Multi-scale engineering of alkali-activated concretes for sustainable infrastructure
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Leeds
Department Name: Civil Engineering
Abstract
Infrastructure is the foundation of the society and economy of every nation, and enables us to enjoy a high standard of living. Currently 3.5bn people live in urban areas, and this will continue to rise, particularly in developing countries, reaching 6.2bn people by 2050. The provision of infrastructure and housing poses great challenges to be resolved in the coming years, but also offers a unique opportunity to drive significant global change, with the development of cities and the improvement of living standards to eliminate poverty and promote social inclusion being essential for global economic growth.
The enormous amount of resources necessary to fulfil the world's infrastructure requirements, and the urgent need to mitigate climate change, mean that it is essential to move from traditional ways of providing infrastructure (which involve the use of cement, steel and other resources, and emit large volumes of CO2), to more sustainable ways. This will safeguard our future global society. The worldwide demand for Portland cement (a key component of concrete) has doubled in the past 10 years, to more than 4 billion tonnes per year, and this will continue to rise in the coming decades. This accounts for 8% of all worldwide CO2 emissions, and this could increase to as much as 25% by 2050. There is an urgent need for the UK, and the international community, to take up low-carbon best practices as we design and build infrastructure, so that significant reductions in carbon emissions can be achieved rapidly, and a shift towards a low-energy sustainable construction industry occurs.
This Early Career Fellowship research focuses on the design, characterisation and assessment of one of the most promising low-carbon candidates that can be used in place of Portland cement, to produce sustainable and durable concretes. These materials, called alkali-activated cements, can offer carbon emissions savings of 40-80% compared to Portland cement, when used to make a concrete with similar or better performance. However, despite this potential, the performance of alkali-activated materials in the field is unproven, and the processes that are now used for their production also face challenges that need to be resolved for the future-proofing of this technology. So, further research is urgently required to prove that these materials can be produced by sustainable processes using highly available resources, and then serve well under challenging conditions, over periods of decades or more. This particularly means that we must understand the ability of potentially damaging chemical species to move through alkali-activated cements (either through the material itself, or through any cracks which may form as the material shrinks or is damaged). This lies at the heart of the understanding of concrete durability, and requires the development of advanced modelling tools to predict the long-term performance of concretes that are made from these new cements, moving beyond the timescales that can be accessed in the laboratory to describe real-world performance.
The central aim of this Fellowship research is to provide the scientific basis for the use of the UK's natural resources, as well as by-products from other industries such as the production and processing of metals, to produce high-performance, high-durability alkali-activated concretes using conventional and/or novel processes. To achieve this, the Fellowship applicant and her team will use state of the art materials characterisation techniques to make connections between the way alkali-activated cements are produced, and their performance - moving the understanding 'from atoms to applications'. This will open a new pathway to building sustainable infrastructure for the future of the UK and worldwide, further strengthening the nation's current world-leading position in developing and using innovative cements, and opening opportunities for international connections and impact.
The enormous amount of resources necessary to fulfil the world's infrastructure requirements, and the urgent need to mitigate climate change, mean that it is essential to move from traditional ways of providing infrastructure (which involve the use of cement, steel and other resources, and emit large volumes of CO2), to more sustainable ways. This will safeguard our future global society. The worldwide demand for Portland cement (a key component of concrete) has doubled in the past 10 years, to more than 4 billion tonnes per year, and this will continue to rise in the coming decades. This accounts for 8% of all worldwide CO2 emissions, and this could increase to as much as 25% by 2050. There is an urgent need for the UK, and the international community, to take up low-carbon best practices as we design and build infrastructure, so that significant reductions in carbon emissions can be achieved rapidly, and a shift towards a low-energy sustainable construction industry occurs.
This Early Career Fellowship research focuses on the design, characterisation and assessment of one of the most promising low-carbon candidates that can be used in place of Portland cement, to produce sustainable and durable concretes. These materials, called alkali-activated cements, can offer carbon emissions savings of 40-80% compared to Portland cement, when used to make a concrete with similar or better performance. However, despite this potential, the performance of alkali-activated materials in the field is unproven, and the processes that are now used for their production also face challenges that need to be resolved for the future-proofing of this technology. So, further research is urgently required to prove that these materials can be produced by sustainable processes using highly available resources, and then serve well under challenging conditions, over periods of decades or more. This particularly means that we must understand the ability of potentially damaging chemical species to move through alkali-activated cements (either through the material itself, or through any cracks which may form as the material shrinks or is damaged). This lies at the heart of the understanding of concrete durability, and requires the development of advanced modelling tools to predict the long-term performance of concretes that are made from these new cements, moving beyond the timescales that can be accessed in the laboratory to describe real-world performance.
The central aim of this Fellowship research is to provide the scientific basis for the use of the UK's natural resources, as well as by-products from other industries such as the production and processing of metals, to produce high-performance, high-durability alkali-activated concretes using conventional and/or novel processes. To achieve this, the Fellowship applicant and her team will use state of the art materials characterisation techniques to make connections between the way alkali-activated cements are produced, and their performance - moving the understanding 'from atoms to applications'. This will open a new pathway to building sustainable infrastructure for the future of the UK and worldwide, further strengthening the nation's current world-leading position in developing and using innovative cements, and opening opportunities for international connections and impact.
Planned Impact
The main beneficiary of this Fellowship research will be the construction industry, as this research will help remove barriers to the usage of alkali-activated cements and concrete in practical large-scale applications. Through partnership with the leading UK producer of alkali-activated/geopolymer cements, Banah UK, as well as European and global experts in waste valorisation, materials and construction technology such as FehS (Institut für Baustoff Forschung) and Zeobond Pty Ltd, impact will be optimised through direct transfer of results into application at all levels of the industry supply chain, from raw materials to finished products. Through partnership with these industry and commercial organisations, as well as the Swiss national laboratory EMPA (which is classified as an academic collaborator within the Fellowship research structure, but which nevertheless is extremely closely engaged with European and international industry), the Fellowship research results will be translated rapidly and effectively into state-of-the-art industry practice, in the UK and internationally.
The ability to accurately assess, predict and model the durability performance of alkali-activated cements and concretes, from a technically validated basis, will bring a very high degree of impact in both academic and industry circles. This information is the fundamental basis of performance-based standardisation, which are a crucial step to future development of standards enabling the use of innovative non-Portland cements in major infrastructure projects. The detailed modelling work which underpins this performance assessment will be disseminated through knowledge exchange workshops and direct engagement activities, including two specialised courses that will be delivered during the lifetime of the Fellowship research. The Fellowship team will also use these opportunities to gain input from partners and potential end-users regarding their priorities in terms of performance targets and key degradation mechanisms for in-service applications, and will incorporate this feedback into the modelling work. The specific data underpinning these models will be made available to the developers of the international databases CEMDATA (thermodynamic data for cementitious systems), and SCEnAT and Ecoinvent (international references in the field of life cycle analysis) for inclusion in these widely used database tools, to maximise accessibility of the information to academic and industrial communities working on development and implementation of sustainable construction materials.
The Pathways to Impact plan also targets both social and technical aspects of implementing outcomes from the research in highly populated emerging countries such as Brazil, South Africa, India and Thailand through the current participation of the Fellowship applicant in Global Challenges Research Fund programmes. This will maximise the global impact of the Fellowship research, and will enable to identify future strategies for the development and application of alkali-activated materials, in different geographical regions. The academic aspects of this dissemination will also be linked to two major events, where the Fellowship applicant is part of the organising and scientific committees: ECI Second International Geopolymers Conference, Tomar (Portugal), May 2018, and the RILEM Week and Annual Cement and Concrete Science Conference, Sheffield (UK), September 2020, hosted jointly by RILEM Association and the Cementitious Materials Group of IOM3.
The ability to accurately assess, predict and model the durability performance of alkali-activated cements and concretes, from a technically validated basis, will bring a very high degree of impact in both academic and industry circles. This information is the fundamental basis of performance-based standardisation, which are a crucial step to future development of standards enabling the use of innovative non-Portland cements in major infrastructure projects. The detailed modelling work which underpins this performance assessment will be disseminated through knowledge exchange workshops and direct engagement activities, including two specialised courses that will be delivered during the lifetime of the Fellowship research. The Fellowship team will also use these opportunities to gain input from partners and potential end-users regarding their priorities in terms of performance targets and key degradation mechanisms for in-service applications, and will incorporate this feedback into the modelling work. The specific data underpinning these models will be made available to the developers of the international databases CEMDATA (thermodynamic data for cementitious systems), and SCEnAT and Ecoinvent (international references in the field of life cycle analysis) for inclusion in these widely used database tools, to maximise accessibility of the information to academic and industrial communities working on development and implementation of sustainable construction materials.
