According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, concrete is the most consumed material in the world after water. Concrete production accounts for 4.5% of Global CO2 emissions. To overcome this, we propose to use plastic waste as an additive in concrete to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete production. Plastic waste is readily available. Especially considering the fact that only 8.8% of discarded plastic is recycled, this application will also help reduce long-term pollution caused by discarded plastic landfills. We demonstrate that plastic additive improves the mechanical properties of concrete. In particular, irradiated plastic provides higher strength and better binding in concrete that helps construct cross linking leading to a strengthened chemical structure in concrete.
C. E. Schaefer, K. Kupwade-Patil, M. Ortega, C. Soriano, O. Buyukozturk, A. E. White and M. P. Short. Irradiated recycled plastic as a concrete additive for improved chemo-mechanical properties and lower carbon footprint. Waste Management 2018; 71: 426-439.
MIT News, MIT Students fortify concrete by adding recycled plastic
The Tideway Project in London (United Kingdom) aims to clean the River Thames by upgrading London’s 150-year-old sewer network. As the CVB Joint-Venture (Costain / Vinci Construction Grands projects / Bachy Soletanche) was already environmentally committed, it was decided to further increase our environmental impact by developing innovative solutions in this project. Plastic is an integral part of modern life and over 400 million tons of plastic waste is generated annually. Plastic disposal and recycling is one of the greatest environmental challenges, with circa 8 million tons of plastic entering the oceans, and 100s of million tons landfilled and incinerated every year [Our World in Data]. Another great environmental challenge is to reduce the use of cement in construction which is associated with high carbon emissions. It is estimated that each cubic meter of concrete has approximately 100-300 kg of embodied CO2, depending on the cement type and content (National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Concrete CO2 Fact Sheet 2008 – Our World in Data. The key innovation aims to tackle these two environmental challenges at the same time by using modified waste plastic as cement replacement in concrete.
P-E. Denis, K. Bakhtari, E. Chatoux, A. Chaizemartin, C. Uhring, L. Linger, and O. Buyukozturk, A. E. White and M. P. Short. Use of modified waste plastic as cement replacement in concrete - A case study of the London Infrastructure Tideway Project. FIB International Conference Proceedings, Oslo Norway, June 2022.
This work aims to demonstrate the use of locally available volcanic ash as a partial replacement to Portland Cement for developing strong, durable and environmentally friendly concretes. Various proportions of volcanic ash was used as a partial replacement to Portland cement and effect of particle size was examined via advanced multiscale characterization techniques and mechanical tests. Furthermore, effect of reduction in particle size of Volcanic Ash and increase in concentration of VA have been evaluated for Embodied Energy (EE) values on a material and a building scale. Specimens prepared with 6 μm volcanic ash showed higher compressive strength for up to 40% replacement of OPC with volcanic ash. On a material scale an average of 16% decrease in Embodied Energy Coefficient (EEC) values can be achieved when 40% OPC was replaced with Volcanic Ash. Particle size of the volcanic ash plays a key role in influencing the water dynamics, microstructure, pore structure of the cement paste. This work shows that natural pozzolanic volcanic ash which is abundantly available in the Gulf region can be used for building greener and durable Portland cement based concretes.
K. Kupwade-Patil, C. De Wolf, S. Chin, J. Ochsendorf, A. E. Hajiah, A. Al-Mumin and O. Buyukozturk. Impact of Embodied Energy on materials/buildings with partial replacement of ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) by natural Pozzolanic Volcanic Ash. Journal of Cleaner Production 2018; 177: 547-554.
MIT News, Cities of the future may be built with locally available volcanic ash
In recent years, continuum and atomistic modeling of cementitious materials has provided significant advances towards studying the durability of civil infrastructure. An important frontier to understanding structure-property relationships is the mesoscale, which represents the bridge between underlying (e.g. molecular) processes and bulk macroscale behavior. This review highlights examples of a mesoscale approach within biological materials and emphasizes their applicability to the study and design of sustainable cement-based materials at multiple length scales. We propose a methodology focused on the coupling of computation and experiment for furthering our understanding of the microstructural properties that control the durability of hardened cement paste. Natural materials have shown that incorporating these design strategies at multiple discrete length scales lead to more durable materials by providing redundancy within their hierarchical structures. This opens exciting new opportunities to innovate cement-based materials by applying similar bioinspired approaches to engineer the material at multiple length scales and manipulate the self-assembly and setting processes.In this work, we look to bones and shells as blueprints for manufacturing stronger and more durable concrete. We propose a new bioinspired "bottom-up" approach for designing cement paste.
S. Palkovic, D. B. Brommer, K. Kupwade-Patil, A. Masic, M. Buehler and O. Buyukozturk. Roadmap across the mesoscale for durable and sustainable cement paste - a bioinspired approach. Construction and Building Materials 2016; 115: 13-31.
MIT News, Finding a new formula for concrete
Presently, the oil well cement segment is valued approximately at US$0.5 billion and projected to surpass US$0.7 billion by 2022. The worldwide demand for oil well cement represents a small fraction of the cements, nonetheless highly specialized and vital division of the global cement industry, and accounting for less than one percent of the 4.2 billion ton world cement market. Understanding the role of retarder on the chemical nature and molecular architecture of hydrating cement paste is essential for engineering oil well cements with additives. Here, synchrotron X-ray and total neutron scattering with pair distribution function (PDF) analysis were performed in combination with calorimetry and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to examine the retarder effect in hydrating tri-calcium silicate (C3S) and Class G oil well cement paste. The findings from this work suggest that the depletion of calcium in the presence of phosphonate retarders is the dominant cause for retardation in oil-well cement pastes. Thus, on a broader perspective, the use of X-ray/Neutron PDF technique proves to be useful in providing the critical insight into the retarder mechanism and as a basis to engineer the retarders for various oil-well cementing applications.
