Mitigation development for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by the cement industry: Agrowaste-based green building and construction materials

The cement industry is known for its enormous environmental footprint on the earth. Existing cement processing methods need to be transformed in order to meet climate goals. The development of new materials, deliberately designed to reduce environmental impacts, can be accomplished through the replacement of dwindling raw materials with suitable waste products. This research explores agrowaste materials that have pozzolanic properties and can be used to replace a proportion of pure cement in a cement-based mixture. Agrowaste, such as those from palm oil and olive oil industries, are a renewable resource that have been found to be effective as supplemental cementitious materials in the production of a green engineered cementitious composite (Green-ECC) and high-strength concrete with the desired physical and chemical properties. These green building and construction materials provide the additional benefits of recycling waste that would otherwise be destined for landfill, while reducing energy consumption for cement production. Since the production of one tonne of cement results in the release of approximately one tonne of CO₂ into the atmosphere, every tonne of pozzolan effectively saves a tonne of pure cement, which will result in a significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.