Rapid Analytical Device for the Performance of Construction Materials

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种设备，可以在几分钟内预测关键建筑材料的性能。建筑材料和化学品必须通过标准化规格和性能测试进行质量控制。在全球范围内，正在大力推动水泥等高耗能行业的脱碳，水泥生产占全球碳排放的6%-8%。在短期内，水泥行业正寻求通过用可持续的补充胶凝材料(SCM)部分取代水泥来减少其碳足迹。据估计，用低碳SCM取代水泥能够减少高达30%的二氧化碳排放。该行业面临的障碍之一是，这些低碳供应链的质量高度可变，缺乏实时的质量控制方法。世界各地水泥厂的质量控制经理和水泥窑主管都在寻找可靠的在线质量控制工具。该技术可以更好地控制较新的SCM的质量，从而促进其在水泥行业中的应用。此外，这可能为低碳建材的快速在线质量控制开辟道路。这个i-Corps项目基于开发可持续辅助胶凝材料(SCM)实时质量控制的快速分析设备。为加快混凝土行业的脱碳而提出的替代水泥的较新材料依赖于传统的、耗时和劳力密集的质量控制测试，可能需要长达7天的时间。这项技术是在前人对SCM化学研究的基础上，结合了低成本材料表征和分析的基本原理。利用所提出的技术对各种天然和商业SCM进行的分析与使用当前标准方法测量的性能是一致的。此外，提出的技术将性能预测时间从几天减少到几分钟，这可能使生产线上的实时表征成为可能。此外，该设备可能比目前的做法具有经济优势，因为它利用低成本的检测设备允许自动操作。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.