Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport (BWWA), Toowoomba, Queensland, is Australia’s first greenfield public airport to be built in 48 years. BWWA became fully operational with commercial flights operated by Qantas Link in November 2014. See our News dated of October 14, 2014, 70,000 tonnes Geopolymer Concrete for airport.
This project marks a very significant milestone in engineering – the world’s largest geopolymer concrete project. BWWA was built with approximately 40,000 m3 (100,000 tonnes) of geopolymer concrete making it the largest application of this new class of concrete in the world. The geopolymer concrete developed by the company Wagners, known as Earth Friendly Concrete (EFC), was found to be well suited for this construction method due to its high flexural tensile strength, low shrinkage and workability characteristics. Heavy duty geopolymer concrete, 435 mm thick, used for the turning node, apron and taxiway aircraft pavements, welcomes a heavy 747 cargo for regular air traffic between Toowoomba-Wellcamp BWWA airport and Hong Kong. For technical details read the paper by Glasby et al. (2015), EFC Geopolymer Concrete Aircraft Pavements at Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport, in our Library, Technical paper #23 GP-AIRPORT. Technical Paper on Geopolymer Aircraft Pavement

Prof. Joseph Davidovits’ visit to the Toowoomba-Wellcamp-Airport.

On October 3, 2015, Joseph and Ralph Davidovits flew from Sydney Airport to Toowoomba-Wellcamp-Airport, for a visit to the company Wagners.

Prof. Joseph Davidovits’ visit to the Global Change Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

On October 7, 2015, Joseph and Ralph Davidovits drove with Tom Glasby and Russell Genrich, company Wagners, from Toowoomba to Brisbane. Our News dated December 10, 2013, was titled World’s first public building with structural Geopolymer Concrete. It introduced the world’s first building to successfully use geopolymer concrete for structural purposes, the Global Change Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The 4 story high building, for general public use, comprises 3 suspended geopolymer concrete floors involving 33 precast panels. They are made from slag/fly ash-based geopolymer concrete coined Earth Friendly Concrete (EFC), a Wagners brand name for their commercial form of geopolymer concrete.

Last year (October 14, 2014), our News was titled 70,000 tonnes Geopolymer Concrete for airport; it presented company Wagners’ newly developed geopolymer concrete EFC in the construction of the Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport (BWWA), Toowoomba, Australia, which became fully operational with commercial flights operated by Qantas Link in November 2014. BWWA was built with approximately 40,000 m3 (100,000 tonnes) of geopolymer concrete making it the largest application of this new class of concrete in the world. The geopolymer concrete, known as Earth Friendly Concrete (EFC), was found to be well suited for this construction method due to its high flexural tensile strength, low shrinkage and workability characteristics. Heavy duty geopolymer concrete, 435 mm thick, was used for the turning node, apron and taxiway aircraft pavements, and cast in place with the slip form paving machine displayed below.

EFC Geopolymer Concrete Aircraft Pavements at Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport.

by Tom Glasby, John Day, Russell Genrich and James Aldred.

Paper presented at Concrete 2015 Conference, Melbourne Australia 2015.

CONTENT
1. Introduction
2. Project Outline
3. Geopolymer Concrete Mix
4. Geopolymer Concrete Production and Supply
5. Geopolymer Concrete Pavement Construction
6. Commercialisation of Geopolymer Concrete
7. Conclusion
References

Click here to see how to download paper nr 23 GP-AIRPORT.

Credit: The Chronicle 29 Sept. 2014

Wellcamp airport becomes the greenest airport in the world. More than 30,000 cubic metres of the world’s lowest carbon, cement-free geopolymer concrete, Wagners’ Earth Friendly Concrete (EFC), was used to save more than 6,600 tonnes of carbon emissions in the construction of the airport.

The Australian company, geopolymer concrete pioneer, Wagners EFC developed the airport. For details see also Prof.Davidovits Geopolymer Camp 2014 Keynote video, at time 39:30.

Queensland’s University GCI building with 3 suspended floors made from structural geopolymer concrete. Credit: Hassel Architect

The 4 story high building, for general public use, comprises 3 suspended geopolymer concrete floors involving 33 precast panels. They are made from slag/fly ash-based geopolymer concrete coined Earth Friendly Concrete (EFC), a Wagners brand name for their commercial form of geopolymer concrete.