The Pathways to Impact plan also targets both social and technical aspects of implementing outcomes from the research in highly populated emerging countries such as Brazil, South Africa, India and Thailand through the current participation of the Fellowship applicant in Global Challenges Research Fund programmes. This will maximise the global impact of the Fellowship research, and will enable to identify future strategies for the development and application of alkali-activated materials, in different geographical regions. The academic aspects of this dissemination will also be linked to two major events, where the Fellowship applicant is part of the organising and scientific committees: ECI Second International Geopolymers Conference, Tomar (Portugal), May 2018, and the RILEM Week and Annual Cement and Concrete Science Conference, Sheffield (UK), September 2020, hosted jointly by RILEM Association and the Cementitious Materials Group of IOM3.
Organisations
- University of Leeds (Lead Research Organisation)
- University of Sheffield (Collaboration)
- BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (Collaboration)
- Oregon State University (Collaboration)
- University of La Plata (Collaboration)
- Henry Royce Institute (Collaboration)
- Paul Scherrer Institute (Collaboration)
- European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (Collaboration)
- ETH Zurich (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- University of Bath (Collaboration)
- University of Ghent (Collaboration)
- Empa - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Collaboration)
- University of Texas at Austin (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Sika Ltd (Collaboration)
- Institute of Building Materials Research (Project Partner)
- Zeobond Pty Ltd (Project Partner)
- Imperial College London (Project Partner)
- Empa (Swiss Fed Labs of Mat Sci Tech) (Project Partner)
- Banah UK Ltd (Project Partner)
Publications
Nwonu D
(2025)
CirCrete: A multi-criteria performance-based decision support framework for end-of-life management of concrete
in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
Marsh A
(2022)
Circular Economy strategies for concrete: implementation and integration
in Journal of Cleaner Production
Hanein T
(2021)
Clay calcination technology: state-of-the-art review by the RILEM TC 282-CCL
in Materials and Structures
Theodore Hanein
(2021)
Clay calcination technology: state-of-the-art review by the RILEM TC 282-CCL
Theodore Hanein
(2021)
Clay calcination technology: state-of-the-art review by the RILEM TC 282-CCL
Villagrán-Zaccardi Y
(2022)
Complete re-utilization of waste concretes-Valorisation pathways and research needs
in Resources, Conservation and Recycling
Kanavaris F
(2023)
Correction: Standardisation of low clinker cements containing calcined clay and limestone: a review by RILEM TC-282 CCL
in Materials and Structures
Kanavaris F
(2024)
Correction: Standardisation of low clinker cements containing calcined clay and limestone: a review by RILEM TC-282 CCL
in Materials and Structures
Marsh A
(2024)
Determining aluminium co-ordination of kaolinitic clays before and after calcination with electron energy loss spectroscopy
in Applied Clay Science
| Description | Over the past 6 years of this fellowship programme great progress was made establishing a new laboratory dedicated to the study of corrosion of steel embedded in concrete, as well as a new Infrastructure Materials Imaging Hub with dedicated SEM and XCT facilities. My team and I have been instrumental in supporting the activities of UKCRIC Centre of Infrastructure Materials and Neville Centre of Excellence on Cement and Concrete, at University of Leeds, which has facilitated the development of collaborative research with other Schools within the University, and also has attracted new collaborations with industrialist and practitioners (e.g. National Highways, SCS Railway, ARUP, Sika, Wienerberger, Expedition, Sika, among others). My team and I have synthesised low carbon cements, exploring alternative mix design to reduce carbon footprint, while controlling phase assemblage evolution. We developed novel manufacturing routes to produce low-carbon alkali-activated materials involving mechanical and thermal processes to produce reactive powders that can be used as replacements of Portland cement for producing concrete. We have also made significant progress in developing modelling tools to be applied to the materials produced, particularly to predict their potential durability. We have also invested our efforts in developing the fundamental understanding of applicability of circular economy and other sustainability principles to our research, engaging our activities with those of the Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Circular Economy of Mineral-based Materials. Outcomes of our research have been presented in national and international events, as well as publications in peer-review journals. We have also developed several engagement activities, including outreach in publics schools, to create more awareness of the research we are developing and the importance of it. Over the past year research derived from this project has been highlighted in the EPSRC Brochure in Net-Zero - Building a Net-Zero Future, EPSRC Brochure in Resilience in Research - Driving and Developing Real World Technologies, UKRI Responding to Climate Change webpage - Making concrete greener and the Materials Research Society - Women in Materials Science. During the last 12 months of the project our efforts centred in exploring the potential utilisation of low purity clays as potential resources for production of alkali-activated cements and evaluation of the sustainability credentials of these materials from a circular economy perspective. This enabled developing a very successful research programme with SCS Railways (on behalf of HS2) and ARUP providing the scientific foundations for developing low carbon concretes adopting the approaches developed in this project. Such innovation was awarded two prestigious sustainability awards in 2023. This efforts have also attracted additional funding by Innovate UK and industrial collaboration programmes, which will enable to speed up the widespread uptake of our research findings into practice. Also the talent that was developed thanks to the funding granted by the fellowship programme, is a key outcome of the research activities. All PhD researchers linked to this fellowship completed their studies on time, and have now moved to prestigious academic and industrial organisation in USA, China and the UK, to continue their professional career. Postdoctoral researchers sponsored by this fellowship have also moved to prestigious positions in Switzerland, India and the UK, with some already securing academic positions. This fellowship had a tremendously positive impact in the career development of the Fellow. Prof. Bernal Lopez is now a well stablished and respected senior academic in sustainable construction materials, who is leading national and international efforts in sustainability of cementitious systems. |
| Exploitation Route | The research outcomes of this fellowship programme have been presented in national and international conferences, as well as in international specialised scientific committees to create awareness of the existence and success of my team, and also to demonstrate our capacity to deliver world-class research. The Fellowship team has dedicated significant efforts in increasing our engagement with general public/ business/ practitioners with very good acceptance. My team and I worked in nourishing new connections that we have developed with the aim of maximise the impact of the outcomes we are currently producing. Net-zero technologies are attracting great interest at present, and this is at the heart of this fellowship, so we will take advantage of this momentum. |
| Sectors | Construction |
| Description | This fellowship made significant contributions to the design, understanding and performance validation of alkali-activated cements produced with near neutral salts. It contributed to the implementation of advanced analytical techniques for the assessment of cementitious materials, and underpinned the development of a modeling framework for predicting CO2 uptake capacity of cementitious materials. The extensive contributions to knowledge are evidenced by the significant number of deliverables linked to the research activities, with a global impact. This fellowship research also enabled the development of the fundamental understanding on clay chemistry and treatments to increase their reactivity. This knowledge was transferred to other industry led-projects aiming utilisation of such materials for producing blended Portland cements, including a collaboration with SCS Railways/ ARUP (HS2) for valorisation of waste arising from major excavation activities; KTP projects with Sika (to enable higher contents of slag in low carbon concretes) and Wienerberger (to develop low carbon geopolymer bricks/tiles); and upscaling projects with Lafarge and CEMEX for CO2 mineralisation of alkali resources. The numerous research collaborations with industry linked to the Fellowship research are evidence of the important of the research developed and its impact in enabling a low carbon transition of the construction sector. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Construction |
| Impact Types | Societal Economic |
| Description | BEIS Recarbonation Model for UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | DESNZ and DEFRA project - Unlocking Resource Efficiency Phase 1 - Cement and Concrete Report |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| URL | https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6564cae8888c06000dfa7dc2/unlocking-resource-efficienc... |
| Description | Parliamentary Postbrief contribution |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
| URL | https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pb-0044/#:~:text=Strategies%20to%20reduce%20the%2... |
| Description | The UK Government Office for Science & Depart. Education - RAAC in the Built Environment |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| URL | https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/rapid-projects |
| Description | CASE Award with National Highways |
| Amount | £110,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2020 |
| End | 04/2024 |
| Description | CMMI-EPSRC RENACEM: Response to CO2 exposure of concrete with natural supplementary cementitious materials |
| Amount | £449,643 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/T008407/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2020 |
| End | 07/2023 |
| Description | Design-for-manufacture of 3D concrete printed structural composites (DfM:3DCP) |
| Amount | £577,525 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/S019650/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2019 |
| End | 06/2023 |
| Description | Engineered UK clays for production of low-carbon cements |
| Amount | £857,130 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/W021811/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2022 |
| End | 06/2026 |
| Description | Excavation Waste London Clay Utilisation in Concrete Applications ("Ex-Clay") |
| Amount | £481,446 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 10117763 |
| Organisation | Innovate UK |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2024 |
| End | 05/2025 |
| Description | International PhD Studentship - Alternative routes for the production of one-part alkali-activated cements |
