Pub. 5 2015 Issue 1

14 AT THE CENTER OF UTAH INDUSTRY The Evolution of Concrete and Cement F or the average person, it’s easy to underestimate the use and importance of concrete in our modern world, not realizing the vital role concrete plays in our daily lives and functioning societies. Without concrete, our schools, hospitals, apart- ment blocks, bridges, tunnels, dams, sewage systems, pavements, airport runways, roads and much more would be impacted dramatically. Few people realize that concrete is in fact the most used man-made material in the world, with nearly three tons used annually for each man, woman and child. As the world continues to evolve, and developing countries advance economi- cally, concrete plays a large part. For instance, China's cement consumption alone reached over 1.8 billion tons, and industry sources show that China used more cement in the last three years than the U.S. used in the entire 20th century. According to a recent comment made by Bill Gates in his blog, referenc- ing his favorite historian Vaclav Smil, concrete has been the foundation for the massive expansion of urban areas of the past several decades, which has been a big factor in cutting the rate of extreme poverty in half since 1990. In 1950, the world produced roughly as much steel as cement (a key ingredient in concrete); by 2010, steel production had grown by a factor of 8, but cement had increased by a factor of 25. Today, twice as much concrete is used around the world than the total of all other building materials, including wood, steel, plastic and aluminium. And according to industry experts, none of these other materials can replace con- crete in terms of effectiveness, price and performance for most purposes. The manufacturing of concrete re- quires cement, which is actually the main ingredient of concrete. Cement and concrete are often used synonymously, but by nature are different. Cement, an ultra-fine gray powder, binds sand and rocks into a mass, reacting in concrete, like flour reacts in a cake.