GREEN

CONCRETE

By:
Abhinav Srivastava
3rd B. Tech. Civil Engg. February 2011
OVERVIEW OF THE PRESENTATION
 In this presentation on Green Concrete, I would be
discussing about the following aspects of green concrete.
1. Introduction
2. Genesis
3. Advantages
4. Production
5. Results of studies based on reported literature
6. Limitations
7. Scope in India
8. Conclusions
INTRODUCTION
 Green concrete is a revolutionary topic in the history of
concrete industry. This was first invented in Denmark in the
year 1998. 

 Green concrete is a type of concrete which resembles the

conventional concrete but the production or usage of such
concrete requires minimum amount of energy and
causes least harm to the environment.

 Green concrete has nothing to do with colour.

BACKGROUND
 Since concrete is the second most consumed entity after water it
accounts for around 5% of the world’s total CO2 emission.

 The CO2 emission related to concrete production, inclusive of cement

production, is between 0.1 and 0.2 t per tonne of produced concrete.

 Though these figures might seem to be minute but owing to the voluminous
quantities of concrete produced each year, these figures attain a colossal
amount.

 Further, due to increasing eco-awareness, the concrete producers needed a

new technology that would reduce the environmental impact of concrete
rather than switching to some substitute to it.
Global Green house gas emissions in year 2000 (Gt of CO2
equivalents)

Concrete Industry; 1.40

Other GHGs; 14.80

Fossil Fuels; 23.90

Deforestation; 3.94
ENVIRONMENTAL GOALS
 Reduction of CO2 emissions by 21 %.

 Increase the use of inorganic residual products from industries other than the
concrete industry by approx. 20%.

 Reduce the use of fossil fuels by increasing the use of waste derived fuels in the
cement industry.

 The recycling capacity of the green concrete must not be less compared to existing
concrete types.

 The production and the use of green concrete must not deteriorate the working
environment.

 The structures do not impose much harm to the environment during their service
life.
GENESIS
 The increasing awareness and activity to conserve the environment
and the realisation that concrete production too releases a
considerable amount of CO2 in the atmosphere were strong
initiatives to catalyse the genesis of Green Concrete.

 In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was signed which required the

countries to cut down their CO2 emissions as assigned.

 After this, Denmark focused on cement and concrete production

because approximately 2% of Denmark’s total CO2 emission stems
from cement and concrete production.
 Cement and concrete may have an important role to play in
enabling the developed countries to fulfil their obligation to
reduce the total CO2 emission by 21 % compared to the
1990-level before 2012, as agreed at the Kyoto conference.

 A typical cubic yard (0.7643 m3) of concrete contains about

10% by weight of cement. There have been a number of
articles written about reducing the CO2 emissions from
concrete primarily through the use of lower amounts of
cement and higher amounts of supplementary cementitious
material (SCM) such as fly ash and slag, which is using
green concrete.

 Due to growing interest in sustainable development engineers

and architects were motivated more than ever before to choose
concrete that is more sustainable.
 ADVANTAGES OF GREEN
CONCRETE

Green concrete has manifold advantages over the conventional concrete.

 Reduces CO2 emissions, saves energy and waste water.

 Since it uses the recycled aggregates and materials, it reduces

the extra load in landfills and mitigates the wastage of
aggregates.

 Economy.

 Elemental to sustainable development since it is eco-friendly

itself.
 Helps in reducing the consumption of cement overall.

 The use waste materials also solve the problem of disposing

the excessive amount industrial wastes.

 Green concrete might solve some of the societies’ problems

with the use of inorganic, residual products which should
otherwise be deposited.

 Use of fly ash in the concrete also increases its workability and
many other properties like durability to an appreciable extent.
PRODUCTION OF
GREEN CONCRETE
DIFFERENT METHODS OF GREEN
CONCRETE PRODUCTION

●
sewage sludge.
residual
residual incineration ash
products
products ●
stone dust, concrete
from
from
other slurry
other
industries
industries
●
combustion ash from
water purifying plants

Suppleme
Suppleme
●
large qty of
nt-ary
nt-ary
cementitio
fly ash and

Green concrete
cementitio
u-s
u-s microsilica
materials
materials ●
GGBS

=conventional cement
cement
●
mineralised
with cement
cement+coarse
with
reduced
reduced
environme
environme
ntal impact
impact
●
limestone
ntal
addition
aggregate+……
RESULTS OF STUDIES BASED
ON REPORTED LITERATURE - I

Green Concrete containing Marble sludge powder and

Quarry rock dust
 In 2009, M. Shahul Hameed and A. S. S. Sekar, conducted a study on green
concrete replacing the conventional materials, except cement, with marble
sludge powder and quarry rock dust.

