Celitement® is a novel type of cement – environmentally compatible and energy-efficient. So far, KIT scientists have produced Celitement® on the laboratory scale only. After more than one year of extensive and very successful tests, pilot plant construction is now starting on KIT Campus North. This is the next step on the way towards the marketability of the environmentally compatible cement. Five millions are invested by Celitement GmbH, a spin-off of the four inventors, KIT, and the industry partner Schwenk. From spring 2011, the pilot plant will supply 100 kg of Celitement® daily.
Journalists are cordially invited to come to the groundbreaking ceremony of the Celitement® pilot plant on Thursday, July 08, 11.00 hrs on KIT Campus North (Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Grabener Straße, near building 707). Kindly register using the form enclosed.
The new building will also accommodate the head office of Celitement GmbH. Production of this novel cement at the pilot plant is aimed at further developing the production process and testing the cement for various applications in the construction sector. The environmentally compatible cement shall be brought on the market as soon as possible. By 2014, a product from a first industrial plant shall be available to meet the ecological challenges of cement and construction industry in the long term.
Compared to conventional cement production processes, Celitement® promises to result in enormous savings of energy due to considerably reduced production temperatures. From today’s perspective, Celitement® has the potential of reducing energy consumption for production by up to 50% compared to Portland cement. In addition, far less lime is required.
Apart from energy efficiency, the emission balance is path-breaking. Compared to conventional processes, production of Celitement® will presumably be associated with half of the carbon dioxide emissions only.
Annually, cement works are emitting more than two billion tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2), which correspond to 5% of the worldwide CO2 emissions. Consequently, CO2 emissions of cement production exceed those of worldwide air traffic by a factor of 3-4. If – and this is the vision of the inventors – all cement works worldwide would use the Celitement® process, from raw materials only half a billion ton less carbon dioxide would be emitted into the atmosphere every year, and climate protection effects would be enormous.
The Celitement® project and potential savings are studied within the framework of accompanying research. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the scientific aspect of the Celitement® project under the framework program “Research for Sustainable Developments”, funding action “Innovative Technologies for Resource Efficiency – Resource-intensive Production Processes”. Among others, material and energy balances, the quality of the products, and the sustainability of the processing chain are being analyzed.
Program of the groundbreaking ceremony for the pilot plant on Thursday, July 08, 11.00 hrs:
Welcome
Professor Eberhard Umbach, President of KIT
Welcome Address
Klaus Tappeser, Head of Department, Ministry of Science, Research, and Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg
Celitement® – A Success Story of KIT
Dr. Peter Fritz, KIT Vice President for Research and Innovation
Celitement® – A Challenge for the Cement Producer
Gerhard Hirth, Managing Director of Schwenk Zement KG
For further information on Celitement®, see www.celitement.de.
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