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A CEMENT manufacturing company recently introduced a brand of ?green cement? that uses volcanic ash found in south Cebu towns as a natural additive.
The product called Grand Premium contains klinker gypsum and Philippine tuff or volcanic ash.
Engr. Nilo Yap, Taiheiyo Cement Philippines Inc. (TCPI) environment and safety department senior manager, said the firm developed the cement amid the growing global trend of environment conservation and to meet competitive costs in the market.
Yap said the firm preferred naturally occurring minerals as an additive and sourced the volcanic ash from Naga City and Minglanilla town.
Philippine tuff has similar characteristics as the mineral called pozzolan, a commonly used cement mix.
?Using tuff, you will attain the same and even higher strength cement. It also prevents thermal stress,? Yap said.
Tuff is is made of volcanic rock that has hardened or compacted.
?There are several areas in Cebu where this can be found like Naga City, Minglanilla, Toledo and Balamban,? said Mines and Geosciences Bureau Senior Geologist Al Emil Berador.
Premium Grand cement has the same quality as Portland cement, which is one of the top of the line cement products of the firm, and is sold between P191 and P193 per 40 kg bag.
It can be used in the construction of high-rise buildings, water pipes and concrete hollow block filling and sewage system construction.
A proposal to use coal ash from power plants in Cebu as a cement additive has been raised amid a two-year controversy over air and water pollution issues.
Yap said the technology of using coal ash as cement additive was not new. He said it was possible for TCPI to adopt the technique but that there were environmnal hazards to consider.
He was referring to coal combustion waste coming from coal-fired power plants. In Cebu, new units have been instllaed and operated by Cebu Energy Development Corporation (CEDC) in Toledo City and Salcon Power Corporation-NPC and Kepco-SPC in Naga City.
?Coal ash has the same characteristics as volcanic ash. You can use it as additive in cement,? said Yap.
He said there are differences in strength of the resulting cement product, the cost of production, among others.
?Handling pozzolan or volcanic ash is easier than handling coal ash because of its chemical composition. We do not like its (coal ash) effect on our water supply. There will be more problems with coal ash,? he added
Tests this year by Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on a sample of coal ash in Toledo showed that the level of toxic chemicals fall within the agency?s standard. The agency said the coal ash was ?industrial waste? or non-hazardous material that can be used as filling materials.
Environmentalists maintained that coal ash poses as a threat to public health and the environment.