| Amount | £50,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Chinese Scholarship Council |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | China |
| Start | 08/2019 |
| End | 05/2023 |
| Description | International PhD studentship - A Novel multiphysics modelling framework to reduce the uncertainty of the carbonation resistance of alkali-activated materials |
| Amount | £90,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Leeds |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2020 |
| End | 03/2024 |
| Description | International PhD studentship - Sustainability assessment of novel low carbon concrete technologies |
| Amount | £110,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Leeds |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2022 |
| End | 04/2026 |
| Description | KTP with Sika Ltd |
| Amount | £302,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 10016474 |
| Organisation | Innovate UK |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2022 |
| End | 09/2025 |
| Description | KTP with Wienerberger |
| Amount | £306,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 10030216 |
| Organisation | Innovate UK |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2022 |
| End | 09/2025 |
| Description | Maximising waste resources utilisation in future infrastructure development (WISE)/ Royal Society Exchanges 2019 Cost Share |
| Amount | £11,400 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | IEC\R2\192190 |
| Organisation | The Royal Society |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2020 |
| End | 01/2022 |
| Description | Novel Approach for Vital Infrastructure Post Disaster/ International Programmes - Urban Infrastructure for Well-Being |
| Amount | £251,352 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | UWB190207 |
| Organisation | The British Academy |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2019 |
| End | 11/2021 |
| Description | PERFoRM - Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship |
| Amount | € 212,000 (EUR) |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Belgium |
| Start | 05/2019 |
| End | 06/2021 |
| Description | Royal Charter International Research Award |
| Amount | £8,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | BRE Trust |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2020 |
| End | 11/2020 |
| Description | Royce Industrial Collaboration Programme (ICP) - Investigating the scale-up potential of mechanochemical activation technology for low-purity clays |
| Amount | £124,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/X527257/1 |
| Organisation | Henry Royce Institute |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2024 |
| End | 02/2025 |
| Description | SCS Railways/ ARUP - Re-purposed Excavated Arisings Loop - London Clay transformation into construction resources |
| Amount | £15,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | High Speed Two (HS2) Ltd |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2022 |
| End | 10/2022 |
| Description | Transforming the Foundation Industries: a Network+ Towards Value by Innovation |
| Amount | £2,259,077 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/V026402/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2021 |
| End | 12/2023 |
| Description | UKRI Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centre For Mineral-based Construction Materials |
| Amount | £4,430,346 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/V011820/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2021 |
| End | 12/2024 |
| Title | Dataset for "Cement and concrete decarbonisation roadmaps - a meta-analysis within the context of the United Kingdom" |
| Description | This Supplementary Information file provides full details of the methods used for the analysis presented in the article Marsh A.T.M. et al. "Cement and concrete decarbonisation roadmaps - a meta-analysis within the context of the United Kingdom". The sections describe the methods used for: S1. Assigning material scope to decarbonisation strategies S2. Determining material scope of the roadmaps S3. Determining existence of trends between strategies and actor type S4. Determining Technology and Market Readiness Level (TMRL) range for each strategy S5. Determining carbon reduction potential for each strategy |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | n/a |
| URL | https://archive.researchdata.leeds.ac.uk/1202/ |
| Title | Dataset for "Determining aluminium co-ordination of kaolinitic clays before and after calcination with electron energy loss spectroscopy" |
| Description | Developing a greater understanding of kaolinite dehydroxylation upon calcination is crucial for several industrial applications, including cements. Aluminium coordination in meta-kaolinite indicates the extent of its dehydroxylation and its potential chemical reactivity, and it is typically determined using 27Al magic angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. This technique however presents limitations for Fe-rich materials, given the magnetic properties of Fe ions and minerals containing Fe. In this study, the effect of calcination on Al coordination was assessed in a low-Fe clay used as a reference system, and a Fe-rich clay. Al coordination in the low-Fe clay was quantified via 27Al MAS NMR spectra deconvolution, using data collected at 9.4 T and 11.7 T. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) maps and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) measurements were carried out in a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) on both clays. Al K-edge EEL spectra showed distinguishable 4/5-fold Al and 6-fold Al sites in both clay types. Differences in line-profile indicated a higher proportion of 4/5-fold Al in kaolinite in the Fe-rich clay compared to the low-Fe clay. Conversely, the Fe-rich clay contained a lower proportion of 4/5-fold Al in meta-kaolinite after calcination, relative to the low-Fe clay. These differences are consistent with the greater structural disorder of the meta-kaolinite identified in the Fe-rich clay by X-ray diffraction and the geological origins of both clays. Overall, this study demonstrates the potential of EELS to provide information about Al coordination for individual kaolinite and meta-kaolinite particles. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Dataset linked to a recent publication. No impact yet. |
| URL | https://archive.researchdata.leeds.ac.uk/1295/ |
| Title | Dataset for "The pore structure and water absorption in Portland/slag blended hardened cement paste determined by synchrotron X-ray microtomography and neutron radiography" |
| Description | The data contained in this workbook has been used to create the following figures in the journal article: Vigor, J. E., Prentice, D.P., Xiao, X., Bernal, S. A., and Provis, J. L. 2024, The pore structure and water absorption in Portland/slag blended hardened cement paste determined by synchrotron X-ray microtomography and neutron radiography, RSC Advances, 14, p. 4389-4405. https://doi.org/10.1039/d3ra06489a The respective data for each figure is given a separate worksheet. Datasets which are too large to be contained within this spreadsheet can be provided upon request. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | n/a |
| URL | https://archive.researchdata.leeds.ac.uk/1255/ |
| Title | Dataset for '3D crystalline phase and pore structure evolution upon CO2 exposure in sodium sulfate-activated cement pastes' |
| Description | This data has been used to create the Figures in the journal article "3D crystalline phase and pore structure evolution upon CO2 exposure in sodium sulfate-activated cement pastes". |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Dataset linked to a recent publication. No impact yet. |
| URL | https://archive.researchdata.leeds.ac.uk/1343/ |
| Title | Dataset for 'Hybrid organic-inorganic blast furnace slag binders activated with alkali acetates' |
| Description | Raw data for all figures in the associated paper 'Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Blast Furnace Slag Binders Activated with Alkali Acetates' |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Databased linked to a recent publication. No impact yet. |
| URL | https://archive.researchdata.leeds.ac.uk/1315/ |
| Title | Dataset for 'Influence of limestone addition on sodium sulphate activated blast furnace slag cements' |
| Description | The data associated with this paper are openly available from the University of Leeds Data Repository, at https://doi.org/10.5518/1227. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | N/A |
| URL | https://archive.researchdata.leeds.ac.uk/1061/ |
| Title | Dataset for 'Suitability of excavated London Clay as a supplementary cementitious material: Mineralogy and Reactivity' |
| Description | Raw data for all Figures in the linked paper |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | n/a |
| URL | https://archive.researchdata.leeds.ac.uk/1200/ |
| Title | Dataset for 'Thermodynamic modelling of cements clinkering process' |
| Description | The data contained in this workbook has been used to create the following figures in the journal article: Costa, A. R. D., Coppe, M. V., Bielefeldt, W. V., Bernal, S. A., Black, L., Kirchheim, A. P. and Gonçalves, J. P, 2023. Thermodynamic modelling of cements clinkering process as a tool for optimising the proportioning of raw meals containing alternative materials. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-44078-7 |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | n/a |
| URL | https://archive.researchdata.leeds.ac.uk/1178/ |
| Title | Exploiting in-situ solid-state NMR spectroscopy to probe the early stages of hydration of calcium aluminate cement - data |
| Description | NMR spectra. 27Al direct excitation spectra recorded as a function of time during the reaction of calcium aluminate cement with water at 20°C. 27Al direct excitation spectra recorded as a function of time during the reaction of calcium aluminate cement with water at 60°C. The first 27Al MQMAS spectrum recorded during the reaction of calcium aluminate cement with water at 20°C. The last 27Al MQMAS spectrum recorded during the reaction of calcium aluminate cement with water at 20°C. The last 27Al MQMAS spectrum recorded during the reaction of calcium aluminate cement with water at 60°C. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Title | Phase evolution and performance of sodium sulfate-activated slag cement pastes |
| Description | The data contained in this workbook has been used to create the following figures in the journal article Yue, Z., Dhandapani, Adu-Amankwah, S. and Bernal, S.A., 2024. Phase evolution and performance of sodium sulfate-activated slag cement pastes. CEMENT (accepted). The respective data for each figure is given in a separate worksheet. BSE (backscatter scanning electron) images of Fig.9, 12, 13 and 15 are referred to the journal article. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Dataset linked to a recent publication. No impact yet. |
| URL | https://archive.researchdata.leeds.ac.uk/1323/ |
| Title | Supplementary Information for "CirCrete: A multi-criteria performance-based decision support framework for end-of-life management of concrete" |
| Description | This Excel spreadsheet has been prepared and specifically tailored to exemplify how to conduct scenario calculations for the implementation of CirCrete, a multi-criteria based decision support framework that facilitates the end of life management of a concrete structure from a circular economy perspective. This spreadsheet has been prepared by the authors for demonstration purpose. This spreadsheet consists of a total of eight worksheets. The first is the introduction, the next five are for calculations related to the remanufacture and recycling/landfilling route, the sixth worksheet is for the refurbishment route in the original paper and the last worksheet is the reference list. Further explanatory notes are provided in the "Introduction worksheet" |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Dataset linked to a recent publication. No impact yet. |
