The Fehmarnbelt tunnel project will be conducting trial casting
The first civil engineering project to test the use of CO2-reduced concrete in the building of future megaprojects is the Fehmarnbelt tunnel project located in Germany. At the tunnel building site at Rødbyhavn, a specifically designated area is being used for trial casting of a brand-new concrete type by the contractor Femern Link Contractors, FLC.
Aalborg Portland, the Technological Institute, several universities, concrete suppliers, public and private developers, and Femern A/S which is the developer of the Fehmarnbelt tunnel project, are all involved in the trial casting as part of CALLISTE, a larger collaboration on the concrete of the future.
“We have strict requirements as regards strength and durability for the construction of mega projects, such as the Fehmarnbelt tunnel, and this is of particular relevance when building in the marine environment. We’re also firmly focused on reducing the CO2 footprint from our construction project through new technologies and we want to give additional impetus to the development of concrete of the future,” said Deputy Technical Director at the Fehmarnbelt project Kim Smedegaard Andersen.
Futurecem, a cement type created by Aalborg Portland, can cut the CO2 footprint of producing concrete by 25 percent when compared to standard concrete. This is accomplished by adding specially prepared clay and limestone to the cement to partially replace the clinker component. The goal of the CALLISTE partnership is to advance this technology through applied research. The partnership’s goal is to reduce the amount of cement required in concrete by half while preserving its high strength and longevity.
This cement-containing concrete variety, in which a unique blend of clay and limestone replaces around half of the cement clinker, is being tried for the first time with the Fehmarnbelt tunnel project‘s trial casting. Compared to the cement kinds typically used in Denmark, this drastically lowers the CO2 footprint, according to Pernille Nyegaard who is the Center Project Manager at the Technological Institute.
“This is the first time for us to cast with the new type of concrete on this scale, which means that we can investigate the concrete’s durability. The trial is important to demonstrate how the concrete performs in a real traffic environment with frost and salting,” said Nyegaard.
Future construction projects, where the manufacturing of concrete has a substantial impact on CO2 accounting, may be able to employ the new concrete with a lower carbon footprint if the CALLISTE initiative produces the anticipated results.
“As a state-owned company, we bear a special responsibility to contribute to a greener construction industry and develop new solutions that reduce the CO2 footprint. We look forward to sharing the results of the CALLISTE project with our partners and contractors,” said Andersen.