2021 is the first year of China's "double carbon" development, and it is also the year of China's low-carbon concrete. On October 26, 2021, the State Council issued the Carbon Peak Action Plan by 2030 (hereinafter referred to as the Action Plan). In the chapter of "Promoting Carbon Peaking in the Building Materials Industry" of the Action Plan, the goal of "strengthening the research and development and application of low-carbon building materials such as new cementitious materials, low-carbon concrete, and wood and bamboo building materials" appears conspicuously. The concept of "low-carbon concrete" first appeared in a blockbuster document issued by the State Council. This means that "low-carbon concrete" will become an important engine and promoter of the building materials industry in the historic process of national "double carbon" promotion, carrying and pinning expectations and hopes for the low-carbon development of the whole society.
Concrete is one of the core basic materials for the construction of a large country, and it is also the largest building material in the world so far, and it is the most widely used and largest man-made material in the national economy and people's livelihood. Concrete has a profound and lasting impact on the global human and natural environment, and most of the buildings and structures in modern society are constructed of concrete, buildings, roads, high-speed railways, subways, bridges, pipelines, airports... According to the structural volume calculation, more than 80% of the materials are composed of concrete, no modern life can go out of the range of concrete, concrete has been macroscopic and detailed, deeply affecting everyone. China is the country with the largest production and consumption of concrete in the world, and the industries closely related to concrete, such as China cement, China sand and gravel aggregates, China admixtures, China mineral blending materials and China concrete machinery and equipment, rank first in the world.
According to incomplete statistics, the current sales of precast concrete and ready-mixed concrete in the mainland account for about 20% of the building materials industry, and in 2020, the annual sales of the concrete and cement products industry in the mainland are 179 million yuan, becoming the largest industry in China's building materials industry. In recent years, the mainland concrete and cement products industry has converted more than 2.2 billion tons of cement and 12 billion tons of sand and gravel (natural sand, mechanical sand) and nearly 2 billion tons of industrial solid waste into safe, high-quality and durable cement products and ready-mixed concrete every year. So far, the scale and production capacity of pipe piles, cement pipes, concrete prefabricated components, ready-mixed concrete, decorative concrete, electric poles, calcium silicate plates and other industries in China's concrete and cement products industry have ranked first in the world.
The performance of concrete in high-speed rail construction, large water conservancy, and super high-rise buildings is particularly eye-catching. The mainland currently has 37,900 kilometers of high-speed railways, overlooking the golden passages all over the land of China, and we can proudly say that every inch of the high-speed railway foundation is the crystallization of high-performance concrete. Concrete is an essential element of modern capital construction, and no other material compares to its toughness, strength, economy and wide availability. For a foreseeable period of time, concrete will still be the main building material that is difficult to replace in human civilized society. Concerned about the quality and longevity of all concrete projects, the importance of the concrete industry goes without saying. In the more than 40 years of China's reform and opening up, infrastructure construction is in the largest construction period in history, as an infrastructure power, concrete is the most backbone and most basic factor for building the body of the "infrastructure demon".
For decades, in order to live in harmony with the environment and for sustainable development, the concrete industry has stood on the following road signs on the route: environmental protection, resource conservation, energy conservation, comprehensive waste, cleaner production, green building materials, high-performance and high-quality concrete... Today, the concrete industry has encountered a huge historical opportunity for low-carbon development, which is a once-in-a-lifetime industrial upgrade. The development goal of "low-carbon concrete" highlights the great industrial value and historical mission of the concrete industry.
The importance of developing "low-carbon concrete"
The most important global issue at present is the fight against climate change, which is related to the survival of our entire world. The "carbon peak" and "carbon neutrality" or "double carbon" strategy is a global strategy, a common action of mankind to cope with the earth's increasingly imminent life-and-death crisis. We must fully understand the importance of developing "low-carbon concrete", and raise the understanding of the importance and urgency of developing "low-carbon concrete" to the height of the global human living environment.
Rise to the challenge
Carbon has become a new focus of human society. The Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on The Complete, Accurate and Comprehensive Implementation of the New Development Concept to Achieve Carbon Neutrality and Carbon Neutrality and the Action Plan for Carbon Peaking before 2030 have defined a roadmap for the "carbon reduction" of the whole society, and China will achieve the sustainable development of the Chinese nation by reshaping the energy structure, transforming production methods and lifestyles.
According to authoritative information, the engineering construction industry accounts for more than 40% of global carbon emissions, of which the consumption of building materials for resources, energy and their carbon emissions in the whole life cycle are particularly prominent. In the industrial sector, in addition to the coal power and steel industries, the largest co₂ emissions in the production process are in the cement industry. According to the data, the mainland is the world's largest cement country, ranking first in the world in cement production for 35 consecutive years, and the annual output has reached more than 2.2 billion tons for several consecutive years. In the industrial chain, concrete is the closest industry to cement, and almost all the production capacity of cement needs concrete and cement products to be undertaken and converted into products or parts. As the most important downstream industry of cement, concrete is the most important carrier of cement's high carbon footprint.