In the table below, the physical properties of marble sludge and quarry dust
are compared to that of sand.
Bulk Fineness Effective Coefficient Coefficient
Moisture Content (%) Density of
Sample (kg/m3) modulus size (mm) uniformity of gradation
Code
Wet Dry          
Marble
sludge 23.35 1.59 1118 2.04 0.17 1.58 1.37
powder
Quarry rock 24.25 2.1 1750 2.35 0.22 4.5 2.2
dust
Sand 25 2.5 1430 2.2 0.2 6 2

Mix proportion of concrete was 1:1.81:2.04 (Mix A: control) and 1:1.73:2.04

(Mix B: green concrete) and water/cement ratio for both mixes was kept 0.55.
THE RAW MATERIALS USED WERE
 Cement: OPC (43 Grade) with 28% normal consistency and specific surface 3300
cm2/g.

 Marble sludge powder: It had a high specific surface area. Specific gravity of the
marble sludge powder is 2.212.

 Quarry rock dust: The specific gravity is 2.677. Moisture content and bulk density of
waste are less than the sand properties.

 Fine aggregate: Modulus of fineness = 2.20; Specific gravity 2.677

 Coarse aggregate: Crushed stone with a size of 5-20 mm. Flakiness within limits.

 Water: Potable

 Super plasticizer: ‘Roff Superplast 320’ was used to get and preserve the designed
workability.
 RESULTS
Workability Comparisons
Mix Slump in mm Slump flow in mm V-funnel time in sec

Mix A (Control) 210 420 23

Mix B (Green concrete) 255 657 14

Compressive and Split tensile strength

Average Compressive Strength in N/mm 2 Split Tensile Strength in N/mm2
Mix
3 Days 7 days 28 days 3 days 7 days 28 days

Mix A
15.45 18.33 36.85 2.40 2.60 4.62
(Concrete)
Mix B (Green
13.54 19.52 40.35 2.15 2.98 5.02
Concrete)
 Durability and Resistance to Sulphate attack
Percentage of weight loss
% of water
28 days 90 days 150 days
Mix absorption
Na2SO4 and Na2SO4 and Na2SO4 and
after 28 days H2SO4 H2SO4 H2SO4
MgSO4 MgSO4 MgSO4

Mix A
2.85 1.65 2.10 2.20 2.65 2.95 3.15
(Control)

Mix B
(Green 3.74 1.15 0.80 1.95 1.10 2.10 1.80
concrete)

 In addition, the marble powder can reduce the content of calcium

aluminates in cementitious material, leading to increase of sulphate
resistance of concrete.
CONCLUSIONS
 The replacement of fine aggregate with 50% marble sludge
powder and 50% Quarry rock dust (Green concrete) gives
an excellent result in strength aspect and quality aspect.

 Green concrete induced higher workability and it satisfy the

self compacting concrete performance which is the slump
flow is 657mm without affecting the strength of concrete.

 The water absorption of green concrete is slightly higher

than conventional concrete.

 The durability of green concrete under sulphate is higher to

that of conventional concrete.
RESULTS OF STUDIES BASED
ON REPORTED LITERATURE - II

Behaviour of different mixes to different environments.

Five different concrete mixes were prepared with one as control.
Their mix proportion is as shown below in the table:

Control PV1 PV2 PV3 PV4

Cement Content(kg) 148 120 101 85 61

Content of Fly Ash (%) 24 50 50 60 70

Content of Micro Silica (%) 6 - 6 6 6

CO2 reduction - 18 31 41 57

Water/Cement 0.71 0.78 0.80 0.70 0.74

The fly ash content was increased from 24 to 70%, resulting in a reduction of
CO2 emission from 18 to 57%.

These mixes were then subjected to a passive environment and their strength
development was analyzed.

Passive signifies dry atmosphere with no risk of corossion.

