Environmental concrete - geopolymer of construction

The cement industry is the India’s second highest payer of Central Excise and Major contributor to GDP. With infrastructure development growing and the housing sector booming, the demand for cement is also bound to increase. However, the cement industry is extremely energy intensive. After aluminium and steel, the manufacturing of Portland cement is the most energy intensive process as it consumes 4GJ per tonne of energy. After thermal power plants and the iron and steel sector, the Indian cement industry is the third largest user of coal in the country. In 2003-04, 11,400 million kWh of power was consumed by the Indian cement industry. The cement industry comprises 130 large cement plants and more than 300 mini cement plants. The industry’s capacity at the beginning of the year 2008-09 was about 198 million tones. The cement demand in India is expected to grow at 10% annually in the medium term buoyed by housing, infrastructure and corporate capital expenditures. Considering an expected production and consumption growth of 9 to 10 percent, the demand-supply position of the cement industry is expected to improve from 2008-09 onwards.