Detailed information to be found at
Hassel Architect
Wagners Australia
Architecture Univ. Queensland

In a display of industry-leading technology and innovation, Rocla has recently debuted its latest, award-winning capability – the successful use of geopolymer materials in commercial scale production. While many of its competitors have tried to produce geopolymer products on a large-run scale, Rocla is the first to successfully bring a product to market, and also the first to have the stand-alone capability to do so. With the environmental benefits of geopolymer technology destined to bear fruit for future generations, the nature of Rocla’s first commercial-scale product is a little ironic; their ‘world first’ production run, which was undertaken in Canberra, involved the production of 3,000 components for a customer’s patented crypt system to be supplied to the Woronora Cemetry Trust in Sydney.
The project required 2500 tonnes of geopolymer material, which was used to manufacture three different crypt components, each finished to a high standard, and exacting dimensions. While the client was delighted with quality of the end product, mastering the art of working with geopolymer did present some challenges for the Rocla team to overcome.
“Getting a perfect finish on each component required a lot of dedication and hard work from our team – right from the R&D phase through to the manufacturing and finishing, we’ve worked incredibly hard to bring this project to fruition and produce a top quality product”, says Wayne McGovern, Rocla’s ACT Area Manager. With a delighted client now eager to extend their use of the new crypts, the team’s efforts have undoubtedly paid off and they are now looking towards the future to extend the range of geopolymer products they are able to offer. Adding to the buzz surrounding the product is its recent win at the prestigious, international Fletcher Building Innovation Awards, which recognise Fletcher Building’s business units that excel at innovating. The geopolymer project took out the top prize for best use of technology in innovation in early November.

I first visited ROCLA in Sydney 12 years ago, in January 1999. The company wanted to develop geopolymer-based sewage pipes. Rocla’s scientists J.T. Gourley and G.B. Johnson, presented their results at the Geopolymer’ 2005 conference in Saint-Quentin (Development in geopolymer precast concrete, pages 139-143 in the Proceedings).
With this new application, it is the second commercial success for a Geopolymer 2005 conference participant. I already mentioned the first one in my Geopolymer Camp keynote “State of Geopolymer 2012“, last July: half a million geopolymer pavement bricks manufactured in India under the supervision of Sanjay Kumar from Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, Jamshedpur, India.

Congratulations.

For Rocla go to : Rocla’s Website

For Sanjay Kumar go to GeopolymerCamp 2012
and watch the video Keynote ‘State of the Geopolymer R&D 2012’ at time 00:30.30

Prof. Joseph Davidovits

Abstract
A geopolymer was prepared by dissolving metakaolinite in a solution of K2SiO3 and KOH and curing at 80°C for 24 h. It was progressively heated from ambient to 1400°C in air and the phase changes were studied by X-ray diffraction analysis, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Only an amorphous geopolymer phase was observed on heating up to 800°C. Kalsilite was the major phase at 1000°C and 1250-1400°C. At 1200°C leucite was the major phase formed. At 1400°C there was no sign of significant melting. The open porosity of the material was ~ 38% at 1000°C, which is sufficiently porous for it to be used as a heat insulation material for continuous use at this temperature.

Published at: http://www.azom.com/Details.asp?ArticleID=3171

Abstract:
A geopolymer was prepared by dissolving metakaolinite in a solution of K2SiO3 and KOH and curing at 80°C for 24 h. It was progressively heated from ambient to 1400°C in air and the phase changes were studied by X-ray diffraction analysis, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Only an amorphous geopolymer phase was observed on heating up to 800°C. Kalsilite was the major phase at 1000°C and 1250-1400°C. At 1200°C leucite was the major phase formed. At 1400°C there was no sign of significant melting. The open porosity of the material was ~ 38% at 1000°C, which is sufficiently porous for it to be used as a heat insulation material for continuous use at this temperature.

The first report: Report GC 2 is dealing with the long term properties. It has been included in the Technical Paper #17 in the Library, in addition to the previous report GC 1.

