The Cement 2 Zero project, a pilot of the Cambridge Electric Cement (CEC) process, officially launched in the UK at the beginning of February.

A two-year funding of approximately 7 million Euros by the UK Research and Innovations (UKRI) has kick-started the project, which partners with entities such as the University of Cambridge and the Celsa Group.

This project revolves around the use of recycled concrete paste in the cement making process, which is utilsing slag as a key part of the process. The recycled concrete paste replaces lime-flux in the steel recycling process. As the steel melts, slag is formed and in turn is used instead of clinker to make more cement.

The slag is being used as a primary supplementary cement material, and a point of interest in this project is to discover how higher levels of steel recycling in a process like this would affect slag's usage as a supplementary cement material.

This process leads to the decarbonisation of the limestone step from conventional clinker production.

The use of slag as a key ingredient in this process of combining steel and cement recycling in a single process, in turn, led to the decarbonisation of the cement making process and created a more sustainable way of making cement.

The Cement 2 Zero project's two year trial has begun and will focus on scaling up production of the net-zero carbon cement.