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The transfer and networking project ReInvent aims to provide technical and organisational support for the BMBF funding measure KlimPro-Industrie.
The aim of IGF project 21619 is to develop a training simulator with which learners can independently solve typical process engineering tasks within a virtual reality (VR) environment, particularly in connection with ball mills.
"BetonQuali - information and qualification platform", a joint project of VDZ gGmbH and its project partners, aimed to develop and test a training method for semi-skilled and unskilled employees in the concrete industry.
As plans are progressing for the CCUS infrastructure for transporting, storing and using CO₂, it is becoming increasingly clear that the separated CO₂ must be very pure in order to be used or stored. CC technologies are currently being planned with considerable engineering effort and electricity consumption for gas cleaning systems to separate unwanted accompanying substances. This is where this project comes in. It aims to investigate an innovative concept that could significantly reduce this effort.
Precise material balances and up-to-date transfer factors are essential for evaluating trace element emissions in cement clinker production. Outdated data makes it difficult to use modern, CO₂-neutral raw materials and fuels. The project aims to update the transfer factors to support industry, the environment and climate protection.
The oxyfuel technology is to be investigated qualitatively using a dynamic process simulation. This will provide a basis for the control and optimization of oxyfuel systems, resulting in a faster rollout of this crucial technology for CO₂ reduction.
In the AiF project EVCAZ, the energetic and material utilisation of wastes containing carbon fibres is to be demonstrated on an industrial scale in a cement plant. The central tasks are the evaluation of the conversion success of the CF fibres, the recording of the resulting emissions and the consideration of influences on the process and the clinker quality. The findings obtained are summarised to assess health and environmental risks and to answer questions relevant to approval as a decision-making aid for cement plant operators.
The aim of the project is to investigate Machine Learning models for the characterisation of alternative fuels in the cement production. For this purpose, a public-accessible database (with fuel characteristics and images) is set-up and different machine learning models will be trained on that data, the algorithms will be tested on their robustness and suggestions for the classification of the fuel quality and its visualisation in the control room will be made.
In CaLby2030, the deployment of Calcium Looping technology (CaL) using Circulating Fluidised Bed reactors (CFB) in the cement industry will be investigated, aiming at efficient CO₂-Capture without compromising clinker production or product quality. A technology scale-up will be also evaluated in a German cement plant by exploring different retrofit possibilities. Besides the cement sector, the deployment of CFB-CaL technology in other relevant sectors will also be investigated.
In order to be able to use new, clinker-efficient cements and concretes in the future even under the attack of carbonic acid, the development of a test and assessment concept is necessary. Therefore, VDZ and the Institute for Building Research of the RWTH Aachen started a joint research project.
The IGF project 19295 N intended to devise a testing and assessment system that better reflects the cements’ material properties.
The aim of this research project was to create basic knowledge on the results of different processing and compaction measures in correlation with the properties of the fresh concrete.
The research project should generate essential knowledge on the behaviour of different aggregates under accelerated conditions within ASR testing methods. The target was to obtain with different testing methods a consistent assessment of the alkali sensitivity of aggregates and concretes respectively and to clearly identify expansive reactions that are not caused by ASR.
In a CORNET (Collective Research Networking) research project, the project partners CRIC (Belgium), Smart minerals (Austria) and VDZ (Germany) had combined under the consortium leadership of the VDZ to determine characteristic variables for cement and mortar samples and correlate them with the results of concrete durability tests.
Goal of the research project was to generate a broad, scientific verified data base via corresponding leaching and shower tests (laboratory and outdoor tests) on carbon-concrete test specimen with different concrete covering of the carbon-fibres as well as with different percentages of the carbon-fibres to evaluate the environmental compatibility of the new, innovative composite building material “carbon-concrete”.
In the IGF research project 23643 N, relationships between the particle size distribution of different cement compounds (clinker, calcined clays and limestone powder), and their reactivity and influences on cement performance are being systematically investigated.
The current requirements for low alkali cements mean that calcined clays can hardly be used as main constituent in such cements due to their alkali content. However, it is known that pozzolanic SCMs contribute to the prevention of ASR. The aim of the research project is therefore to systematically investigate the contribution of calcined clays to the prevention of ASR.
The project systematically investigates the performance and hydration behaviour of ternary cement (KQL) with clinker (K), calcined clay (Q) and limestone (L) as well as key durability aspects of concretes produced with these materials.
In this research project, IR spectroscopy in combination with mathematical tools (chemometrics) is going to be evaluated as an analytical method for the characterisation of silica based materials, primarily X-ray amorphous materials, with regard to the reliable determination of the composition of material mixtures with X-ray amorphous materials (e.g. ternary cements with calcined clay and/or recycled concrete fines). In a next step, the findings on the analytical method and evaluation routines developed for cement are going to be evaluated with regard to their transferability to siliceous aggregates for estimating its alkali sensitivity.
Calcined clays as the main cement constituent are an essential part of the cement industry's decarbonisation strategy. Many clay deposits have iron-rich impurities that form hematite during calcination, which colors the product, the cement and ultimately the concrete red. A reducing atmosphere during calcination and/or cooling can prevent the formation of hematite. Systematic findings on the influence of secondary constituents in clays on their reactivity, emissions and cement-technical properties have hardly been available to date and are to be systematically investigated in the project.
In the ZIM research project, used concrete is processed in such a way as to improve the usability of all fractions generated, in particular the crushed sand and the fine fraction. To this end, tests are also being carried out on the pozzolanic reactivation of the recycled concrete fines.
In CaLby2030, the deployment of Calcium Looping technology (CaL) using Circulating Fluidised Bed reactors (CFB) in the cement industry will be investigated, aiming at efficient CO₂-Capture without compromising clinker production or product quality. A technology scale-up will be also evaluated in a German cement plant by exploring different retrofit possibilities. Besides the cement sector, the deployment of CFB-CaL technology in other relevant sectors will also be investigated.
