Hardly any material is as essential to modern society as cement and concrete – they form the foundation of our infrastructure, our buildings, and are indispensable in many areas of everyday life. However, their production is responsible for significant CO₂ emissions.
Worldwide, around five to eight percent of human-made CO₂ emissions are linked to the cement industry. As a result, sustainable construction and alternative building materials are increasingly gaining public attention. This growing interest was also reflected in a recent interview conducted by Prof. Jürgen Neubauer (Chair of Applied Mineralogy) with the Nürnberger Presse publishing group, which received considerable public attention [go to the Nürnberger Nachrichten].
Research at the Chair of Mineralogy has already for many years focused on sustainable cements and innovative approaches to CO₂ reduction. These include, among others, novel magnesium silicate cements and negative magnesium carbonate cements, as well as new structures of CO₂-binding phases [Jansen et al.] and methods for CO₂ storage in construction materials. In addition, the research group investigates how carbonation processes and alternative cement constituents – for example through the use of recycled cement and concrete materials – can contribute to the development of climate-friendly construction materials.
The high relevance of this research is also reflected in six recently published papers on this topic, which were released over the past half year with the involvement of scientists from the Chair of Applied Mineralogy. These include publications in internationally recognized journals such as Nature Communications Sustainability [Naber et al.], Cement and Concrete Research [Singer et al., Rafalski et al., Kirchberger et al.], the Journal of CO2 Utilisation [Villmow et al., Singer et al.] or Construction and Building Materials [Villmow et al.]. These studies provide important insights into the development of sustainable construction materials and contribute to climate protection in the cement and concrete industry. Many of these publications are available in open access.