Environmentally friendly cement for the production of Levvel blocks

A complex request, is how Richard Brouwer describes the request Levvel made for the cement to produce the Levvel blocks.

The request for proposal showed that Levvel wanted to create a highly sustainable and innovative design. Brewer is Sr.  Account Manager Cements at ENCI. ". We were approached to make an offer, where the complexity was so high that we spent three days working on the offer."

We speak with Richard Brouwer and Harry Corporaal (Technical Educator at ENCI) about a project that is unique to them. Brouwer: "In order to calculate this project, I brought in several people internally. The MKI (Environmental Cost Indicator) was very important and the ROI (Return on Investment) we haven't handled before."

Environmentally friendly cement

Brewer continued, "We are talking about a total volume of between 75,000 and 82,000 tons of cement. It is the type of cement we mainly produce." Corporal talks about its composition: "We are talking about standard blast furnace cement. The recipe consists of 70% granulated blast furnace slag and 30% Portland cement. That makes for an environmentally friendly mix with less CO₂-emissions in relation to the MKI. For Levvel, we looked for the lowest possible proportion of Portland cement in the recipe. The consequence is that the hardening of the concrete is slower."

The recipe consists of 70% granulated blast furnace slag and 30% Portland cement.

Delivery from the IJmuiden Plant

ENCI has four plants, including a facility in IJmuiden. "Given its location in relation to Harlingen and the Afsluitdijk, that is the most ideal location. We can deliver via road transport. The question was whether the Afsluitdijk would remain open to road traffic during the renovation. In case of calamities, we can divert to another factory and, if necessary, deliver everything by ship," Brouwer outlines. "We started with two trucks a day. Eventually we will scale up to four to five trucks a day."

There is no shortage of capacity at ENCI. Corporaal: "IJmuiden normally makes about a million tons of cement a year, this order runs nicely along that route." Brouwers adds, "ROI is an important item for Levvel. Our MKI score was one of the main reasons for Levvel to partner with us." Corporal lists, "This cement has 70% less CO₂-emissions than Portland cement. So on the total order, that's 46,000 tons less CO₂. In other words, we are talking about 46 million kilograms of CO₂-savings compared to Portland. So we are making the green difference and are ahead of the fanfare when it comes to reduced CO₂-emissions goes up." Brewer concludes, "That, then, is immediately our problem. We can hardly get any greener than we are now."