Vicat fine tunes its contribution to European SeRaMCo project
The European Union’s SeRaMCo project got off the ground in 2017. It is aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of the construction sector by finding beneficial uses for inert waste from demolition sites. Between engagement and innovation, the Vicat group’s contribution to the project, which is due to end in 2020, is reaching a successful conclusion.
International project for circular economy
We have been involved in the European Union’s SeRaMCo (Secondary Raw Materials for Concrete Precast Products) initiative since 2018. Funded through the EU’s Interreg program for interregional cooperation, it is a transnational project aimed at upcycling inert waste from demolition sites.
After successfully incorporating fines derived from demolition concrete in the cement manufacturing process at the Créchy plant in central France, the clinker produced there was milled in Chambéry, in France’s Alpine region. The resulting cement is thus an aspect of the Group’s circular-economy drive. It is now awaiting shipment to manufacturers of precast concrete products (Prefer in Belgium and Béton Betz in Germany).
‘Circular’ products for building the world of tomorrow
Objective: to make concrete products with recycled-concrete aggregate. Once they have been made, some of these ‘circular’ products, e.g. slabs and benches, will be displayed at Group facilities such as our Créchy and Xeuilley cement plants. They will also be exhibited in the showroom of our operational headquarters in L’Isle d’Abeau and at the Terenvie site, a 3-hectare platform for treating and repurposing non-inert soil located in ‘Chemistry Valley’ just outside Lyons.
The conference marking the official closure of the SeRaMCo project, which was initially scheduled for March 25 and 26, 2020, at the University of Kaiserslautern (Germany), has been pushed back to 2021. Together with the University of Lorraine, two employees of the Group, Laury Barnes and Breffni Bolze, will present the results of clinker-manufacturing trials at the conference.
Watch the video to find out more from Bruno Lombard, manager of the Créchy cement plant, and Breffni Bolze, head of the Vicat Circulère department.