The second : Report GC 3 describes the properties of Beams and Columns. It is named Technical Paper #18 in the Library.

by Djwantoro Hardjito and B.Vijaya Rangan
Research Report GC 1 (103 pages) (dec. 2005)
Faculty of Engineering, Curtin University of Technology Perth, Australia

From 2001, we have conducted some important research on the development, manufacture, behaviour, and applications of Low-Calcium Fly Ash-Based Geopolymer Concrete. This concrete uses no Portland cement; instead, we use the low-calcium fly ash from a local coal burning power station as a source material to make the binder necessary to manufacture concrete. Concrete usage around the globe is second only to water. An important ingredient in the conventional concrete is the Portland cement. The production of one ton of cement emits approximately one ton of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Moreover, cement production is not only highly energy-intensive, next to steel and aluminium, but also consumes significant amount of natural resources. In order to meet infrastructure developments, the usage of concrete is on the increase. Do we build additional cement plants to meet this increase in demand for concrete, or find alternative binders to make concrete?

In this work, low-calcium (ASTM Class F) fly ash-based geopolymer is used as the binder, instead of Portland or other hydraulic cement paste, to produce concrete. The fly ash-based geopolymer paste binds the loose coarse aggregates, fine aggregates and other unreacted materials together to form the geopolymer concrete, with or without the presence of admixtures. The manufacture of geopolymer concrete is carried out using the usual concrete technology methods. As in the case of OPC concrete, the aggregates occupy about 75-80 % by mass, in geopolymer concrete. The silicon and the aluminium in the low-calcium (ASTM Class F) fly ash react with an alkaline liquid that is a combination of sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide solutions to form the geopolymer paste that binds the aggregates and other unreacted materials.

The title is:
State of the Art: Fly Ash-Based Geopolymer Concrete,
Construction Material for Sustainable Development

by Djwantoro Hardjito, Steenie E. Wallah, Dody M.J. Sumajouw, and B.Vijaya Rangan

Invited Paper, Concrete World: Engineering & Materials, American Concrete Institute, India Chapter, Mumbai, India, December 9-12, 2004.

Abstract:
Portland cement production is under critical review due to high amount of carbon dioxide gas released to the atmosphere. In recent years, attempts to increase the utilisation of fly ash to partially replace the use of Portland cement in concrete are gathering momentum. Most of this by-product material is currently dumped in landfills, thus creating a threat to the environment. Geopolymer concrete is a ‘new’ material that does not need the presence of Portland cement as a binder. Instead, the source of materials such as fly ash, that are rich in Silicon (Si) and Aluminium (Al), are activated by alkaline liquids to produce the binder. Hence, concrete with no cement. This paper presents the state-of-the-art information on fly ash-based geopolymer concrete. The paper covers the material and the mixture proportions, the manufacturing processes, the fresh and hardened state characteristics, the influence of various parameters on the fresh and hardened state concrete, the stress-strain behaviour, and the utilisation of the material in structural members.

http://www.chemeng.unimelb.edu.au/geopolymer/

email: V.Rangan (a) curtin.edu.au

Curtin University of Technology is conducting research on geopolymer concrete for the past three years. The research team comprises three Doctoral students, Messers Djwantoro Hardjito, Steenie Wallah, and Dody Sumajouw, technical staff lead by Mr Roy Lewis, Laboratory Manager, and Professor Rangan. The research program covers the mix design process, mechanical properties, long-term behaviour, resistance against chemical attack, and behaviour and strength of structural members made of geopolymer concrete. In the experimental program, fly ash from the local power plants is used as the source material to produce geopolymer concrete. Please contact Professor Rangan for the details of the research and copies of technical publications.

The international conference brings together industry, geopolymer experts, architects and venture capitalists to take geopolymers to the next stage – the full commercialisation of this exciting product.
The two day, highly informative and solutions oriented conference will comprise keynote speakers from companies that have already embraced the technology, panel discussions and interactive sessions.

Learn how geopolymers can add value to your industry. – Hear from international experts about their experiences. – Discover the inherent properties that place geopolymers at the forefront of construction products. – Understand the business case and identify the investment opportunities. – Gain the early advantage of embracing geopolymer technology.

Other areas in which opportunities exist for geopolymers include transportation, infrastructure, the nuclear power industry, fire-proof and refractory materials, and adhesives.
Researchers interested in learning about the global advances in the commercial development of geopolymerisation should also attend.
Parallel technical sessions to be held on the second day will allow delegates to select their own pathways through the conference.

Download the comprehensive program of the conference.

Buy online the Geopolymers 2002 Proceedings
at www.siloxo.com (ISBN 0-9750242-0-5)