The building industry is in current years undergoing significant changes which are targeted at reduction of concrete carbon footprint and integration of environmentally friendly approaches in cement and concrete productions. Such a green change is connected to many compromises and cannot be achieved without thorough research and verification of material properties and performance.The Circulus project gives opportunities to companies located in Northern Norway to collaborate with local researchers mainly from UiT Arctic University of Norway and Sintef Narvik, and develop new green solutions. One of the tasks within the Circulus project is up-cycling of CDW and utilization of RCA in concrete production. Iveta Novakova, researcher and WP4 leader, summarized outcomes from the conducted research in an article with the title "Iron ore dust as a natural pigment in concrete with RCA for artwork application" during the RACTSI conference organized by ACI Italy Chapter.The ACI Italy Chapter is the Italian section of the American Concrete Institute, one of the most important associations in the world in developing knowledge and practice in concrete materials and structures. The ACI organizes many events all around the world and one of them was set of two conferences 13th International Conference on Superplasticizers and Other Chemical Admixtures in Concrete (SOCAC) and 15th International Conference on Recent Advances in Concrete Technology and Sustainability Issues (RACTSI) in Milano , Italy during July 2022.Presentation of research work was successful and Iveta Novakova was approached by Christian Paglia , head of the Institute of materials and constructions, Department of Environment, Construction and Design, University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland, for further cooperation connected to iron ore powder from LKAB and RCA utilization in concretes with enhanced durability, particularly chloride migration and freeze-thaw resistance. Other contacts with participants from the industry and universities such as Mapei SpA, MC Bauchemie, Laboratorio SUPSI DynaMat or Mainroads Western Australia. The participation at the event was very successful and increased the visibility of the UiT Arctic University of Norway and the Circulus project.Mapei is one of the Circulus project partners and the collaboration between Mapei and UiT is fairly intensive. The main area of research within the Circulus project is focused on the Re-Con Zero product, its utilization potential and optimization of its use. During the conference, an intensive discussion took place between Iveta Novakova from UiT and Giorgio Ferrari who is a senior researcher at Research & Development Laboratories, Mapei SpA. Giorgio is an expert in superplasticizers (SP) and was among the first ones who introduced SP to the European market. Currently his team is developing new types of SP for cement types with low clinker content and also SP for concrete with RCA. Collaboration between UiT and Mapei is very important in order to implement new trends in concrete admixtures also in the Arctic region where the innovations commonly arrive with significant delay.
Presentation of research work was successful and Iveta Novakova was approached by Christian Paglia , head of the Institute of materials and constructions, Department of Environment, Construction and Design, University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland, for further cooperation connected to iron ore powder from LKAB and RCA utilization in concretes with enhanced durability, particularly chloride migration and freeze-thaw resistance. Other contacts with participants from the industry and universities such as Mapei SpA, MC Bauchemie, Laboratorio SUPSI DynaMat or Mainroads Western Australia. The participation at the event was very successful and increased the visibility of the UiT Arctic University of Norway and the Circulus project.