Statistics show that in 2020 alone, the carbon emissions of the mainland building materials industry reached 1.48 billion tons. It is well known that the production of one ton of cement emits nearly a ton of CO₂, including the burning of coal and the decomposition of limestone. On this issue, Mr. Wu Zhongwei, a titan in China's concrete industry, has been worried about the amount of CO₂ emissions in the fast-growing mainland cement industry more than 20 years ago. Mr. Wu Zhongwei said that the mainland is a big cement country, the production process was relatively backward at that time, but the output was increasing rapidly, and the problems of consuming resources and energy consumption and emitting CO₂ became more and more prominent. Why Mr. Wu Zhongwei wants to emphasize this issue, this is not a problem of the industry, not a problem of technology, but a problem related to the sustainable development of mainland infrastructure, and even related to the living environment of human beings. As an important part of the building materials industry, the concrete industry is imperative to seek reasonable and effective "carbon reduction and carbon reduction" measures. Cultivating and actively promoting the development of "low-carbon concrete" has opened up a new competitive track for decarbonizing the cement and even building materials industry, which is of great significance to achieving the mainland's "double carbon" goal.
Defuse the enormous pressure
As of August 2021, 134 countries and regions have proposed carbon neutrality targets internationally, of which Suriname and Bhutan, two countries with low industrial carbon emissions and high forest cover, have achieved carbon neutrality targets. The Nordic countries of Finland plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035, Austria and Iceland plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040, and Sweden and Germany plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. More and more countries are proposing or committing to carbon neutrality targets in the form of legislation, legal proposals, policy documents, etc. According to data released by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, global greenhouse gas emissions reached 52.4 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent in 2019. As the world's largest developing country, China's greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 reached 14 billion tons of CO₂ equivalent, accounting for about 27% of the world's total emissions, and China's annual emissions exceeded the sum of all developed countries such as the United States, Japan and Europe for the first time.
China is the largest carbon emitter and will also be the country with the most significant decline in global carbon emission intensity. At present, China already has a clear overall "double carbon" target. China's "double carbon" target can be divided into four stages: 2020 to 2030 as the peak period, 2030 to 2035 as the platform period, 2035 to 2050 as the decline period, and 2050 to 2060 as the neutralization period. From carbon peaking to carbon neutrality, it took 60 years for the European Union, 45 years for the United States, and 30 years for China to strive for, and it is foreseeable that China will need to make earth-shattering efforts in the future. Only by establishing a carbon emission reduction path for the whole industrial chain and the whole life cycle can China achieve the carbon peak target as scheduled or as soon as possible, and then achieve carbon neutrality more smoothly.
Seize the low-carbon highlands
The "double carbon" goal, which is closely related to every industrial enterprise, will inevitably trigger a competition for a new highland for the future. In today's society, whoever masters the more sophisticated means of carbon reduction and who achieves carbon neutrality earlier can establish a more responsible industrial image, greater industry influence and broader international competitiveness, while also demonstrating stronger technical strength. Looking globally, promoting the low-carbon development of the industry has become a positive action and practice in the concrete and cement industry in many countries.
On October 12, 2021, the Portland Cement Association released a "Carbon Neutrality" roadmap that outlines a net zero plan for the entire U.S. cement and concrete value chain by 2050. The five links in the value chain include "clinker production, cement manufacturing and transportation, concrete production, construction of the built environment, carbon removal". Low-Carbon Planning for Cement and Concrete in the United States: Recently replacing raw materials with recycled materials to produce low-carbon cement and low-carbon concrete, optimized design to achieve the lowest life-cycle emissions. Increase the use of alternative clinker in the medium term and use renewable energy. Long-term carbon capture, research and development of new cement and concrete.
The UK cement and concrete industry's "Ultra-net Zero Emission Roadmap" shows that concrete decarbonization absorbs 12% of CO₂ in the environment; through concrete heat storage and energy storage, avoiding heating and cooling should save 14% of electricity consumption, which is equivalent to 44% of CO₂ emissions in the cement concrete industry.
The cement industry roadmap drawn by the European Cement Association proposes a "5C approach to one industry chain" to help achieve the goal of "carbon neutrality". The meaning of "5C" is as follows.
Clinker-Cement-Concrete-Construction-Carbonation
The european cement association set a target: from 783 kg of CO₂/t cement in 1990 to 472 kg of CO₂/t cement (including downstream industrial concrete) by 2030. The target is to reduce CO₂ emissions by 40% by 2030 and CO₂ by 80% by 2050. Measures taken include: decarbonized raw materials, alternative fuels, reduced thermal efficiency, low-carbon clinker, clinker substitution in concrete, electric efficiency and renewable electricity, CO₂ capture in concrete building environments where concrete mixtures are in service, etc., and hydrated cement used for concrete or mortar naturally absorbs CO₂ during its useful life, thereby removing carbon from the atmosphere.
The "Net Zero Concrete Roadmap" proposed by the International Cement and Concrete Association is as follows:
Note: The article is the first part of the "14th Five-Year Plan" call and expectation for "low-carbon concrete", we will continue to launch the novella and the next film, please stay tuned.