2022 Slag Cement in Sustainable Construction Awards (ACI Spring 2023, San Francisco, CA)To achieve sustainable construction and respond to the ever-increasing demand for construction materials, it is an urgent need to use innovative technologies, like geopolymerization, to produce green and sustainable construction materials. Therefore, this project investigates the utilization of low-reactive copper mine tailings (MT) with slag (SG) as a supplemental cementitious material to produce green bricks based on geopolymerization technology.

Nanotechnology for Concrete with Low Carbon Footprint (ACI Spring 2023, San Francisco, CA)Carbon Nano Fibers used to produce Ultra High-Performance Concrete (UHPC) is revolutionizing the concrete industry. This technology yields safe, simple, and sustainable UHPC for use in the infrastructure, building construction and other design applications where its low shrinkage and creep, superior bond strength and tensile performance are an asset. It has the unique, sustainability benefit of using CO2 captured from waste streams as the feedstock for producing the required nano fibers used in the mix. This presentation will describe the nanoporomechanical structure of the matrix, fundamental characteristics of the nano technology and give concrete examples of applications where this material is being used today. It will explain why UHPC is an ideal material for use in resilient/sustainable design and how engineers and concrete professionals can leverage this material for longer lasting projects with smaller environmental footprints than traditional applications.