Fostering Industrial Symbiosis for a Sustainable Resource Intensive Industry Across the Extended Construction Value Chain 

FISSAC project was funded by the European Commission with a consortium of 26 partners from 9 different countries in 2014. The project, which lasted for 4,5 years, was completed successfully in February 2020.  

In the FISSAC project, it is aimed to create a circular economy with a zero waste approach by using waste/by-products from the steel, glass, ceramic, aluminum, plastic industries in production processes in the cement, concrete, ceramic and plastic industries.  

In the project, among the stakeholders in the expanded building value chain and industries (steel, aluminum, chemistry, demolition and construction sectors), besides experimental and application studies, industrial symbiosis modeling, life cycle assessment and monitoring of the material and energy flow analysis by establishing a new software platform has been made.    

Duties of TÜRKÇİMENTO R&D Institute;  
• Characterization of wastes/by-products to be evaluated within the scope of the project and investigation of their suitability for the cement sector,  
• Laboratory-scale study of the use of wastes as alternative raw materials and mineral additives after making eco-cement designs  
• Pilot scale production of 3 different eco-blended cement and 3 different Calcium Sulfoaluminate Cement (CSA) with optimum designs containing waste materials,  
• Industrial scale production of eco-blended cement with the best economic, social and technical performance,  
• Industrial scale production of green concrete, where wastes/by-products are used as mineral additives and artificial aggregates,  
• Making a sample concrete road application using green concrete,  
• Providing technical information for life cycle assessment studies in the cement industry,  
• Carrying out informative studies in order to announce the project outputs.    

Social Benefit  
With the economical and green products to be produced using the waste/by-products of the industries within the scope of the FISSAC project;  
• Reduce usage of natural resources and ensuring waste management  
• Encouraging the sector for sustainable production with an improvement of more than 20% in energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions.  
• Dissemination of project outputs thanks to the Living Lab studies  
• 1% CO₂ reduction with every 1% clinker reduction thanks to eco-blended cement  • 1,2 kg coal reduction with every 1% clinker reduction thanks to eco-blended cement  
• CO₂ emission reduction up to 25% due to the low production temperature of CSA cement.  

Thanks to the project, it is possible to implement a zero waste approach by reducing energy consumption and using industrial by-products instead of natural materials.  

Project Outcomes  
• Within the scope of FISSAC Project, the R&D Institute has developed two different cement types.  
1. Calcium Sulfoaluminate Cement (CSA) - in partnership with Çimsa Mersin Factory  
2. With the use of secondary raw materials obtained as a result of the processing of different industrial wastes, with the partnership of "Eco-blended Cement" - OYAK Adana Cement Factory  
• Eco-blended cement produced from waste at OYAK Adana Cement field, which is one of the final outputs of the project, 100-meter-long concrete road was implemented and opened to heavy vehicle use.    

This project has received funding from the European Union’s H2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 642154.