Rapid Analytical Device for the Performance of Construction Materials

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a device to predict the performance of key construction materials in a matter of few minutes. Construction materials and chemicals are required to undergo a quality control process via standardized specifications and performance tests. Globally, there is a strong push for decarbonizing energy-intensive industries, such as cement production, which accounts for 6-8% of global carbon emissions. In the short term, the cement industry is looking to reduce its carbon footprint by partially replacing cement with sustainable supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). The replacement of cement with low-carbon SCMs is estimated to be able to result in CO2 savings of up to 30 percent. One of the barriers faced by the industry is the highly variable quality of these low-carbon SCMs and the lack of real-time methods for quality control. Quality control managers and cement kiln supervisors at cement plants across the world are looking for reliable, online quality control tools. The proposed technology may enable better quality control for newer SCMs, which may facilitate their application in the cement industry. In addition, this may open pathways for rapid, online quality control of low carbon building materials.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a rapid analytics device for real-time quality control of sustainable supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). Newer materials proposed to replace cement in order to speed up the decarbonization of the concrete sector are reliant on traditional, time- and labor-intensive quality control tests that may take up to 7 days. This proposed technology is based on previous research on the chemistry of SCMs, and combines fundamental principles of low-cost material characterization and analysis. The analysis obtained from various natural and commercial SCMs using the proposed technology are consistent with the performance measured using current standard methods. In addition, the proposed technology reduced the performance prediction time from days to minutes, which may enable real-time characterization in the production line. Further, this device may have an economic advantage over current practices as it utilizes low-cost detection equipment to allow automatic operation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.