Natural Stone Flooring: A Better Alternative to Cement Flooring To Save Energy and Reduce Pollution (Published)
Cement has been used as one of the best building material in construction of house, roads, industrial building dams, bridges etc. Indian cement industry is the 2nd largest producer in the world with a total capacity of 277.46MTPA.in 2016 led by the growth in the sector of real estate and construction. It is process of making Clinker, the key constituent of cement that emits large amount of CO2 in cement manufacturing beside emission of greenhouse Gases including CO2, NOX, Sulphur dioxide causing serious concerns. The cement manufacturing is highly energy both electric and thermal, consuming industry Cement. Lafarge Holcim the worlds largest cement and Cemetose SA cement co of Brazil are advising consumer to plan and innovate alternative to cement which will reduce CO2 emission substantially. However it is not possible to replace cement entirely but certain specific applications, Natural Stone can be used in place of cement with confidence and reliability. Natural stones include variety of stones such as granite, sandstone, marbles, limestone (kotah stone), quartzite, slates, phylites, etc. In this article I have concentrated on use of Kotah Stone (Natural Stone). Kotah Stone has unique physio-mechanical and chemical properties. Kotah Stone if laid properly it will last over 70 years. Natural stone, Kotah Stone consumes comparatively much less energy and causes much less pollution. Flooring using Natural Stones instead of Cement reduced energy by 75% and heavy reduction in emission of greenhouse gases to less than 1% and sharp reduction in dust particulates. However natural stones can’t be used for roofing, or high rise building or high structures.
Keywords: Cement, clinker, energy emissions, kotah stone, natural stone