This book provides an updated state-of-the-art review on new developments in alkali-activation. The main binder of concrete, Portland cement, represents almost 80% of the total CO2 emissions of concrete which are about 6 to 7% of the Planet's total CO2 emissions. This is particularly serious in the current context of climate change and it could get even worse because the demand for Portland cement is expected to increase by almost 200% by 2050 from 2010 levels, reaching 6000 million tons/year. Alkali-activated binders represent an alternative to Portland cement having higher durability and a lower CO2 footprint.
Author Biography
F. Pacheco-Torgal is a Principal Investigator at the University of Minho, Portugal. He holds the title Counsellor from the Portuguese Engineers Association. He has authored more than 300 publications, 119 in Scopus and 107 in Web of Science-WoS. His publications have been viewed or downloaded almost 500,000 times. He currently holds the record for the highest Platinum SCI h-index and the highest K-index in the field of Civil Engineering in Portugal. He is in the Top 10 Platinum SCI h-index in the world for the field of construction and building materials. He is a member of the editorial board for 9 international journals, 5 referenced on Web of Science and two referenced on Scopus. He currently holds the record for the highest ratio (papers handled as editor/year) in the field of Civil Engineering in Portugal. He has acted as a Foreign Expert in the evaluation of 18 PhD thesis. In the last 10 years he has been a Member of the Scientific Committee for almost 60 conferences most of them in Asian countries. He is also a grant assessor for several scientific institutions in 13 countries, UK, US, Netherlands, China, France, Australia, Kazakhstan, Belgium, Spain, Czech Republic, Saudi Arabia, UA. Emirates, Poland and, the EU Commission. He has also been an invited reviewer for 125 international journals and has reviewed almost 1000 papers. His review record places him at the Top 0.1% between 2 million reviewers registered in Publons. He currently ranks second place between more than 10.000 reviewers in civil engineering. He has been leading editor of 22 international books published by Woodhead Publishing, Elsevier and Springer, 10 being on the Master Book List of Web of Science. He currently holds the record for having the highest number of books indexed in WoS in the field of Civil Engineering in Portugal. Two of those books are the Scopus most cited ever in the field of Civil Engineering in Portugal. Joao Labrincha is Associate Professor in the Materials and Ceramics Engineering Department of the University of Aveiro, Portugal, and member of the CICECO research unit. He has registered 22 patent applications, and has published over 170 papers.