| URL | https://archive.researchdata.leeds.ac.uk/1357/ |
| Description | Collaboration with EMPA (Switzerland) and Oregon State University (USA) to advance modelling capabilities |
| Organisation | Empa - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | One of the key planned activities of RENACEM is the development of modelling tools for the prediction of carbonation performance of concretes produced with natural SCMs. As part of this efforts we have partnered with Prof. Barbara Lothenbach (EMPA) and Prof. Burkan Isgor (Oregon State University) to develop a training plan for the PGRs and postdoc researchers linked to RENACEM, so they can gain the necessary skills for the creation and implementation of thermodynamic modelling and multi-physics modelling for developing novel modelling tools for evaluation of the materials currently studied and to be developed from this research. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Prof. Lothenbach is world-leading in thermodynamic modelling of cementitious materials, and a long-lasting collaborator of both the UK-PI and the US-PI, and Prof. Isgor has developed some of the most sophisticated modelling tools to combine chemistry and transport properties phenomena taking place in cementitious systems exposed to different environment. Prof. Isgor collaborated closely with the USA team of this project, and the UK team has benefited greatly from this new interaction. |
| Impact | This collaboration started in mid-2020 in an effort to adapting the activities of RENACEM to the impact of the COVID pandemic, particularly reduced laboratory access in all the partner Universities, hence no outcomes and results beyond ongoing training has taken place. This collaboration led to the development of several publication that underpinned the development of a modelling framework for predicting CO2 uptake capacity of cementitious materials, which was developed in collaboration with Prof. John Provis from PSI. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Collaboration with EMPA (Switzerland) and Oregon State University (USA) to advance modelling capabilities |
| Organisation | Oregon State University |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | One of the key planned activities of RENACEM is the development of modelling tools for the prediction of carbonation performance of concretes produced with natural SCMs. As part of this efforts we have partnered with Prof. Barbara Lothenbach (EMPA) and Prof. Burkan Isgor (Oregon State University) to develop a training plan for the PGRs and postdoc researchers linked to RENACEM, so they can gain the necessary skills for the creation and implementation of thermodynamic modelling and multi-physics modelling for developing novel modelling tools for evaluation of the materials currently studied and to be developed from this research. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Prof. Lothenbach is world-leading in thermodynamic modelling of cementitious materials, and a long-lasting collaborator of both the UK-PI and the US-PI, and Prof. Isgor has developed some of the most sophisticated modelling tools to combine chemistry and transport properties phenomena taking place in cementitious systems exposed to different environment. Prof. Isgor collaborated closely with the USA team of this project, and the UK team has benefited greatly from this new interaction. |
| Impact | This collaboration started in mid-2020 in an effort to adapting the activities of RENACEM to the impact of the COVID pandemic, particularly reduced laboratory access in all the partner Universities, hence no outcomes and results beyond ongoing training has taken place. This collaboration led to the development of several publication that underpinned the development of a modelling framework for predicting CO2 uptake capacity of cementitious materials, which was developed in collaboration with Prof. John Provis from PSI. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Collaboration with Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM - Germany) |
| Organisation | BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | My team and I provide expertise in the area of alkali-activated technology, particularly in the development of alternative manufacturing routes to produce alkali-activated cements. As an extension of our research activities in this area in collaboration with BAM it was studied the interaction of steel with these novel materials. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Colleagues at BAM coordinated the activities of the European Federation of Corrosion Task Group 11 on corrosion of steels embedded in Alkali-Activated Materials. A review paper derived from the outcomes of this committee is currently under preparation. |
| Impact | It is expected that the review paper derived from this collaboration is published in late 2022. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Collaboration with Sika Ltd |
| Organisation | Sika Ltd |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | A collaboration with Sika Ltd (one of the largests construction chemicals producers worldwide) was initiated for the development of chemical additives to enable the increase of cement replacements usage in concrete production. This research centres on alternative blast furnace slag based cements including alkali-activated systems (main topic of this fellowship) as well as hybrid cements and supersulfated cements. This in an effort to develop the chemical solutions needed for resolving existing technical questions related to these alternative cements chemistries. My team and I will be providing insight knowledge in cementitious materials chemistry to this project sponsor by Innovate UK via the KTP programme. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Sika Ltd is providing match funding for the development of this KTP project, as well as their insight knowledge in chemical admixtures and connections with their customers for the trialing of the technologies developed from this KTP. |
| Impact | This collaboration formally commenced in February 2022, with the announcement of the successful KTP grant submission. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Collaboration with The European Synchrotron and PSI |
| Organisation | European Synchrotron Radiation Facility |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | A new collaboration has been developed with The European Syncrotron (France) to advance the application of synchotron based techniques to the analysis of cementitious materials. |
| Collaborator Contribution | This has been enabled by the ongoing collaborations with the Henry Royce Institute at Manchester University and Professor Philip Withers advancing the applicability of XCT techniques to low carbon materials. Out partners have provided beamtime to conduct specialise experiments as well as dedicated scientist time for enable the processing of data and preparation of the publications derived from these studies. |
| Impact | This is a highly multi-disciplinary collaboration, that has led to the publication of the world first journal paper applying XRD-CT to understand the interaction of CO2 with sustainable cementitious materials (e.g alkali-activated cements). This collaboration has led to the publication of several conference papers, and there are several journal publication derived from this collaboration, currently in preparation. The collaboration also enabled the submission of a grant proposal to the HORIZON-EIC-2024-PATHFINDERCHALLENGES-01-02 Towards cement and concrete as a carbon sink call, which is currently under review. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Collaboration with Universidad de La Plata (Argentina) |
| Organisation | University of La Plata |
| Country | Argentina |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | As part of a Royal Society Cost Share Exchanges grant with CONICET Argentina, it was planned for my team and I to carry out regular visit to colleagues at Universidad de La Plata for knowledge exchange in technologies enabling maximise valorisation/ utilisation of construction demolition wastes for development of low carbon, durable and economical concrete in Argentina and elsewhere. During the first two year due to the pandemic situation, unfortunately none of the planned visits could take place, however the collaboration progressed and we are planning to carry out some of the visits later in 2022. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Prof. Villagran was instrumental in the preparation of a grant that has been successfully funded by Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) in collaboration between U. Ghent (Belgium), U. Graz (Austria), PSI (Switzerland) and U. Leeds, for the development and assessment of recycled aggregate hybrid concretes. This has enabled to strengthen our research links and capitalise from the collaboration initiated through the Royal Society exchanges cost share grant. |
| Impact | The collaboration has continued in a remote format and several collaborative activities were developed including: - Presentation in a panel discussion in the 'IX Congreso Internacional y 23a Reunion Tecnica de la Asociacion Argentina de Technologia del Hormigon (AATH)' - Joint journal article published in Resource, Recovery and Conservation. Samples sent by Prof. Villagran are currently being analysed at the University of Leeds. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Collaboration with University of Bath |
| Organisation | University of Bath |
| Department | Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | A new collaboration with Dr Xinyuan Ke from University of Bath has been initiated for the development of thermodynamic and multi-physics modelling of alkali-activated materials. Dr Ke is acting as external supervisor of one of the PhD researchers based at U. Leeds that is linked to the fellowship research, |
| Collaborator Contribution | Dr Ke is contributing her expertise in alkali-activated materials and modelling supporting some of the efforts of one of the PhD researchers based in Leeds and co-sponsored by this fellowship research. |
| Impact | This is a new collaboration which we hope will lead to future joint publications. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Collaboration with University of Bath |
| Organisation | University of Bath |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | In collaboration with University of Bath in early 2023 further funding was secured via the IDRIC programme to explore some of the alternative routes for activation of low purity clays. |
| Collaborator Contribution | University of Bath was the PI of the additional funded secured, and coordinated the research activities developed as part of the IDRIC project. |
| Impact | The project demonstrated the feasibility of applying mechanochemical activation as a suitable technology for enhancing chemical reactivity of clays for their use as cement replacements. The results of this research motivated the submission of two grants: a proof of concept Henry Royce Industrial Collaboration Grant in collaboration with Heidelberg Materials, which was successfully funded, and it is still ongoing, and a recently submitted Royal Society Faraday Discovery Fellowship currently under review. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Collaboration with University of Sheffield |
