Sustainable production

Sustainability and climate neutrality are some essential challenges politics and the construction industry must face today. Materials and construction systems need to develop in order to achieve the set climate targets. Not only the construction process as such but also the lifecycle of residential buildings and the industrial manufacturing process require new solutions.

#greenfab: sustainably lowering CO₂ emissions, reducing costs

Sustainably reducing CO₂ emissions in the precast concrete factory while at the same time lowering the costs for raw materials and energy is the most important lever here. Vollert Precast Solutions has developed the #greenfab seal as a special offer to live up to these challenges. It covers everything from new, energy-efficient concrete curing methods to innovations in machine technology and application of carbon-reinforced concrete for material savings or alternatives in energy provision and reduction.

Precast construction

Industrial process-safe pre-production of precast concrete parts clearly lowers consumption of resources and materials. This permits essential reduction of the actual CO2 emissions as compared to in-situ concrete, while also lowering reject materials.

Concrete formulation

Optimising the concrete formulation (mix design) frequently helps in reducing CO2 emissions. Factors such as the required concrete quality or present additives are decisive for this. We perform a preliminary examination of the concrete formulation to develop specific optimisation suggestions.

Carbon reinforcement

Using carbon as reinforcement material instead of steel has many advantages. It is non-corrosive, can be formed freely and recycled. Concrete coverage is not necessary, saving cement due to flatter precast concrete parts. Carbon reinforcements can also be applied retroactively for strengthening.

Manufacturing process

Modern compaction stations stand out with their optimal results since they transfer a greater amount of energy into the precast concrete part. The cement share is clearly reduced at an unchanged water/cement ratio. CAD/CAM-controlled concrete distributors apply just the required amount of concrete to each position, preventing excessive use of material on the moulding pallet.

Concrete recycling

The excessive, uncured concrete is processed immediately in fresh concrete recycling. The aggregate is separated from the cement glue and added to the fresh concrete. In solid concrete recycling, cured concrete is crushed, separated from rock and reinforcement, and then added to fresh concrete again. Both methods reduce the cement share.

Re-use of precast concrete parts

Re-use of precast concrete parts is another interesting approach for reducing CO2 emissions. Walls, ceilings, or curtain facades can be removed and reassembled with special connectors for this.

Curing process

Controlled curing using real-data measurement and considering the concrete formulation and/or temperature clearly reduces energy consumption. Lift-off readiness is constantly calculated here to find the earliest possible moment for it, and the cycle time is increased.

Circulation principle

The detailed project planning phase ensures a realistic look and pre-design of the required energy demand for plant technology, saving unnecessary costs when selecting the connection power.

Energy-related self-sufficiency

“Green production” relies on self-sufficiency in terms of energy. Consumers are using locally available fuels and power sources, which renders them independent of external energy supply. This may use photovoltaic plants or geothermal energy.

Energy recovery

Re-injection of the kinetic energy into the mains, energy-optimised traveling movements, and storage of kinetic energy in buffers will contribute to energy savings. Possible applications include lifting gears and travelling drives.

Carbonisation

Concrete re-absorbs a great amount of CO2 during its service life. This is also referred to as carbonisation. This natural process can be accelerated by injecting CO2 in concrete production.

Further approaches for binding CO₂

CO2 can be bound by reducing the limestone share, e.g., by using magnesium carbonate. Composite materials such as wood concrete are interesting options here as well, as are re-wetting projects of bogs.