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Geopolymer cement
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Geopolymer cement
Posted by: Editor updated on Dec 30, 2013 | No Comments
There is often confusion between the meaning of the terms cement and concrete. A cement is a binder
whereas concrete is the composite material resulting from the addition of cement to stone aggregates. Cement
is sold to companies that make concrete.
Geopolymer cement is often mixed up with alkali-activated slag developed since 1956 in Eastern Europe by
G.V. Glukhovsky. Alkali-activation, which is generally performed with corrosive chemicals (see below
User-friendly), is used for the making of concretes exclusively. The alkali-activated materials are not
manufactured separately and not sold to third parties as commercial cements. On the opposite, geopolymer
technology was from the start aimed at manufacturing binders and cements for various types of applications.
For detailed information on Fly Ash based Geopolymer Cements and Concretes see the recently updated
book Geopolymer Chemistry & Applications, Chapters 12, 24 and 25, as well as the results of the European
Research project GEOASH in the next section. You may also go to the Geopolymer Library and download
several papers, for example #21 Geopolymer cement review 2013.
In this section we are developing:
a) Pyrament cement developed in the 1980-1990 at Lone Star Industries, USA, see below;
b) The User-friendly geopolymer cement concept, see next page.
At the Geopolymer Camp 2009 at Saint-Quentin, France, Prof. Joseph Davidovits presented a keynote on
Practical Problems on Mass Produced Geopolymer Cement. What are the key issues and what are the dead
ends? What to do to make a cement that reduces the CO2 emission by 60 up to 80%?
Mass Production of Geopolymer Cement

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J. Davidovits Keynotes at Geopolymer Camp 2010, 2011 and 2012 contain additional information. Go to
Keynotes GPCamp

Geopolymer cement Pyrament

In 1991, the world was impressed on how fast the US Air Force managed to build and equip temporary
military airports in the wilderness of Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. One of the reasons for this efficiency
might result from the application by the US Air Force Engineering of a very new rapid high strength and high
performance cement, the Pyrament. Sources: US Air Force Command report and Pyrament brochure.

The American Cement Company, Lone Star Industries, introduced this exceptional cement in 1988. It was
the result of an unique collaboration that started in 1983 between the Lone Star Industries Research Center in
Houston, Texas, and the Geopolymer Institute. Geopolymer chemistry, in particular the Poly(sialate-siloxo)
based system, improves the properties of Portland cement and regular concrete. In the recently updated book
Geopolymer Chemistry & Applications several chapters are dedicated to geopolymer , metakaolin-based,
rock-based and fly ash-based cements and concretes, see in Chapters 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 24 and 25. You may
also go to the Geopolymer Library and download several papers.
The Pyrament blended-cement is the ideal material for repairing runways made of concrete, industrial
pavements, and highway roads. In the case of a runway, a 4-6 hours hardening is enough to allow the landing
of an Airbus or a Boeing. The geopolymeric cement reaches a compression strength of 20 Mpa after 4 hours,
whereas plain concrete gets to this strength after several days.

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The Pyrament blended cement was recognized in the construction industry for its ability to gain very high
early strength quite rapidly. As of fall 1993, Pyrament concrete was listed for over 50 industrial facilities in
the USA, 57 military installations in the USA, and 7 in other countries, and for nonmilitary airports. In 1994
the US Army Corps of Engineers released a well documented study on the properties of PYRAMENT
Blended Cements based concretes, which are performing better than had ever been expected for high-quality
concretes (Performance of Concretes Proportioned with Pyrament Blended Cement, by Tony B. Husbands,
Philip. G. Malone, Lilian D. Wakeley, US Army Corps of Engineers, Final Report CPAR-SL-94-2, April
1994).
If we compare in a microscope the structure of mortar made of regular cement with another sample made of
geopolymer, we notice that the regular cement is a coarse stacking of grains of matter. This causes cracks and
weaknesses. On the opposite, geopolymer cement (in black) is smooth and homogeneous. This provides, in
fact, superior assets.

Plain concrete (left) / Geopolymer concrete (right)

In 1996, Lone Star Industries definitively stopped marketing Pyrament, not for technical reason, rather
because Lone Star has been faced with a severe financial and corporate crisis, which had nothing to do with
the development of the innovative Pyrament business.

User-friendly geopolymer cements

Although geopolymerization does not rely on toxic organic solvents but only on water, it needs chemical
ingredients that may be dangerous and therefore requires some safety procedures. Material Safety rules
classify the alkaline products in two categories:
corrosive products
irritant products
The two classes are recognizable through their respective logos displayed below.

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The Table lists some alkaline chemicals and their corresponding safety label. The corrosive products must be
handled with gloves, glasses and masks. They are User-hostile and cannot be implemented in mass
applications without the appropriate safety procedures. In the second category one finds Portland cement or
hydrated lime, typical mass products. Geopolymeric mixes belonging to this class may also be termed as
User-friendly.

When we started the research on geopolymer cements, we decided to select alkaline conditions that are
User-friendly. (Na,K,Ca)-Poly(sialate-siloxo) and K-Poly(sialate) products (resins, binders and cements) have
starting molar ratio SiO2:M2O ranging from 1.45 to 1.85. Unfortunately, this is not followed by other
scientists and technicians involved in the development of so-called alkali-activated-cements, especially those
based on fly ashes, with molar ratio in average below 1.0. Looking only at low-costs consideration, not at
safety and User-friendly issues, they propose systems based on pure NaOH (8M or 12M). For example in a
State of the Art on alkali-activated fly-ash cements, wrongly named geopolymer technology, published in
2007, several scientists claimed that the pure NaOH system should be considered as the reference for
fly-ash-based cements (see: Duxson P., Fernandez-Jimenez A., Provis J.L., Lukey G.C., Palomo A. and van
Deventer J.S.J., Geopolymer technology: the current state of the art, J. Mater. Sci., 42, 2917-2933, 2007).
These are User-hostile conditions for the ordinary labor force employed in the field.
Finally, companies refuse to support the liability and pay high insurance fees based on such out-of-date
processes. Indeed, laws, regulations, and state directives push to enforce for more health protections and
security protocols for workers safety. Further details on fly-ash-based geopolymer cement in the page
GEOASH, a project aimed to develop a real industrial process driven by these constraints.
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