| Organisation | University of Sheffield |
| Department | Department of Materials Science and Engineering |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We have initiated a collaboration with Prof. John Provis from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, to provide valuable insight in the development of transport models applied to alkali-activated materials, which is the main topic of research of one of the PhD researchers based at U. Leeds, co-sponsored by the fellowship project. Prof. Provis left the University of Sheffield in 2023, and the collaboration has continued with his new organisation, The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) Switzerland. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Prof. Provis contributed his time and knowledge to our modelling efforts, providing mentorship to the PhD researcher based at the University of Leeds, who completed his PhD studies in December 2024. |
| Impact | This collaboration is highly multi-disciplinary as it bring together materials and cement science, physics, chemical engineering, and geochemistry. The collaboration has led to the preparation of a journal paper which is currently under review, where a new modelling framework for predicting the carbonation resistance, and CO2 uptake capacity of cement, has been proposed. This new modelling tool will have immense impact, as it will enable identifying optimising cement formulation for enhanced CO2 uptake potential as well as durability. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Collaboration with the National X-ray Computed Tomography Lab (Henry Royce Institute) |
| Organisation | Henry Royce Institute |
| Department | Henry Royce Institute – University of Manchester Facilities |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | A collaboration with Prof. Philip Withers (former Chief Scientist - Henry Royce Institute) was initiated in 2022, looking at applying advanced X-ray diffraction couples with computed tomography (XRD-CT) for the assessment of low carbon cements upon CO2 exposure. The RENACEM and MUSE teams are contributing our expertise in cements materials chemistry and computed tomography applied to cementitious materials. This collaboration led to the application for beamtime to the European Synchrotron Research Facility (ESRF)- beamline ID15 for conducting the world's first in-situ carbonation XRD-CT of blended cements with calcined clays and alkali-activated cements. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Prof. Philip Withers and his team at both the NXCT and ESRF facilities are contributing their immense expertise in XRD-CT and advanced tomography data analysis applied to different materials, to support the design of the experiments that will be developed in this facility, as well as insight and support in the data processing. |
| Impact | This collaboration is highly multi-disciplinary bringing together expertise in physics, materials and cement science, big data processing and visualisation, and civil engineering. This collaboration has been very fruitful and has led to the preparation of several join submission of beamtime to conduct experiments in ESRF, as well as join publication on the topic (one published, two in preparation), demonstrating the applicability of the techniques used for the assessment of cementitious materials. This collaboration also led to the submission of a grant proposal to the call HORIZON-EIC-2024-PATHFINDERCHALLENGES-01-02 - Towards cement and concrete as a carbon sink, in collaboration with the University of Malaga, ESRF, and ALBA synchrotrons, which is currently under evaluation. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | ETH Zurich |
| Organisation | ETH Zurich |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | As Visiting Professor at ETHZ I directly collaborate with academics in ongoing PhD research projects supervision, deliver specialised invited talks to their research groups, and I have prepared joint research grant proposal to strengthen the collaboration towards the development of active collaborative research. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Colleagues at ETHZ have provided the office and laboratory space required during my sabbatical year, and my ongoing Visiting Professorship activities. They also actively contribute to international initiatives I am currently leading (e.g. RILEM international technical committee on carbon uptake by concrete). |
| Impact | I joined the Institute for Building Materials in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatics Engineering during a one-year sabbatical (2023-24), focusing on research in cement and concrete technology and innovation, as part of my EPSRC Early Career Fellowship. After completing my sabbatical, I was granted an extension of this appointment to continue developing collaborative research with colleagues at ETHZ. I am being hosted by the Chair in Physico-Chemistry of Construction Materials and my research activities include digital manufacturing, advanced admixtures for novel cement and concrete technologies, application of synchrotron techniques for understanding interactions between cements and CO2. In this role I also collaborate with the Chair in Durability of Building Materials (Prof. Ueli Angst and Dr Shishir Mundra) at ETHZ and colleagues from the Institute of Functional Surfaces (Prof. Richard Barker) at University of Leeds, UK developing research studies centred on understanding the interface between steel and alkali-activated cements, under high-pressure high-temperature conditions, in the context of carbon capture and storage applications. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Partnership with Ghent University (Belgium) |
| Organisation | University of Ghent |
| Country | Belgium |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This collaboration was initiated by being a named partners in a grant funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) where my team contributed to develop advanced imaging for characterizing recycled aggregate added to hybrid concretes. This with the aim to determine the pore structure and chemical features characteristic of the interfacial transition zone between recycled aggregates and new concrete matrices. This initial collaboration has led to ongoing collaboration in other research areas including carbonation of concrete (within the framework of the international Technical Committee TC 281 CCC) and evaluation of CO2 uptake capacity of cementitious materials. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Colleagues at U. Ghent (led by Prof. Nele de Belie and Dr Yury Villagran) lead this partnership through the project titled 'Carbonation performance of concretes with recycled aggregates and hybrid binders' funded by FWO. As part of these activities I hosted a PhD researchers from U. Ghent in the UK for several months, who conducted complementary experiments in my lab, as part of his studies. As part of the ongoing collaborations linked to the RILEM TC 281 CCC, Prof. De Belie and I have published several journal papers, including a critical review on standardised testing methods applied to determine carbonation resistance of concrete. |
| Impact | This partnership has led to the publication of several conference and journal publications demonstrating the suitability of hybrid alkali-activated slag cements, produced with sodium sulfate as an activator. It has also led to the publication of several journal publication on carbonation of concretes with SCMs, including a publication on critical assessment of standardised testing methods to interrogate carbonation resistance, which won the 2024 Outstanding paper award granted by the journal Materials and Structures. This collaboration also led to the submission of a grant to the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) call for SBO projects with a primary economic finality aimed at the transfer to existing companies, which is currently under review. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Partnership with U. Texas at Austin (USA) |
| Organisation | University of Texas at Austin |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The collaboration with U. Texas at Austin was initiated during the development of my EPSRC Early Career fellowship. In order to give continuation and to strengthen this collaboration my team and I successfully secured an NSF-EPSRC lead agency grant (RENACEM, EP/T008407/1), evaluating the response of concretes with natural supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) when exposed to CO2. This project sponsored the research activities across U. Leeds, U. Sheffield and U. Texas at Austin from 2020 to 2023. My team and I provided detailed insight knowledge in clay treatments for their use as cement replacements or precursors for the production of alkali-activated materials, including analysis of USA clays, and conducted hydration of studies of cementitious systems with low purity clays, and carbonation studies (at paste and concrete scales) to reveal the factors controlling durability performance of such materials |
| Collaborator Contribution | Colleagues at U. Texas at Austin are developing the knowledge and understanding required to identify processing technologies to maximise reactivity of SCMs, centred in assessing clays/ soils/ pumices abundant in the US. In collaboration with colleagues from Oregon State University and EMPA, the team and U. Texas at Austin has developed new models for service life prediction of concretes produced with natural SCMs, coupling thermodynamic and multi-physics modelling. |
| Impact | The results obtained from the collaboration between members of the fellowship programme and those of the RENACEM project with colleagues at University of Texas, have been presented in several scientific events globally. Results from the fellowship research linked to the enhancement and assessment of chemical reactivity of clays are being included in a database that is being developed as part of the RENACEM project developed with our collaborators at U. Texas. The results from the MUSE and RENACEM project underpinned some of the ideas proposed in a successfully funded project by EPSRC 'Engineered UK clays for production of low-carbon cements' developed in collaboration with Imperial College London, the British Geological Survey and University of Leeds, along with over 40 industrial partners/ supporters across the construction supply chain. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Paul Scherrer Insitute |
| Organisation | Paul Scherrer Institute |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This collaboration centres on the development of advanced characterisation techniques applied to cements (e.g. tomography) with Prof. John Provis, and in using the results derived from the analysis of such techniques for the development of modelling tools for service life prediction of concretes. One of the recent graduates from my team has been co-supervised by Prof. Provis during his PhD studies. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Prof. Provis has contributed his knowledge and expertise in cementitious materials chemistry, thermodynamic and reactive transport modelling to enable the creation of a modeling framework to predict the CO2 uptake capacity of cementitious materials. |
