustainable Development on 24 January 2017 at Hyderabad.
The symposium held by the National Council for Cement and Building Materials on 24 January 2017 at Hotel Radisson, Hyderabad was attended by more than 100 delegates from the cement industry and construction sector, research institutes, government agencies and machinery manufacturers. Welcoming the delegates, KV Kalyani, Joint Director and Unit In-charge, NCB-Hyderabad, said that the aim of the symposium was to create increased awareness and promote use of blended cements in the country for sustainable development and reducing the carbon footprint.
The symposium was inaugurated by A Pahuja, Director General of NCB. He presented an overview of the Indian cement industry and the importance of blended cements for sustainable development. He highlighted how tailor-made properties could be achieved with blended cements by controlling particle size distributions, separate grinding of each constituent and blending, use of chemical admixtures, etc. Pahuja also pointed out that the use of blended cements in concrete results in enhanced durable properties of concrete in terms of carbonation, chloride induced corrosion, sulphate resistance, etc. He felt that there was a need for conducting further research on blended cements and assured that NCB would continue its research activities in various areas including Portland Limestone Cement (PLC), fly ash based geo-polymeric cements, high-volume fly ash cements, etc., for sustainable development.
VS Narang, Director-Tech of My Home Cement Ltd delivered the keynote address, discussing various aspects of blended cements and their role in sustainable development of the cement and construction industry. He acknowledged the efforts of NCB in conducting research and promoting the use of blended cements in India. He emphasised the importance of using more supplementary cementitious materials, maximising recycling and reuse of materials in conserving natural resources and also in mitigating CO2 emissions from the industry.
Sustainable Products
Durability properties of concrete such as ASR, sulphate attack and carbonation, etc., can be improved by using blended cements which make the concrete less permeable due to formation of denser microstructure. Narang also mentioned the key levers identified in the Indian Technology Road Map for Indian Cement Sector jointly developed by NCB and CII, and discussed their importance in developing more sustainable products. He stated that commercialisation of the product is as important as development of technology, and said that My Home Industries was the first in India to launch composite cement.
The symposium had three technical sessions devoted to chemistry and quality of blended cements; their manufacture and performance and durability aspects of blended cements.
The first session was chaired by A Narender Reddy, Chief Engineer, Telangana Irrigation Department and was co-chaired by
ped to have more such events in the future.