Cement production is responsible for 6-8% of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. Researchers are looking for alternative building materials that could reduce it. One of them is Dr Piotr Prochoń from the Warsaw University of Technology (PW), who is analysing the possibility of using biomass ashes and testing their potential for use in the production of construction binders.

The PW researcher dealt with biomass ash as part of his double doctorate. He obtained his degree at the Warsaw University of Technology and at L’Université De Liège in Belgium, where he completed three years of doctoral studies.

“I am involved in structural engineering, or construction in general. I am interested in mineral adhesives that can be used to produce building materials including prefabricated products. In my research I focus on alternative materials, based on waste or recycled products,” says Dr Piotr Prochoń.

So far, biomass ash, i.e. ash obtained from the combustion of agricultural or forestry waste, has been used primarily in agriculture as a soil fertiliser. A scientist from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Warsaw University of Technology is keen to test the potential for their use in the production of construction adhesives.

‘I would like to check whether biomass ash can be used as a base material for alternative adhesives, or whether mixing biomass ash with conventional ash will produce a new, ecological material with improved physical and mechanical properties’ explains Dr Piotr Prochoń.

In the construction industry, biomass ash would be suitable as an ingredient in fast-setting mortars and masonry mortar to produce prefabricated elements or shielding against electromagnetic radiation in data stores.

The second area of application is medical. Shielding mortars made from biomass ash could be used in radiotherapy and X-ray tomography rooms.

Adrian Andrzejewski