hydrates such as brushite,
CaHPO4.2H2O,
which results from the
reaction of phosphor-
ic acid, and wollastonite, CaSiO3. On the
other hand, aluminum
phosphate
cements
and binders are genuine geopolymers, with
high-macromolecular
networks.
T.D. It seems that none of the potential applications has advanced beyond
the development stage (correct me if I am wrong), but the durability attributes of geopolymers make them attractive for use in high-cost, severeenvironment applications such as bridges. Can you name a few industries
that are actively producing geopolymers for construction?
Dr. Davidovits
Yes, there are several.
Most of them needed
several years in R&D
before being ready for
commercialization and
industrialization. This is
typical for any development of new materials.
For example, one million
geopolymer pavement
bricks (roughly 3,000
tons) were manufactured in 2012 in India
under the supervision of
Dr. Sanjay Kumar from
the Council of Scientific
& Industrial Research,
Jamshedpur, India. I
met with Dr. Kumar in
2005. The development
involved major companies such as Tata Steel.
They are planning to
have 10 commercial
installations in India
in the coming 5 years.
An Australian company ROCLA, one of the
pioneers in geopolymer
precast concrete for
commercial production,
claimed in Dec. 2011
58
to have achieved “the
‘world first’ production
run of geopolymer concrete”. It was undertaken in Canberra, involving
the production of 3,000
components, totaling
2,500 tons. I had visited ROCLA in 1999.
In 2011, in Germany,
France and the UK, the
global chemical company BASF launched a
geopolymer joint grout
named PCI-Geofug®.
Another Australian com-