| Impact | The collaboration has resulted in one journal publication, and three more currently in preparation. It has also results in several conference presentations |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | 2nd Meeting - RILEM TC 281- Carbonation of Concrete with Supplementary Cementitious Materials |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | The 2nd RILEM Technical Committee (TC) 281-CCC meeting was held in TU Delft, The Netherlands during RILEM week. This international TC bring together expertise from academia, industry, practitioners as well as policymakers on understanding the response of modern concretes when exposed to CO2. As Deputy-Chair of the TC and coordinator of the Working Group in Carbonation of Alkali-Activated Materials, I presented some of the published results in the topic, as well as the outcome of an international round robin evaluating the feasibility of adopting different testing conditions, for assessment of performance of these materials. The presentation of these results sparked questions and discussions particularly from industry participants, as it highlights the needs of creating more suitable testing methodologies to determine performance of alkali-activated concretes when exposed to CO2. This has aided in motivation for the development of a critical review currently under preparation compiling existing data in the topic. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | 3rd Yorkshire Cement and Concrete Science Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 35 members of the Civil Engineering Materials Research Unit (U. Leeds) & Cements@Sheffield (U. Sheffield) attended this symposium, which included 10 technical presentations and a final discussion session to identify collaboration opportunities and synergies between the projects developed at both institutions. At present we are in the development of 3 grant applications with participation of both institution, and research from both teams will gain access to the facilities available through the Henry Royce Institute and UKCRIC, capitalising in recent government investments. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | 41st Cement & Concrete Science Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Talk 'Mechano-chemically and thermally activated montmorillonite clays as precursors for alkali-activated cements production' presented at this event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | 41st Cement & Concrete Science Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | talk 'Influence of slag chemistry on the properties of near neutral salt sodium sulfate-activated slag cements' presented in this event |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | 41st Cement and Concrete Science Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Talk 'Alkali-activated slag cement with potassium acetate' presented at this event |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | 76th RILEM Annual Week and International Conference on Regeneration and Conservation of Structures |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Talk 'A reactive-transport framework to model carbonation behaviours of a hardened cement' presented in this event in Kyoto, Japan |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | 76th RILEM Week & International Conference on Regeneration and Conservation of Structures (ICRCS) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Talk 'Alkali metal acetate-activated ground granulated blast furnace slag cements' presented in this event in Kyoto, Japan |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | 8th International Conference on Materials Science and Smart Materials - Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Talk 'Decarbonisation of the UK cement sector: do roadmaps give a clear path forward?' presented during this conference in London. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | BBC Earth short film 'A User's Guide to Net Zero' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This is part of a 5 episodes series targeting young audiences to engage with climate change initiatives. I feature the in the episode about 'Buildings' - to be released in May 2022 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.facebook.com/bbcearth/videos/buildings-a-users-guide-to-net-zero/412220947416026/ |
| Description | Clay Minerals Group Jubilee Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presentation offered during the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland meeting in the Natural History Museum in London in 'Mechano-chemical activation of clays for decarbonisation of cement' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Colloquium in multi-scale characterisation of porous materials |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | In an effort of increase the visibility of existing new facilities and centres linked to my research (e.g. Bragg Centre for Materials Research, UKCRIC National Centre for Infrastructure Materials, Institute of Fluid Dynamics) this colloquium brought together attendees across different School of the Faculty of Engineering with interest in characterisation of porous materials. Although it was intended to be a small local event, we >40 attendees, really engaged with the activity. Several attendees have request to develop more activities such as this one, as it was well received to identify academics to develop potential collaboration projects, and also the facilities and support available, linked to the ongoing projects developed by my team. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Decarbo8 seminar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invites speaker on the Decarbo8 event discussing the role of concrete in decarbonisation of the transport network, and opportunities for improvement. During this meeting it was discussed the challenges of existing standards for enabling adopting low carbon concrete technologies, and of adopt a departure from standards approach for facilitate such transition. It was a very interesting discussion panel with colleagues from industry |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | IOM3 Podcast - Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | As part of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) investigates programme, I was invited to do a podcast to talk about the Transforming Foundation Network+ which I co-Direct. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.iom3.org/resource/iom3-investigates-tfinetwork-with-susan-bernal-lopez.html |
| Description | Inspiring Women in the Raw Materials Sector |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The women chapter of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) invited me to deliver an inspirational talk to share my experiences as an academic leader working in cement and concrete. This talk is aimed to all alumni of the EIT where there was a conversation to answer questions about the challenges and opportunities that I have faced as an international woman academic in a senior position working in a male dominated sector. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | International Conference in Calcined Clays for Sustainable Concrete |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk 'Advanced characterisation of a thermally activated iron rich kaolinitic clay' delivered during the conference in Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | International Women in Engineering Day 2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | As part of the celebrations of the International Women in Engineering 2020, I was showcased as one of the academic leaders in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Science. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://eps.leeds.ac.uk/civil-engineering/news/article/5642/international-women-in-engineering-day-2... |
| Description | Interview for International news |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was interviewed by NTN24 international news which is a 24 hours 2ews channel broadcasted in all Spanish speaking countries and North America. I was an invited expert to contribute to a segment to 'La Tarde' programme to discuss about 'sand and potential effect on glass production of the COVID vaccine vials'. This interview was broadcasted on 20th March 2021 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Interview for RILEM Association |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited RILEM Young Members Interview Series. I was invited to share my experiences as an Early Career researcher developing my career and network as part of the professional organisation RILEM (International Union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, Systems and Structures). As part of this activity three short videos in English were produced, as well as two short videos in Spanish. These videos are available in the RILEM Youtube channel, and were widely advertised across all its members globally, and via other professional organisations, particularly in Latin America (e.g. FICEM (Interamerican federation of cement producers) newsletter, and the Asociacion Argentina de Technologia del Hormigon. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/user/RILEMChannel/videos |
| Description | Interview for The World - A co-production of the BBC World Service, Public Radio International and WGBH in Boston |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This radio interview was centred in discussing greener alternatives infrastructure materials that can be used for production of sustainable concretes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-07-19/concrete-production-uses-ton-sand-and-emits-lot-carbon-here-a... |
| Description | Interview for national news |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was interviewed for the Sky News The Daily Climate Show. In this interview I discussed about a recent project sponsored by Innovate UK with the Minister of Justice as a partner to develop low carbon pre-casting concrete. This interview was broadcasted on 27th July 2021 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=162ELQpIVP8&t=571s |
| Description | Invited Talk - EIT Inspiring Women in the Raw Materials Sector |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Women Alumni division organised a webinar series 'Inspiring Women in the Raw Materials Sector' where prominent women from academia or industry are invited to discuss about their career experiences, and interact with attendees to answer potential career questions. I was very honoured to be one of the speakers in this series, where I met some of the coordinators of this event, and I shared a very open viewpoint of tips to survive and thrive as a woman in academia. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://eit.europa.eu/news-events/events/inspiring-women-raw-materials-sector-susan-bernal-lopez |
| Description | Invited Talk - Gordon Research Conference - Advanced Materials for Sustainable Infrastructure Development |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Yuvaraj Dhandapani presented his work on 'Challenges in characterising carbonation in hardened and end-of-life concrete: Implications on performance' during this conference. His presentation was considered one of the best of the event and sparked many comments and conversations regarding calculations of CO2 uptake in cements, particularly when using materials with calcined clays |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.grc.org/advanced-materials-for-sustainable-infrastructure-development-conference/2024/ |
