LORCENIS

The Project:

The main goal of the LORCENIS project is to develop long lasting reinforced concrete for energy infrastructures with lifetime extended up to a 100% under extreme operating conditions.

There will be an increasing demand for energy worldwide in the coming 30 years as population is steadily growing. New infrastructure projects for energy or transport require long service life spans, which often exceed those formulated in standards. In aggressive environments, long-term durability of conventional concretes is not always in tune with service life expectations.

In order to improve the durability of concrete for energy infrastructures, it is necessary to understand the current limitations, requirements and challenges for each type of infrastructure.

Durable materials are paramount for safety and functionality of structures. Existing and emerging energy technologies require materials that perform in more and more extreme operating conditions. They will have to withstand: low temperatures and ice-abrasion (in sub-arctic/arctic areas); high temperatures (desert areas); high chloride contents (along coast lines); large temperature gradients and high pressure (deep-sea or underground).

At the same time, our society has to face environmental aspects caused by increased CO2 emissions. New energy technologies are necessary to meet the energy request from carbon-based sources more efficiently at short term and to move to renewable energy sources at a longer term.

Partnership:

LORCENIS is a well-balanced consortium of multidisciplinary experts from 3 universities (National Technical U. of Athens, U. of Aveiro, Ghent U.), 6 research institutes (Sintef, HZG, CBI Betonginstitutet AB, CSIC, Fundación Agustin de Betancourt, CIDETEC), 5 large enterprises (ACCIONA Infraestructuras, Kvaerner Concrete Solutions AS, SIKA AG, Dyckerhoff GmbH, Vattenfall AB), and 2 SMEs (SMALLMATEK, ChemStream BVBA), from 8 countries. This consortium will contribute to training by exchange of personnel and joint actions with other European project.

A significant effect on the competitiveness and sustainability of European industry will be achieved by bringing innovative materials and new methods closer to the market and permitting the establishment of energy infrastructures in areas with harsh climate and environmental conditions at acceptable costs.

Our role:

CIDETEC is in charge of developing a range of materials based on self-healing polymers, able to be integrated into the concrete admixtures. CIDETEC has a long time expertise in this area, and this project is an excellent scenario to search on new kind of self-healing formulations aimed to a new field of applications.