Story at a glance:
- Combining Portland Limestone Cement with in-transit concrete management enhances performance and sustainability.
- Type IL cement performs like standard cement but reduces the CO2 emitted by approximately 10%.
- VERIFI helps control the inconsistencies of concrete containing Type IL cement from the plant to the jobsite.
Reducing CO2 is a critical endeavor for the concrete industry. As cement accounts for 8% of global man-made CO2 emissions, producers are under a microscope to change the way they produce cement and develop new approaches that are more sustainable through the entire cycle of concrete production. From plant to jobsite, sustainable concrete is top of minds, seeking new ways to lessen the carbon footprint.
One solution is to combine Portland Limestone Cement (PLC), also known as Type IL cement, with GCP’s VERIFI® in-transit concrete management system.
Type IL Cement Benefits
Type IL cement is similar to standard Type I/II cement, but it is permitted to contain 5 to 15% more limestone. It performs like standard cement with the additional benefits of reducing the CO2 emitted by approximately 10%¬—and potentially improving the durability of the concrete.
Type IL cement is allowed to be utilized as a 1:1 replacement of Portland Cement and can be combined with other supplementary cementitious materials like fly ash and slag.
Due to supply chain issues and an increasing push to become more sustainable, IL cement has become more popular than ever. Even though Type IL cement has been permitted in standards and used to make concrete for more than 50 years.
Type IL Cement Challenges
Type IL cement is more temperamental, requiring ready-mix producers to have tighter control over the amount of water added to the concrete and the number and speed of drum revolutions in transit.
Because it is sometimes ground finer, there can be an increase to the concrete’s water demand as well as a decrease in strength and set times. In order to sustain the desired performance of concrete containing IL cement a greater degree of control is required.
The Solution
The VERIFI in-transit concrete management system helps control the inconsistencies of concrete containing Type IL cement from the plant to the jobsite. The system is the first technology to address inefficiencies in the concrete delivery process by actively managing concrete from batch plant to jobsite.
VERIFI leverages data from 10 years of continuous research and development, from more than 20 truck types and hundreds of types of concrete to collect more than 90 billion rheological data points.
The system uses sensors installed on ready-mix trucks to collect real-time data to monitor, measure, and manage concrete properties while the concrete is in transit to the jobsite. The data is transmitted from on-board computers that communicate with the cloud every 15 seconds—making the data accessible on phones, tablets, and laptops.
Automation Management Equals Consistent Concrete
One of the most difficult aspects of concrete production is producing concrete consistently from load to load. Achieving consistency across loads is particularly vexing with IL cement, as minor changes in material properties, like aggregate moistures, can have significantly more impact. VERIFI helps producers both achieve greater consistency across loads and helps optimize mixes. The system’s batch screen very quickly alerts producers to potential changes in materials going into the concrete on a load-to-load basis. It can then automatically increase the slump while the concrete is en route to the jobsite, adding water and/or admixtures as needed and instructed to deliver the concrete within spec.
Reduce Waste
The VERIFI system provides never before available data on fresh concrete throughout the delivery cycle that can be shared within the producers’ organization and across the supply chain to identify these as well as other opportunities to improve efficiency. The overall impact of addressing this waste with the VERIFI system is a smaller carbon footprint.
A Perfect Match for Mother Earth
When IL cement is paired with the VERIFI in-transit concrete management system the sustainability and performance benefits are dramatically enhanced. VERIFI helps reduce the variability of IL and also adds another level of improving a producer’s efficiency and reducing material waste.
