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- Africa (1)
- Building materials (1)
- Clean and safe cement production (1)
- East Africa (1)
- Geopolymers (1)
- Lime-pozzolan binders (1)
- Natural pozzolans (1)
- Scientific network (1)
- Volcanic rock (1)
Many African countries face serious problems associated with the rapid growth of urban Population and the resulting demand for affordable building materials. In search for appropriate Solutions to improve the Situation, the “LightSHIP” project was initiated, whose aims were to identify the required product specifications, to evaluate possible approaches and ultimately to develop new Building materials for East Africa. It was concluded that these materials should be produced in Africa mainiy from local raw materials; prefabricated, easily transportable construction elements are to be preferred. It is therefore reasonable to focus on artificial stones and partition boards. To be Independent of imported cement, it is suggested to make use of volcanic rocks, which are abundant in East African countries, for lime-pozzoian binders and geopolymers in the production of these construction elements. Future research activities should thus concentrate on assessment of the applicability of available volcanic rocks, the influence of their properties on the resulting binders and the design of appropriate binder-reinforcement-filler Systems.
The cement and concrete market in East, Central and Southern Africa is highly fragmented. The concrete industry in this area consists of multiple parties, including producers and suppliers of construction materials, formal and informal contractors, engineers and architects, unions of trades persons and workmen, governmental bodies and formal institutions of research and education. All these institutions mostly do not interact adequately, which makes building with cementitious materials susceptible to damage and failures. Completely opposed to the situation in Europe or North America, cement in Africa is often unaffordable, while manpower is cheap, which results in a questionable economisation of cement. Typically, there is not sufficient awareness of methods to sensibly reducing the cement content in concrete or replace Ordinary Portland Cement by adequate alternative materials. Research activities in this field of technology are often missing completely. Only few countries in the area, such as South Africa, are exempted from these issues.
This paper presents the SPIN project, which is a joint project of a consortium of 8 African and 3 European partners within the ACP Science and Technology Programme. The project is funded by the EC and ACP Secretariat is the project body. The main objective of the current project is to strengthen the cement and concrete industry in the East and Central African regions. The project shall generate reasonable solution strategies to implement clean, safe and sustainable cement and concrete technology on the African continent, including general and specific guidelines for sensible application. Furthermore it shall be the kick-off for future projects, research activities and the world-wide expansion of a European-African network.
The paper addresses special problems the cement and concrete market in Eastern, Central and Southern African countries has to face. Several options are presented in detail, which shall help overcoming the current situation. Customized solutions for the African market include rational methods for reducing the amount of cement used and the replacement of Ordinary Portland Cement with cheaper alternatives. The use of recycled concrete through a new and economically effective method, as well as the opportunity of using locally available resources is also discussed.