With a visionary keynote, a varied panel discussion, innovative examples and a look into the future, the 45th colloquium “Research and Development for Cement and Concrete” on November 4, 2024 provided around 300 participants with an exciting afternoon all about climate protection, decarbonization and Building the future. “Cement and concrete will not be replaceable in the future either. The question is what the cements of the future will look like, how CO2 reduction can be achieved during their production and how sustainability can be implemented in concrete construction.”
VÖZ managing director Sebastian Spaun is convinced.
Cements of the future
This year, Horst-Michael Ludwig from the Bauhaus University Weimar kicked off the event. Specializing in building materials research, climate protection and resource conservation, he gave an insight into the cements of the future: “The cement industry is making considerable efforts to achieve the goal of climate-neutral cement as quickly as possible. In order to be able to exploit the potential of these new cements even better, technical problems must be solved – especially in the areas of early strength and durability – as well as effective political framework conditions must be created (e.g. rapid introduction of the CO2 border adjustment system).”
Climate protection and building the future
The panel discussion, which took place between decision-makers from industry, construction, research and NGOs, showed that climate protection and construction must go hand in hand. Heimo Berger, Chairman of the Board of VÖZ and CEO of the Leube Group, emphasized why concrete will remain part of the solution in the future: “With concrete we can build in height and depth in a way that conserves space, component activation makes a significant contribution to the climate resilience of residential buildings and we can keep our building materials 100 percent in the cycle. Our companies are investing heavily in state-of-the-art grinding technologies and are planning CO2 capture systems and storage projects. To achieve this, the framework conditions must be significantly improved, as our locations here are in direct competition with other regions within and outside of Europe.”
Peter Krammer, Chairman of the Austrian Construction Technology Association (ÖBV) and CEO Swietelsky AG explained how climate protection and the construction of the future are already being promoted: “Our goals are to promote the circular economy and efficient construction logistics, the use of recycled building materials and low-greenhouse gas materials, the optimization of constructions to save emissions, life cycle management and strengthening the corresponding award criteria. Through our policy work, we create a practical basis for decision-making in order to be able to sustainably reduce emissions in new and existing buildings.”
Horst-Michael Ludwig, director of the Bauhaus University Weimar, explained the challenges for the binding agent cement: “The cement of the future must and will be climate-friendly. Carbon capture technology will play a significant role here. In terms of materials, reducing the clinker factor in cement through suitable composite materials will continue to be the main instrument for reducing CO2 emissions in the future.”
Jens Schneider, Rector of the TU Vienna, spoke about the importance of collaboration: “Networking, communication and collaboration are essential for climate protection in construction, as technical solutions for CO2 reduction and a circular economy cannot be developed separately. Social aspects and user behavior must also be taken into account. The key to success lies above all in a sound understanding of the complex technical and scientific relationships.”
Isabella Stickler, chairwoman and chairwoman of the Alpenland non-profit building, housing and settlement cooperative, showed what climate protection and building in the future could look like today: “New climate paths always lead through uncharted territory. Our “Future House Wolkersdorf” combines living and research approaches and meets the klimaaktiv Gold Standard in order to offer climate-conscious residents values and assume responsibility for future generations. With an optimized outer shell, heat pump, thermal component activation and intelligent control, we create climate-friendly housing that achieves the highest quality of living in a lifecycle-friendly manner.”
“From an ecological perspective, the main thing is to promote thermal renovation so that energy consumption decreases. Furthermore, more attention must be paid to densely built housing so that soil sealing does not become more widespread. Cities should be greened and thus become more heat-resistant but also more attractive living spaces overall so that the increasing urban sprawl in the surrounding area can be contained.
Johannes Wahlmüller, climate and energy spokesman GLOBAL 2000, emphasized the challenges of better combining climate protection and building the future.
CO2 reduction, innovation and sustainability
Cornelia Bauer from the Association of the Austrian Cement Industry showed the successful development of the climate-friendly cement CEM II/C, for which VÖZ and Salzburg Wohnbau GmbH were awarded the ACR Innovation Prize 2024. Tanja Manninger from Smart Minerals GbmH gave an overview of the results of the “Tempered Clays” research project and discussed the development of compressive strength as well as special applications such as shotcrete production based on the sintering potential. Christopher Ehrenberg from Rohrdorfer Zement GmbH used a pilot project for process-integrated production to illustrate how the industrial implementation of tempered clays can be successful. Christine Gröll from Alpacem Zement Austria GmbH spoke about innovative production control in raw meal production. Helmut Flachberger and Wolfram Waldl from the Montanuni Leoben (MUL) presented the research project “New cement clinkers – resource- and CO2-optimized production of innovative cement clinkers” by the VÖZ and the MUL Chair for Processing and Refining. Stefan Krispel from Smart Minerals GmbH showed how the durability of concrete can be ensured with a special focus on post-treatment. Eduard Artner from Baumit GmbH explained how 3D printing saves resources and enables quick construction times and individual design. Dirk Schlicke from the Institute for Concrete Construction at Graz University of Technology concluded with his look into the future of building with concrete.
Sebastian Spaun draws a positive conclusion: “For 45 years, the VÖZ has been putting research and development at the center of public attention with the colloquium. The lively participation in this year’s colloquium confirms the high importance of research in order to successfully advance topics such as climate protection, decarbonization and building the future.”
You will soon be able to download the presentations here.
Further images can be requested from Zement+Beton: kutsche@zement.at.