As the global industry leader, we are keen to be at the forefront of innovation and proactively address-ing the megatrends to enable faster processes, broader application for aggregates, lower cost and less energy consumption.
CEMENTIUM®
An intelligent cement additive to reduce CO2 emission
Cement is the ubiquitous construction material, and its eco-balance is superior to materials like steel. However, production of one ton of cement will also produce more than 0.8 ton of the greenhouse gas CO2.
With Asia accounting for half of the world’s cement production, BASF's Construction Chemicals leveraged its development center in Shanghai and designed an innovative cement additive CEMENTIUM®, which allows cement producers to reduce gas emissions significantly through the following effective approaches.
Firstly, energy can be saved during the grinding process by minimizing agglomeration.
More significantly, the cement manufacturer is also enabled to utilize ecologically sound materials to substitute clinker, without sacrificing the performance of the cement.
Given above efforts, cement production is able to reduce the air pollution. It has been proven that CO2 emission will reduce from 0.8 ton to 0.64 ton when one ton of cement is manufactured.
The CEMENTIUM® range is now successfully launched in South-east Asia and it will serve other Asian countries soon.
PCE Admixture
A new technology for speedy RCC dam construction
Short V/C times: shorter compaction cycle time to achieve full compaction of the mix.
In recent years, the pace of economic growth in China and other Asian countries has caused a surge in the need for electrical power. As a consequence, hydropower projects were endorsed by the respective governments in order to satisfy current and future demand.
The large volume, strict durability specifications under seismic conditions, and the pressing urgency of electricity shortage require advanced technologies for the construction of those dams. Admixtures shall help sustain speed and quality of workmanship, as well as a long life cycle.
While roller compacted concrete (RCC) is well established in dam projects in China, certain shortcomings were experienced during the widespread use of conventional superplasticizers. They imparted sufficient water reduction to meet the strength specifications for these lean mix-designs, but other parameters like compactibility and bonding of layers were not well addressed.
Therefore, BASF Construction Chemical developed an admixture based on an unique polycarboxylate ether (PCE) to improve the speed and quality of RCC construction. One recent application of this new technology is in the construction of in the Jinghong Dam Project in Yunnan, China.
The key advantage of the tailored PCE-RCC was the short V/C times sustained over elapsed time in RCC. In the application of Jinghong Dam construction, the new formular designed by BASF has yielded remarkable, formerly unrivalled short V/C times of three to four seconds.
Liquid Sand TM
A breakthrough admixture for wider range of aggregates
As the crushed stone market continues to grow, the increasing use of manufactured sand or gap-graded aggregates has posed problems in concrete properties such as low pumpability, more tear and wear on equipment, increased cost on materials like cement, excessive water bleeding and delay of finishing process, etc.
Can customers use the most cost-effective fine aggregates available and consistently improve the concrete pumpability, excess bleed and finishability, all without affecting the concrete properties?
To address the customer’s requirement, BASF developed the Liquid SandTM, Rheomac viscocity-modifying admixture (VMA) and offer concrete manufacturers an option of using less-than-optimal fine aggregate materials (gap-graded or manufactured sands) while maintaining excellent workability characteristics in the pumping, placement and finishing operations important to contractors.
Incorporating such special admixture in the mix to act like a Liquid Sand, this intelligent and tailor-made solution has achieved a significant milestone in the industry to adapt to wider range of aggregate materials like sand and gravel.