EDMONTON — Progressive Planet Solutions Inc., a Canadian company specializing in the commercialization of natural pozzolans to reduce the carbon footprint of cement production, recently announced it has inked a second collaborative research agreement with the University of Alberta.
The agreement will enable the company to complete the final testing on its cement blend, which it intends to produce to compete with fly ash as a substantially greener supplementary cementing material, a release reads.
In many countries, fly ash is generated as a byproduct of burning coal for electricity generation. Fly ash is used as a supplementary cementing material in blended cement mixes. The supply of fly ash is directly related to the amount of coal that is combusted in power plants which, in many parts of Canada and the world, are scheduled for decommissioning or are already being decommissioned.
In December 2019, Progressive Planet announced its first research agreement with the University of Alberta to undertake work to boost the rheology (slump) performance of the natural pozzolan from its Z-1 quarry so that it possessed similar rheology to commercially available fly ash.
According to the university’s research, the final rheology results of the Z-1/pulverized glass blend were superior to the rheology of the fly ash blend.
“Before launching our Natural Pozzolan Blend commercially, we need to assure ready mix and pre-cast concrete businesses that concrete which contains this Natural Pozzolan Blend can withstand the conditions which concrete must withstand in Canada,” said Progressive Planet in the media release.
This new agreement covers five tests: compressive strength, alkali-silica reaction, sulphate resistance, air void and freeze-thaw resistance.
“We were very pleased with the results achieved by Dr. Vivek Bindiganavile and his team of concrete experts on the first Collaborative Research Agreement,” said Steve Harpur, Progressive Planet CEO in a statement. “If we achieve successful results from these additional tests, we will have completed all the testing required to give the ready mix and pre-cast concrete industries confidence to use our Natural Pozzolan Blend. With a fully functional comminution plant in place to pulverize Natural Pozzolan from the Z-1 Quarry and to pulverize post-consumer glass, we intend to introduce this product during the 2021 construction season.”
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