At a first glance, Celitements are rather strange hydraulic binders. They already namely contain water, which is chemically bound within these novel hydraulically active calcium hydrosilicates. Key is the amount of water and the type of incorporation. Conventional cements are free of water - after the addition of water hydration reaction starts and solidification takes place. Celitements plus water, sand and aggregate can be processed to concrete like Ordinary Portland Cements (OPC).
This means in principle Celitements have the processing and excellent product properties of conventional Portland cement.
They are, however, also characterised by other, new product properties which are often not known in this combination. The raw materials needed for their manufacture are also known from classic cement production and are available in large quantities.
These materials are limestone and sand.
In contrast to the special sand qualities which are used in concrete and mortar production and in some places are a scarce resource, ground desert sand can also be used without any problems in the Celitement manufacturing process.
In the simplest case, pure slaked lime and finely ground sand can be used as the only raw materials necessary, with a lime module (Ca/Si ratio) of between 0.5 and 2 being sufficient.
In contrast to the calcium silicate main clinker phase alit in Portland cement with a lime module of 3 (compare alite or C3S), the lower-lime initial recipe for Celitement enables the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) by the raw materials to be reduced.
Around 2/3 of the CO2 in traditional clinker production is caused by the raw materials and is therefore unavoidable.
Celitement is, microscopically considered, an extremely disordered material that consists mostly of thin amorphous layers of hydraulic calciumhydrosilicate. It also forms agglomerates of different sizes from very fine particles, which can determine the reactivity and processing properties of Celitements decisively.