| Description | Invited keynote in scientific event - 7th Int. Slag Valorisation Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The "Slag Valorisation Symposium", organised by the Materials Engineering Department at KU Leuven and held in Belgium since 2009 as a biennial conference, serves as a forum for discussions on the valorisation of slags and other high-temperature metallurgical residues. The symposium has historically brought together different expertise from academia and industry, providing a knowledge platform to share and discuss the upcoming challenges and opportunities in the world of slag valorisation and sustainable high-temperature processes. In this talk Prof. Bernal presented an overview of the most recent findings linked to the fellowship research programme, which sparked further conversations with attendees to this event in the area of alkali-activation technology. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://slag-valorisation-symposium.eu/ |
| Description | Invited talk - Bragg Centre of Materials Research Annual Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to deliver a talk as part of the annual Bragg Centre for Materials Research symposium (Bragg Exchange), showcasing the research my team and I develop in construction materials science, particularly activities linked to the remit of the Bragg Centre and Henry Royce Institute at the University of Leeds. Participants asked several questions about this research, and my presentation led to further conversations with academics linked to Henry Royce Institute in other Universities to potential development of future collaborations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkBIRa2vnGc&t=19584s |
| Description | Invited talk for the Microlab Colloquium - TU Delft - The Netherlands |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Around 20 academics, researchers and postgraduate students of the Faculty of Civil Enginering & Geosciences, as well as from the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) attended the Microlab colloquium, where I presented my research in utilising alkali-activated cements and concretes in extreme environments, such as encapsulation/ immobilisation of radioactive nuclear wastes. All attendees were very interested in the research outcomes presented, and made several questions about the chemistry of these materials and the advantages over other types of cementitious grouts. This discussion created major awareness of the applicability of these innovative cements in application beyond civil construction. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited talk for the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Day - Leeds City Region 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I was an invited speaker at the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Day organised by the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Leeds, presenting the new trends in infrastructure materials for 'cementing the future infrastructure'. I particularly emphasised the key role of concrete in our societal development, and also the great opportunities to increase sustainability of future infrastructure by development and adoption of low-carbon cements, such as alkali-activated materials. Several members of the audience from industry were particularly interested in the research I am conducting in this topic, and the advanced characterisation techniques available in the UKCRIC Centre of Infrastructure Materials housed at the University of Leeds. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://engineering.leeds.ac.uk/events/event/362/royal_academy_of_engineering_research_day_-_leeds_c... |
| Description | Keynote - 10th ACF International Conference on Durability & Sustainability in Concrete Materials and Structures |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The keynote 'Novel insights into the carbonation of concrete with supplementary cementitious materials - Results of RILEM TC 281-CCC', was presented at the 10th ACF International Conference on Durability & Sustainability in Concrete Materials and Structures, Ulaabaatar, Mongolia. August 15-18, 2024. This presentation showcased the outcomes of 6 years or collaborative research of the RILEM TC 281-CCC, which had 120 international members. The presentation was very well received and sparked conversation about the urgent need to harmonise existing standards to determine concrete durability performance when exposed to CO2. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Keynote - 78th RILEM Annual Week & RILEM Conference on Sustainable Materials & Structures: Meeting the major challenges of the 21st century - SMS 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The Keynote 'Alkali-activated materials: progress in standardisation, commercialisation and industrial applications' was presented at the 78th RILEM Annual Week & RILEM Conference on Sustainable Materials & Structures: Meeting the major challenges of the 21st century - SMS 2024, Toulouse, France. August 25-30, 2024. This presentation aimed to highlight how these new materials are already contributing to the decarbonisation efforts of the construction sector, and how this has been enabled through significant research, as well as inclusion in standards and uptake by industry. Although the presentation was well received by most of the attendees it sparked considerable debate, about the feasibility of this technology to make a meaningful contribution for decarbonising construction. It was highlighted that alkali-activated materials are far superior to other alternatives in niche but key application that will enable the energy transition (e.g nuclear waste cementation) and decarbonisation efforts (e.g. carbon storage infrastructure). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Keynote - Symposium 'Low carbon cements' as part of the Spanish Congress of Materials |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The keynote 'Decarbonising large infrastructure projects: the case of the HS2 in the United Kingdom' was presented in the Symposium 'Low carbon cements' as part of the Spanish Congress of Materials, Malaga, Spain, 24th-28th June, 2024. This presentation showcased the outcomes of ongoing collaborative projects between SCS Railways, ARUP and my team to realise the widespread uptake of calcined clays in the United Kingdom. This presentation was very well received by cement producers in Spain, and I received very positive comments as this is a great example of collaboration between industry and academia to deliver tangible outputs for the benefit of industry and society. We received an invitation for submitting a feature article in the magazine 'Cemento y Hormigon', distributed among all cement and concrete producers in Spanich speaking countries, which is currently in preparation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Keynote 5th Annual Innovative Engineering Research Conference (AIERC) 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Keynote presentation in this event centred on Advances in Low Carbon Cement Technologies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.bradford.ac.uk/ei/research-and-business/aierc-2022/ |
| Description | Keynote Second International Conference on Construction Materials and Structures - ICCMS-2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited keynote speaker presenting on 'New insights into near-neutral salts activation of blast slag cements' in this online conference. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Keynote in the 7th International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited Keynote presentation summarising the outcomes of the technical committee TC CCC. This event was organised in Jinan, China. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | LafargeHolcim Research and Innovation Centre - Workshop on durability of low carbon concretes |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | LafargeHolcim is the largest produced of cement in the world with >250 cement plants across 75 countries. As part of their research portfolio to decrease the CO2 emissions associated with this industry, they are very interested in developing alternative/ low carbon solution that can be rapidly implemented and commercialised. This company invited a team of 5 international experts in alkali-activation technology, including me, to discuss research needs and the way forward to enable this technology to read a point of readiness that will enable its commercialisation at a global scale. Discussion about the future of low carbon concretes took place. A formal collaboration among my research team and LafargeHolcim will take place during the upcoming months through the development of grant proposals co-sponsored by this organisation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Leeds Cultural Labs - Bragg edition |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Researchers from the University of Leeds's Bragg Centre for Materials Research are collaborating with artists to explore what it means to be creative, through the Cultural Institute's Leeds Creative Labs programme. Murray Royston-Ward is a sonic arts practitioner collaborated with members of my team in this initiative to explore the 'soul of concrete' and how sound can travel across concrete based materials. Murray practice addresses improvisation's core materiality by interrogating the relationships between humans and objects/materials. He uses audio technology, material resonance, and feedback in improvisatory relationships with materials to build instruments for improvisation and explore the entanglement of human and material in performance. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.leeds.ac.uk/site/custom_scripts/profile-single.php?profileTypeID=3&categoryID=130553&pro... |
| Description | Outreach activity in schools |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | In collaboration with the STEM outreach team at the University of Leeds, my team and I developed the activity ' Building a greener world - low-carbon concrete workshop for schools'. This activity was developed to bring to life the Design & Technology curriculum around 'Sustainable Design'. Teachers have asked the university to deliver a session that involved the use of tangible materials that students could touch and test in person. After the sessions this activity got really positive feedback with teachers commented that students were able to relate this material to the outside world and see the relevance of the subject taught in schools. Students enjoyed testing materials in person and applying the reactions to design briefs. Teachers commented that schools would not usually have access to these materials and felt this was an invaluable learning experience for their students. Sessions delivered so far include at Castleford Academy and Minsthorpe Community College, both secondary schools in West Yorkshire, Wakefield within low participation neighbourhoods. To date, the session has engaged 130 young people in year 9 - 11, and several sessions have been booked for Spring 2022. We are expecting to reach a much larger number of young people this year. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/CastlefordAcad/status/1461301615709859844 |
