Under the background of "dual carbon", concrete can achieve net zero emissions, mainly by increasing clinker substitutes, reducing fossil fuels and increasing the use of alternative fuels, increasing investment in technological innovation, and accelerating the development of carbon capture, use and storage. This can be achieved through infrastructure development, improving the design and use efficiency of concrete during construction, and establishing specific policy frameworks to achieve net zero goals.

What role does the concrete admixture play in this process? Focusing on this topic, the executive vice president of Leizhi Group and the general manager of MSW Group have recently accepted Interviewed by our reporter.

In recent years, in order to help concrete achieve net zero emissions, the company has carried out many innovations in the field of concrete admixtures. Among them, the reaction temperature of polycarboxylate superplasticizer in the synthetic production process is much lower than that of the second-generation water reducer - naphthalene series, which greatly reduces carbon emissions. According to the company's production statistics, for the production of 1 ton of naphthalene mother liquor (38% solid content), the energy consumption is equivalent to 41 kilograms of standard coal, while the production of 1 ton of conventional carboxylic acid water-reducing mother liquor is equivalent to 8.4 kilograms of standard coal. After the company improved the carboxylic acid process last year, the energy consumption per ton of new mother liquor is equivalent to 2.5 kilograms of standard coal. The technological innovation of MSW not only improves the performance and efficacy of polycarboxylate superplasticizer, but also continuously improves and optimizes the energy consumption index.

For so many years, the company has been vigorously promoting the advancement of admixture technology, and its products have gradually switched from naphthalene-based and aliphatic water-reducers to polycarboxylate water-reducers. In the company's product sales composition, the proportion of polycarboxylate water-reducers has already up to 80%. The current high-energy-consuming naphthalene-based and aliphatic water-reducers have been largely replaced by energy-saving and environmentally friendly polycarboxylate water-reducers, which has effectively promoted the realization of the net zero emission goal of the admixture industry itself. The high water-reducing rate of polycarboxylate water-reducing agent itself helps the concrete industry to greatly reduce the amount of unilateral cement and achieve the goal of carbon reduction. In 2021 alone, MSW superplasticizer was applied to over 100 million cubic meters of concrete, saving 7.5 million tons of cement for the industry and reducing 6.38 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

It is understood that the current cumulative stockpiles of bulk solid waste are about 60 billion tons, and the annual new stockpiles are nearly 3 billion tons. In order to achieve the goal of concrete to eliminate solid waste, the admixture industry has also carried out a lot of work in recent years. Concrete uses solid waste recycled products, such as replacing part of sand and gravel aggregates with waste concrete recycled aggregates, and modifying waste stone powder for composite admixtures to replace part of cement. These measures are very helpful for the concrete industry to reduce carbon emissions of.

"The concrete industry uses waste slag to make recycled materials, and it is inseparable from special supporting admixtures to ensure that its performance meets the requirements. MSW has always insisted on focusing on the new needs of the industry, conducting targeted development and research, and realizing 'double carbon' for the concrete industry The goal is to add bricks and tiles. The company has established as many as 18 solid waste-related research projects over the years, edited or participated in the compilation of 7 related standards, and applied for 16 related patents, contributing to the process of concrete eliminating solid waste.

Affected by the epidemic and real estate policy adjustments in recent years, the concrete industry has also been greatly affected. The overall overcapacity of the concrete industry has also directly affected the admixture industry. The concentration of the admixture industry is quite low. This makes vicious low-price competition in the industry and the phenomenon of accounts receivable more prominent. "Speaking of the current problems faced by the admixture industry, if an industry faces a state of no profit or even negative profit, it will be very detrimental to the healthy development of the industry itself. In addition, the raw materials such as sand and gravel and cement used in the concrete industry are Quality, due to the increasing scarcity of resources, there is a tendency to deteriorate, which puts forward higher requirements on the performance of the admixture.

"Despite these difficulties and challenges, as a professional admixture worker, MSW still chooses to face them bravely. Adhering to the concept of technological innovation and technological innovation, through continuous investment and innovation in scientific research, it solves the problem of technological upgrading of products and continuously satisfies customers. Continuously changing needs. For example, strengthen the research on the relationship between structural parameters and application performance, conduct research on the adsorption-dispersion-hydration mechanism of multi-phase systems, innovate molecular structure design and optimize the process, develop serialized functional products, and Technological improvement and optimization of compatibility performance. Through the selection of various special functional monomers, through free radical polymerization, the functional groups are modified and protected, and functional concrete additives such as slump retention, viscosity reduction, shrinkage reduction, early strength, and low sensitivity are developed. admixtures to meet the technical requirements of concrete admixtures in harsh environments and special environments.”

When it comes to the future development of the industry, MSW believes that the first is to improve the production technical specifications of the industry. For example, enterprises should enter the chemical industry park for production, invest more special funds to implement environmental protection treatment, automated production lines, and intelligent production systems. Raw material measurement, synthesis process, Intelligent management of the whole production process, such as waste treatment, makes the production process clean, and at the same time improves the level of production automation and intelligence. The second is to cooperate with upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain, optimize resource allocation, and innovate collaboratively from the raw material production end to the product application end, breaking international technical barriers, and realizing the true technical "freedom" of China's concrete superplasticizer industry. The third is to give full play to the role of industry associations, and through industry associations to issue necessary industry standards and norms, improve the industry's technical level and self-discipline in operation, and form a good atmosphere of positive and orderly competition in the entire industry.