Final Conference 13.12.2022
After a long period of lockdown era meetings, the University of Luxembourg was happily able to host for the first time the guests of project CO2REDRES for an in-person conference for the closure event entitled “Treatment of secondary raw materials for the reduction of CO2 emissions in the construction industry”. The final conference, which was attended by more than 40 participants from industry and academia, was held on the 13th of December 2022 at Campus Limpertsberg.
The final conference provided an excellent opportunity not only to present the final results of the project to industrial partners and the community, but also to learn from them about the circular economy policy in the construction industry and new trends in the production of green and circular building materials.
The conference was opened by Prof. Dr. Danièle Waldmann, previous head of the Solid Structures research group at the University of Luxembourg, and now a full professor at the Technical University of Darmstadt, who presented the context of the CO2REDRES project and its potential in the CO2 emissions reduction.
In their welcome speeches, Prof. Dr. Jean-Marc Schlenker, Dean of the Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of Luxembourg, and Dr. Gérard Thomas, Attaché of the International Affairs and European Territorial Cooperation Division, underlined the importance of the research in the field of sustainability.
Dr. Laurence Tock, Director of Circular Economy & Clean Technologies department of the Ministry of Economy of Luxembourg, and Mr. Bruno Domange, Senior Environmental Engineer at Luxembourg Institute Science and Technology, talked about the European Union’s course towards sustainable development and circular economy in the construction sector, as well as about existing policies and barriers.
Representatives of the cement industry, Dr. Frank Hesselbarth, R&D Director at Saint-Gobain Weber, and Dr. Laury Barnes Davin, Scientific Director at Vicat, presented the current successes and future expectations of the industry in the transition to alternative fuels and the production of eco-cement.
Mr. David Lamy, CEO of Tradecowall spoke about the recycling of construction wastes and the possibility of their application in sustainable construction.
The afternoon was devoted to presenting the results of two years of work on the CO2REDRES project by Prof. Dr. Jean-Frank Wagner from the University of Trier, Mr. Sinan Kaassamani from the University of Luxembourg, Dr. Baptiste Luzu from the University of Lorraine and Ms. Delphine Cerica from the University of Liège.
During the breaks, the conference participants had the opportunity to exchange views and ideas. Over the past two years, a huge amount of work has been done, which we hope will help the transition of the Greater Region towards a more sustainable production of building materials. However, the project participants do not intend to stop there and are already planning to the continuation with a new project, which will be based on the results of CO2REDRES.