K. Kupwade-Patil, P. Boul, D. Rasner, M. Everett, T. Proffen, K. Page, D. Ma, D. Olds, C. Thaemlitz, and O. Buyukozturk. Retarder effect on Hydrating Oil Well Cements investigated using in situ Neutron/X-ray Pair Distribution Function (PDF) Analysis. Cement and Concrete Research 2019; 126: 105920-1-13.
MIT News, New tools could improve the way cement seals oil wells
J.M. Maragh, S.D. Palkovic, A. Shukla, O. Buyukozturk, and A. Masic. SEM-EDS and microindentation-driven large-area high resolution chemomechanical mapping and computational homogenization of cementitious materials. Materials Today Communications 2021, 28: 102698.
K. Kupwade-Patil, P. Boul, D. Rasner, S. Lapidus, J. Leao, K.D. Johnson, C. Thaemlitz, and O. Buyukozturk. In situ investigation of phosphonate retarder interaction in oil well cements at elevated temperature and pressure conditions. Journal of the American Ceramic Society 2020; 103(11): 6400-6413
K. Kupwade-Patil, A. Bumajdad, K.C. Littrell and O. Buyukozturk. In situ examination of engineered local additives in cement paste via neutron based scattering techniques. Construction and Building Materials, 2020; 243: 118175.
K. Kupwade-Patil, P. Boul, D. Rasner, M. Everett, T. Proffen, K. Page, D. Ma, D. Olds, C. Thaemlitz, and O. Buyukozturk. Retarder effect on Hydrating Oil Well Cements investigated using in situ Neutron/X-ray Pair Distribution Function (PDF) Analysis. Cement and Concrete Research 2019; 126: 105920-1-13.
K. Kupwade-Patil, S. D. Palkovic, A. Bumajdad, C. Soriano and O. Buyukozturk. Use of silica fume and natural volcanic ash as a replacement to Portland cement: Micro and pore structural investigation using NMR, XRD, FTIR and X-ray microtomography. Construction and Building Materials 2018; 158: 574-590
A. F. Jamsheer, K. Kupwade-Patil, O. Buyukozturk and A. Bumajdad. Analysis of engineered cement paste using silica nanoparticles and metakaolin using 29Si NMR, water adsorption and synchrotron X-ray Diffraction. Construction and Building Materials 2018; 180: 698-709.
K. Kupwade-Patil, S. H. Chin, M. L. Johnston, J. Maragh, A. Masic and O. Buyukozturk. Particle Size Effect of Volcanic Ash towards Developing Engineered Portland Cements. Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering 2018; 30(8): 04018190.
K. Kupwade-Patil, C. De Wolf, S. Chin, J. Ochsendorf, A. E. Hajiah, A. Al-Mumin and O. Buyukozturk. Impact of Embodied Energy on materials/buildings with partial replacement of ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) by natural Pozzolanic Volcanic Ash. Journal of Cleaner Production 2018; 177: 547-554.
K. Kupwade-Patil, S. Chin, J. Ilavsky, R. N. Andrews, A. Bumajdad and O. Buyukozturk. Hydration kinetics and morphology of cement pastes with pozzolanic volcanic ash studied via synchrotron-based techniques. Journal of Materials Science 2018; 53(3): 1743-1757.
K. Kupwade-Patil, S. D. Palkovic, A. Bumajdad, C. Soriano and O. Buyukozturk. Use of silica fume and natural volcanic ash as a replacement to Portland cement: Micro and pore structural investigation using NMR, XRD, FTIR and X-ray microtomography. Construction and Building Materials 2018; 158: 574-590
C. E. Schaefer, K. Kupwade-Patil, M. Ortega, C. Soriano, O. Buyukozturk, A. E. White and M. P. Short. Irradiated recycled plastic as a concrete additive for improved chemo-mechanical properties and lower carbon footprint. Waste Management 2018; 71: 426-439.
R. Masmoudi, K. Kupwade-Patil, A. Bumajdad and O. Buyukozturk. In situ Raman Studies on Cement Paste prepared with Natural Pozzolanic Volcanic Ash and Ordinary Portland Cement. Construction and Building Materials 2017; 148: 444-454.
K. Kupwade-Patil, M. Tyagi, C. Brown and O. Buyukozturk. Water dynamics in Cement Paste at Early Age prepared with Pozzolanic Volcanic Ash and Ordinary Portland Cement using Quasielastic Neutron Scattering. Cement and Concrete Research 2016; 86: 55-62.
K. Kupwade-Patil, A. F. Al-Aibani, M. F. Abdulsalam, C. Mao, A. Bumajdad, S. D. Palkovic and O. Buyukozturk. Microstructure of cement paste with natural pozzolanic volcanic ash and Portland cement at different stages of curing. Construction and Building Materials 2016; 113: 423-441.
S. Palkovic, D. B. Brommer, K. Kupwade-Patil, A. Masic, M. Buehler and O. Buyukozturk. Roadmap across the mesoscale for durable and sustainable cement paste - a bioinspired approach. Construction and Building Materials 2016; 115: 13-31. [highlighted by MIT News]
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