| Description | Plenary talk in RILEM Spring Convention & 4th International Congress on Materials & Structural Stability |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited plenary talk titled ' Understanding the Carbonation of Concrete with Supplementary Cementitious Materials - a critical review and interlaboratory comparison by RILEM TC 281-CCC' presented in this event in Morocco. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Poster - FEMS Junior EUROMAT 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The poster 'Impact of CO2 exposure in the microstructure of alkali-activated slag cement - A time-resolved 3D synchrotron XRD-CT/µXCT Analysis' was presented at the FEMS Junior EUROMAT 2024, Manchester UK. July 15-18, 2024. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | RILEM TC MPA - Mechanical properties of alkali-activated concrete |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Some members of the fellowship research team has become active in the RILEM Technical Committee on Mechanical properties of alkali-activated concrete, which will gather the available information related to mechanical properties and mechanical behaviour of alkali-activated concrete to develop a comprehensive state of the art report, identifying research gaps to inform practitioners and research about existing research needs, in a global context. This committee has organised a couple of meetings where future activities are being discussed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.rilem.net/groupe/mpa-mechanical-properties-of-alkali-activated-concrete-389 |
| Description | Talk - The Gordon Research Conference on Accelerating Sustainable Concrete Construction, Advanced Materials for Sustainable Infrastructure series |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The invited talk 'Challenges in characterising carbonation in hardened and end-of-life concrete: Implications on performance' was presented at The Gordon Research Conference on Accelerating Sustainable Concrete Construction, Advanced Materials for Sustainable Infrastructure series, Ventura, USA. Feb 25- March 1, 2024. Presentations in the Gordon Conference are by invitation only, which a selected number of attendees to foster collaboration and discussion about specific areas of research. In this particular event, the latest advances in scientific research in different areas linked to cementitious materials chemistry were presented. This particular presentation sparked discussions around the existing interest to integrate recarbonation of concrete in national air pollution inventories to offset the CO2 emissions allocated to the cement industry. This presentation highlighted the discrepancies between CO2 uptake capacities of different cementitious materials (experimentally determined) and the values calculated when implementing existing standards. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Talk - 14th Advances in Cement-Based Materials Symposium of the American Ceramics Society Cements Division |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The talk 'Characterisation of alkali-acetate activated blast furnace slag binders'. was presented at the 14th Advances in Cement-Based Materials Symposium of the American Ceramics Society Cements Division, Rolla, USA. June 19-21, 2024. This presentation showcased the properties of novel alkali-activated cements produced using acetates as activators. These materials present significantly lower permeabilities, which make them desirable for applications when impermeability is required. As alkali-activated cements is not a very active area of research in USA, this presentation sparker interest in these material, as well as in the approached adopted in the UK for their design and optimisation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Talk - 3?? International Workshop on Technologies for low carbon and lean construction |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The talk 'Advances in characterising carbonation in low clinker and alternative cements' was presented at The 3?? International Workshop on Technologies for low carbon and lean construction, Chennai, India, 28-31 Jan 2024, where participant from different countries shared the latest research on sustainable construction materials and practices. This presentation attracted significant interest as there is ongoing debates about identifying the trade offs when using novel cementitious materials for decarbonising concrete, their CO2 uptake capacity (so they can ack as carbon sinks during service) and the ability of these novel cements to withstand the environmental service conditions, without losing their design properties. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Talk - The Gordon Research Conference on Accelerating Sustainable Concrete Construction, Advanced Materials for Sustainable Infrastructure series |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The talk 'Advances in mechano-chemical activation of clay minerals' was presented at The Gordon Research Conference on Accelerating Sustainable Concrete Construction, Advanced Materials for Sustainable Infrastructure series, Ventura, USA. Feb 25- March 1, 2024. It showcased the outcomes of the IDRIC project developed in collaboration with industry partners and U.Leeds and U. Bath, demonstrating that mechanochemical activation is a suitable and alternative to calcination that can be implemented to produce cement replacements using low purity clays, that are difficult to activate. This is an emerging technology very new to the American audience of this event, and after the presentation I received several questions from industry representatives to find out more about this new approach to produce cement replacements. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Talk - University of Bradford School of Law Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The talk 'Inequalities in the production and use of cement and concrete, and their consequences for decarbonisation and sustainable development' was presented in the University of Bradford School of Law Conference - Just Transition and Environmental Justice Principles, Practice and Implementation Strategies for a Post-Oil Future. Bradford, UK, 26-28 July 2023. The purpose of this study was to highlight that development of technologies for decarbonisation alone, will not enable the just transitions required to sustain a green economy. Understanding of the underlying social complexities linked to the use and demand of materials, particularly for construction purposes are key to identify strategies that can be truly implementable towards decarbonisation of this highly pollutant industry. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | The Bragg Exchange 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | In this presentation preliminary outcomes of the the world-first experiment applying XRD-CT for characterising alkali-activated cements were reported. The intended purpose was to showcase the collaboration with NXCT from Manchester University and the ESRF, and demonstrates the capabilities of applying advanced materials characterisation to cement materials. This to highlight the key role of material science in construction materials development. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | The Bragg Exchange 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This is the annual event organised by the Bragg Centre of Materials Research which houses the Henry Royce Institute at the University of Leeds. This event aims to showcase the latests research in materials innovation across the University of Leeds and beyond. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | The Bragg Exchange 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Short talk and poster titled 'Synchrotron-based X-Ray Diffraction Computed Tomography (XRD-CT) analysis of alkali-activated slag cements' presented at this event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | The Conversation article |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | This article intended to bring awareness to the general public of the properties and developments made in concrete technology, particularly when this material is exposed to extreme environments, through comparison of those environments with those created in the Star Wars saga. The article has been read >30000 and re-published in yahoo news, paidforarticles.com and uktopnews.com |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://theconversation.com/how-did-the-rebels-beat-the-empire-in-star-wars-the-answer-is-closer-to-... |
| Description | The Swiss Cement network (CEMNET) annual meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | As visiting professor at ETH Zurich I was invited to deliver one of the talks in the annual Swiss cements network, which includes attendees from EPFL, EMPA, PSI, ETH and University of Bern. This was an amazing opportunity to showcase the results from this project as well as the activities conducted by my research team at the University of Leeds. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | University of Bradford School of Law Conference - Just Transition and Environmental Justice Principles, Practice and Implementation Strategies for a Post-Oil Future |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This was a major national conference dealing with topics related to Just Transition and Environmental Justice Principles, Practice and Implementation Strategies for a Post-Oil Future |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.bradford.ac.uk/law/research/school-of-law-university-of-bradford-conference/ |
| Description | University of Leeds - Kyoto University Japan Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was an event organised by the University of Leeds, School of Civil Engineering in collaboration with colleagues from Kyoto University of Japan to identify potential areas of collaboration. I was an invited speaker in this event presenting the outcomes of this fellowship research and opportunities of join research across this two Universities. Representatives from both Universities attended such event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | University of Leeds research spotlight - Going with the flow, the hidden science of fluid dynamics |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | This article aimed to highlight the relationship between studying concrete durability and fluid dynamics principles, to highlight the multi-disciplinary and multi-scale approach required to understand how concretes interact and respond to the CO2 in the environment. This article has sparked conversation with colleagues from different disciplines to develop more accurate modelling tools for service life prediction of concrete structures. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.leeds.ac.uk/spotlight-article/80/ |
| Description | University of Leeds research spotlight - Making concrete greener |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | This press release intended to create awareness of the research efforts my research and I are investing in developing low carbon materials for sustainable infrastructure development, linked to the ongoing research grants we are developing, including the EC fellowship. This article is featured in the main page of the School of Civil Engineering at U. Leeds and has given great visibility to my research to current and future students at all levels, as well as colleagues and broader audiences. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://eps.leeds.ac.uk/collaborations-impact/doc/research-spotlight-making-concrete-greener |
| Description | Virtual Microdurability Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I was invited Keynote speaker for the Microdurability event organised by Delft University (The Netherlands) in partnership with the RILEM association , where I presented the main outcomes of the research developed by my team in elucidating mechanism leading to the long term performance of alkali-activated concretes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | World Congress of Soil Science 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Talk 'Novel insights into Fe and Al co-ordination in soils from STEM-EELS and laboratory-based ST-XAS' presented at this event in Glasgow. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |