Course director

All the courses will be directed by Professor Joseph Davidovits, the inventor and founder of Geopolymer.

Who should attend?

The courses are for professionals with a solid chemical background (engineer degrees, master degrees) or with equivalent long-term practice.
Some courses (Geopolymer for Newcomers, Geopolymer for Investors, …) are designed for professionals involved for a wide range of development in all applications including managers, finance specialists, R&D, marketing, business decision makers, technology and product development, …

Language is English ( langue française sur demande pour 2 participants ou plus ). Each course is designed for a maximum of 10 participants in order to encourage fruitful discussions between Prof. Joseph Davidovits and the students.

Courses Schedule for 2008-2009

We are providing below the list of the courses for the year 2008 (April-December) and 2009 (January-March).

Geopolymer Course # 1: Geopolymer for Newcomers (3 days)
April 01-03, May 13-15, August 05-08, September 02-04 (in French), October 22-24 (in French), December 09-11, February 10-12, March 10-12

Geopolymer Course # 2: Metakaolin based Geopolymer Ceramics (3 days)
April 08-10, October 21-24, Other dates on demand

Geopolymer Course # 3-4: Low-energy / Low-CO₂ Cement : Slag/rock/fly ash-based Geopolymer (4 days)
April 15-17, other dates on demand,

Geopolymer Course # 5: Quality Controls, Physical and Chemical Properties (3 days)
April 28-30, Other dates on demand

Geopolymer Course # 6: Low-Energy Geopolymer Technology applied to Ceramic Industry (3 days)
May 20-22, September 09-11,

Geopolymer Course # 7: Castable Geopolymer Compounds (molds, prototypes, artifacts) (2 days)
May 27-28, Other dates on demand

Geopolymer Course # 8: Fire Resistant Geopolymer Matrix Composites (2 days)
May 29-30, Other dates on demand 

Geopolymer Course # 9: Geopolymers in Toxic and Radioactive Waste Management (3 days)
June 03-05, September 23-25, Other dates on demand

Geopolymer Course # 10: Geopolymer for Investors (2 days)
May 06-07, Other dates on demand

All courses are organized in learning / teaching sessions that allow to attend several courses in a row. So, you can attend a series of course that belong to the same topics.

Click here for the entire Courses Program

Sessions for 2008-2009

Sessions A to C

Sessions D to F

Sessions G to I

Tuition per one participant:

It includes luncheons, breaks, book and course notes;
4-day course: 1950 Euros; group rate 1800 Euros (+ tax if any)
3-day course: 1650 Euros; group rate 1500 Euros (+ tax if any)
2-day course: 1150 Euros; group rate 1050 Euros (+ tax if any)

Course location

The courses are held at the Geopolymer Institute. Please read the following pages to prepare your stay: Access Map and Prepare your stay

Client Site. You can ask for a short course at your site and at your convenience. 2 persons from the Geopolymer Institute will come (likely Prof. J. Davidovits with another person). You will have to pay for travel expenses, lodging and the tuition for a min. of 4 enrollments. For further information, please contact us.

Text

Each participant will receive for the course the most updated version of the book GEOPOLYMER Chemistry and Applications by J. Davidovits, and additional Technical Papers.

Please, go to the next page for the registration form.

Registration form

Before filling in the registration form, find the date and the course’s title you want to attend, and note its reference on the sessions’ table above. It corresponds to the session and the topic of the course. So, if we change the date (e.g. from one or two days to group several courses in a row), we will not change the reference of the course.
Then, print it, fill it in, and fax or mail it. All information about the payments and general information can be found there.

We are open to any arrangements for groups, especially from overseas, who would like to participate to two or more courses in a row, for example Wednesday-Friday and Monday-Wednesday, with a free weekend time in Paris. Because we accept few participants, we are very flexible. Do not hesitate to contact us.

How to register ?

Download the registration form in PDF format.

First, download the registration form in PDF format to read all information about your tuition and methods of payment. Then, you can either fill in this form, or do it online with the form below.

All the courses will be directed by Professor Joseph Davidovits, the inventor and founder of Geopolymer. They are for professionals with a solid chemical background (engineer degrees, master degrees) or with equivalent long-term practice. Language is English (langue française sur demande pour 2 participants ou plus). Each course is designed for a maximum of 5 participants in order to encourage fruitful discussions between Prof. Joseph Davidovits and the students.

Tuition per one participant: includes luncheons, breaks, book and course notes; + VAT
3-day course: 1650 Euros; group rate 1500 Euros
2-day course: 1150 Euros; group rate 1050 Euros

Venue
Location the Geopolymer Institute place:
Access Map

The texts for the course included in the fee are the new book GEOPOLYMER Chemistry and Applications by J. Davidovits, and additional Technical Papers.