STRENGTH DEVELOPMENT IN PASSIVE
ENVIRONMENT
35

30
Compressive Strength (MPa)

25

20 Control
PV1
15
PV2
10 PV3
PV4
5

0
48 168 672 1344
Time (h)
Six different concrete mixes were prepared with one as control.
Their mix proportion is as shown below in the table:

Control AV1 AV2 AV3 AV4 AV5

Cement Content(kg) 309 274 272 219 190 189

Content of Fly Ash (%) 9 9 18 30 40 40

Content of Micro Silica (%) 5 5 5 5 5 5

CO2 reduction - 33 33 46 54 54

Water/Cement 0.37 0.421 0.42 0.42 0.42 0.42

The fly ash content was increased from 9 to 40% resulting in a reduction of CO 2
emission from 33 to 54%.

These mixes were then subjected to a aggressive environment and their strength
development was analyzed.

Aggressive: Moist atmosphere, with significant alkaline and/or chloride

influence on the concrete surface or where there is risk of water saturation
combined with frost.
STRENGTH DEVELOPMENT IN
AGGRESSIVE ENVIRONMENT
70

60
Compressive Strength (MPa)

50

40 Control
AV1
30 AV2
AV3
20 AV4
AV5
10

0
48 168 672 1344
Time (h)
INFERENCES
 The figures show that PV4, which has a fly ash content
of 70%, has strength that is far too low: it appears that
the fly ash content must not exceed approximately 60%.
Even so, the strength development is still too slow. As
regards the concrete in the aggressive environmental
class, the strength development is similar for all concrete
types. However, preliminary testing indicates that the
high-volume fly ash concrete might have problems with
frost resistance.
LIMITATIONS OF GREEN
CONCRETE
 The cardinal concern is its durability.

 By using stainless steel, cost of reinforcement increases.

 Split tension of green concrete is less than that of

conventional concrete.

 Susceptible to frost action.

 The other important concern is the quantification of

green concrete emissions.
SCOPE IN INDIA
 Concrete is an indispensible entity for a developing
country like India which desperately needs a continuously
expanding infrastructure. India is the second largest
producer of cement in the world.

 India would be facing an exponential growth in the

concrete demand by 2011.

Cement Demand (Mt/annum)

Year GDPtotal GDPindustry GDPconstruction GDPaverage

2001 103.0 107.6 106.2 105.6

2006 139.5 148.7 150.8 146.3

2011 186.9 204.2 210.4 200.5

THE NET CO2 EMISSIONS FROM THE
CONSTRUCTION AGENCY ARE GREATER THAN ANY
OTHER INDUSTRY.
Operation of
business
Operation of facilities,
building, 9.90%
10.20%

Constructio
n work
Other
1.30% Industries,
62.70%
Transportati
on for
construction
5.00%
Production
of materials
for
construction
10.90%
 India being a developing country produces concrete in gargantuan
quantities which result in huge volumes of CO2 being emitted into
the atmosphere each year.

 In order to act in a responsible manner towards a sustainable

development of the nation, Green concrete is the need of the hour.

 The total energy consumption (a rough estimate of the net CO2

emissions) during the manufacture of cement in India is tabulated as
below:

Fuel Units 1991-92 1992-93 1993-94

Electricity GWh 4800.52 6420.97 6754.60
Coal Mt 10.8 11.7 11.1
Petroleum
Mt 0.293 0.296 0.291
Products
Total Cement
Mt 53.6 54.1 58.0
Production
 The other advantageous factor is economy.

 As green concrete is made with concrete wastes and

recycled aggregates, which are cheaper than conventional
substitutes, and also with most of the industries facing
problems with their waste disposal, put it out of the
question to discard it.

 The above facts clearly state a wide and promising scope of

Green Concrete in the near future in our country.
CONCLUSIONS
 The presentation has given us an overview of the green
concrete.

 The urgency in the environmental matters have forced us to

resort to the resource saving and eco-friendly practices.
Green concrete fulfills both the criteria.

 It is realistic to assume that the technology can be

developed, which can halve the CO2 emission related to
concrete production, and with the large energy consumption
of concrete and the following large emission of CO2 this
will mean a potential reduction of total CO2 emission by
2%.
 The net emission from a typical ton of concrete emits 0.1 to
0.2 ton of CO2 .

 So whatever way one looks at it focusing on just the

production of concrete accounts for a very small percent of
overall CO2 emissions.

 However one should keep in mind that whatever CO2

emission reductions that are possible will still account for
at best a 2% global CO2 reduction (assuming a challenging
21% reduction in global CO2 emissions).
Thank You