To get the list of the courses for the year 2008 (April-December) and registration details go to Courses Schedule

• Khon Kaen University, Sustainable Infrastructure Research and Development Center, (SIRDC),
• Thai Geopolymer Network
• Thai Concrete Association

and will be held on 24-25 May, 2006 at Sofitel Raja Hotel, Khon Kaen, Thailand.

The program on Geopolymer includes :

• Development of geopolymer
• Use of different stock feeds such as fly ash, claimed clay, rice husk ash
• Bridging the concrete gaps-advantages of geopolymer
• Early commercial products
• Sustainability, etc.

Download the program at the Internet site

The geopolymer LTGS brick is an ideal construction technology for emerging countries, because it offers many characteristics that fulfils the population demands.

This brick uses a very cheap material available in great quantity: lateritic clay earth. This special and abundant earth, mixed with a simple geopolymer binder is compressed to give the shape of a brick then heated in a furnace. Heated at 85°C, LTGS brick is water stable and has enough compressive strength to build a wall. Heated at 250°C, it resists to freezing. At 450°C, its strength increases more, so that it is possible to manufacture structural elements like beams for doors and windows. Compared to a traditional brick fired at 1000°C in a kiln, the LTGS brick needs about eight times less energy for an equivalent strength. Contrary to a traditional brickyard, it requires less equipment and is less expensive to produce. A traditional brickyard must have a certain size before being profitable, whereas LTGS brick can be produced by small brickyards in a village or a small city with less equipment and finance.

Get a natural fresh house

But beyond its strength identical to traditional brick, its lower manufacturing cost and its low energy consumption, a house built out of LTGS brick will be naturally air-conditioned and fresher. This “interior comfort” quality or “passive cooling”, alike pisé, rammed earth or other earth materials, is related to the essential physical and chemical characteristics of geopolymers for LTGS bricks. These geopolymers, which constitutes the matrix of the brick, have zeolitic properties, i.e. the property “to breathe”, to be in constant hygrometrical balance with the interior of a dwelling in order to be an excellent insulation material against heat. We know that, in hot and dry areas, the traditional earth material is providing a comfort much higher than modern insulating material used in industrialized northern countries. LTGS bricks absorb moisture. At night, they store condensation moisture from the surrounding air. During the day, they release this moisture, either inside the house if the relative humidity should be compensated, or outside. So there is evaporation, therefore a drop in the temperature of the material, therefore a cooling of the house and insulation against the heat!

This technology may be used by anyone

The LTGS brick technology was patented in France under the number 80 20386, filed on the 23 September 1980. It is now in the public domain, which means any person in the world can commercially exploit it without the agreement of the first owner, our company CORDI-Géopolymère. However, this system is not understandable by the lay man or the handy person who wants to build a wall in his garden, and unfortunately grocery stores are not selling the required materials! The person who wishes to manufacture LTGS bricks needs chemical and material science backgrounds because it requires some equipments and to develop – invent the right formula for each lateritic soil.

How to know more?

Download the technical paper #14 Geopolymeric Cross-Linking (LTGS) and Building Materials (70 KB) from the Geopolymer’88 Proceedings.

In the recently updated book Geopolymer Chemistry & Applications, the Low-Energy ceramic manufacture and low-tech LTGS bricks are thoroughly outlined in Chapter 23. Also, additional scientific papers can be downloaded at the Library.

Watch a video presentation of this technology

Prof. Joseph Davidovits presented at the Ceramics and Brotherhood Symposium, Verona, Italy, July 4th 2008, the manufacture of the LTGS bricks, an opportunity for small environment-friendly productions in construction materials, for Africa, Asia, America, Middle East and Oceania. The bricks are set at low temperature, low energy and low cost, but with first-class quality and strength.

Click here to download the free video in full lentgh, high quality.
22min 06s – 50 MB – 640×480 30fps – MPEG4 H.264 AVC format
Watch it with Quicktime, VLC, Mplayer, or any MPEG4 H.264 AVC player.

What do I need to implement this technology?

You will find in the above paper all the required information in order to develop the LTGS brick technology by yourself. You need to gather a team of expertise: a geologist to find the right lateritic soil, a material scientist to search for the right chemical material provider and to finalize the chemical formula, and a specialist in manufacturing fired clay bricks. They will find all information needed in the above paper.

In English:

After a concise presentation of the chemical principles governing the LTGS geopolymeric cross-linking with the main mineralogical components of soils, earths and clays, the authors present their experiments for a rational use of lateritic materials. Several tests were carried out with African soils of various origins but the standardization of the processes was made by using a material extracted in Provence, France.
The geopolymerisation techniques make it possible to obtain building materials meeting all the architectural needs: water stable bricks, hardened at room temperature, ceramic bricks with maximum heating from 85°C to 450°C (solar and simple wood fire), cement and hydraulic mortar from laterites, wall and floor coating, and roof.

En Français:

Après une présentation succincte des principes chimiques régissant la réticulation géopolymérique (LTGS) des principaux constituants minéralogiques des sols, terres et argiles, les auteurs, présentent leur expérience quant à l’utilisation rationnelle des matériaux de type latéritique. Les différents essais ont porté sur des terres africaines d’origine diverses mais la standardisation de plusieurs procédés a été faite en utilisant un matériau extrait en Provence, en France, sur le site d’Ollière.
Les techniques de géopolymérisation permettent d’obtenir des matériaux de construction couvrant tous les besoins architecturaux: briques stables à l’eau, durcies à température ambiante, briques céramiques par cuisson de 85°C à 450°C maximum (solaire et simple feu de bois), ciment et mortier hydraulique à partir de latérites, revêtements de sols et de mur, et toiture.

Click here to see how you can download paper number 14.

Other interesting publications on the same topic of aluminosilicate polymers

We recommand following recent papers published in 1996-1997 by a research group at Free University of Brussels (V.U.B.), Belgium. These papers confirm the presence of a polymeric structure for aluminosilicates of the geopolymeric type. These papers are excellent for there scientific content but do not deserve any further consideration for there lack of any reference to the scientific papers nor to the numerous issued patents published by Joseph Davidovits and listed in the CHEMICAL ABSTRACTS databank. One of the authors of these papers, Prof. J. WASTIELS, worked with geopolymeric binders supplied by the company Géopolymère (Pont-Ste Maxence, France) and also presented a paper at the First European Conference on Geopolymer, GEOPOLYMER ‘88, 1998, Université de Technologie, Compiègne, France, paper titled: “Composites with Mineral Matrix in Low Energy Construction”, by G. Patfoort and J. Wastiels, in GEOPOLYMER ‘88, J. Davidovits and J. Orlinski Eds.., Volume 2, Paper nr 16, pp. 215-221, 1988. The presentation abstract of this paper, Session D Nr27 (see in GEOPOLYMER ‘88, page 11) reads as follows: “On March 31, 1987, French President Francois Mitterand laid the foundation stone of the new University of Technology at Sevenans, France. This foundation stone was man-made, more precisely had been geopolymerised at 55°C, in our laboratories [at V.U.B.]. Our involvement with geopolymeric reactions goes back to 1982 when we started a collaboration with Prof. J. Davidovits and the Geopolymer Institute. A series of low cost composites for low energy construction are being developed at Vrije Universitet Brussels, starting from aluminosilicates. Geopolymerisation reaction can take place at atmospheric pressure and at low temperatures (between room temperature and 100°C), so that a low amount of energy is used for production. Applications are expected to be found in low cost housing, using locally available raw materials, and more generally in composite materials with geopolymeric matrix”.

• Rahier H., Van Mele B., Biesemans.M., Wastiels J. and Wu X., Low-temperature synthesized aluminosilicate glasses Part I, J. Material Sciences, 31 (1996) 71-79.
• Rahier H., Van Mele B., Wastiels J., Low-temperature synthesized aluminosilicate glasses Part II, J. Material Sciences, 31 (1996) 80-85.
• Rahier H., Simons W., Van Mele B., Biesemans.M., Low-temperature synthesized aluminosilicate glasses Part III, J. Material Sciences, 32 (1997) 2237-2247.

This brick uses a very cheap material available in great quantity: lateritic clay earth. This special and abundant earth, mixed with a simple geopolymer binder is compressed to give the shape of a brick then heated in a furnace. Heated at 85°C, LTGS brick is water stable and has enough compressive strength to build a wall. Heated at 250°C, it resists to freezing. At 450°C, its strength increases more, so that it is possible to manufacture structural elements like beams for doors and windows. Compared to a traditional brick fired at 1000°C in a kiln, the LTGS brick needs about eight times less energy for an equivalent strength. Contrary to a traditional brickyard, it requires less equipment and is less expensive to produce. A traditional brickyard must have a certain size before being profitable, whereas LTGS brick can be produced by small brickyards in a village or a small city with less equipment and finance.

For more information for LTGS Bricks on this web site