Sweden has historically been self-sufficient when it comes to produce and manufacturing concrete. Nowadays Sweden’s epicenter for lime extraction is located on the eastern island of Gotland, and the extraction base called Slite. Slite which is owned by Cementa account today for roughly 60-75% of the country lime extraction and is a major competitor on the European market. When it comes to producing limestone and thereafter fabrication of cement paste which is one of the main ingredients in concrete. Slite limestone has many advantages beyond share mass of lime. The Lime from Gotland is considered one of better one in the field and has the right composition to be used in various construction types of use. Concrete has different mixtures depending on the intended use and climate. Other then the limestone itself Gotland has many strategic advantages when in comes to the logistic aspect of reaching many markets. The lime extraction site is located near to the port of Slite which making hauling large quantity of limestone straightforward, and with shipping by freight reach large market in Northern Europe and North America.In the last couple of years has the future of Slite been in question. This summer an environment court outside of Stockholm reach a conclusion that Slites agreement would be rejected after the current one expires last October. The decision has sent shockwaves through the Swedish business establishment amongst them unions and large corporations who makes up large part of the Swedish economy.Impact assessment made by civil society business core and government alike shows the effect could be horrendous for many sectors with thousands of layoffs and recessions for many years to come. Many experts and scientist forecast chain consequences for many industries, for example the mine industry in northern Sweden which is heavily depended on concrete to secure their mining activities. A loss of production would cause a standstill for the likes of LKAB and SSAB the two main mine companies, which itself would affect the process off producing iron ore for steel production. That could further badly effect manufacturing sector like car production, aviation sector and industrial components made by companies like Sandvik, ABB and Atlas Coco. View differs from the other side in the court hearing which is made up of some government authorities in likes of Naturvårdverket (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency) and Länstyrelsen (County Administrative Board of Gotland), and various environmentalist groups. Their view is that of that the lime extraction has affected the groundwater around the operating sites. According to test made administrative board has showed yet another problem, with a rise of chloride being above the normal level in water test made between 2015-2019. Critics view this concern to negatively affect nearby Natura 2000 natural areas. Natura 2000 is network introduce in the European union to sustain and develop protected areas for sustainable habitats for animals and fauna. On the other hand, one can argue that closing Slite would lead to worsening of the climate footprint, with higher emission and unsustainable alternatives abroad. Sweden would then completely change their format to importing cement from foreign markets, where some of them are way worse in comparison to Slites extraction method. If importing from China which is one of the largest markets in producing concrete, be an option which would increase the distance of shipping and relay on practices of producing cement which is inferior then Sweden’s way of heating up clay. In China this process is mostly made with the help of coal industries, which is one of the worse ways of producing energy.4However, steps have been taken in recent decades to evolve the process of producing concrete. Nowadays scientist and expert are experimenting with substitute clay variants in the mix which reduces degree it takes to heating up the mix to create cement paste. Engineers also works to optimize the use of concrete in future projects to minimize the use of concrete and therefore reducing the emissions of carbon dioxide. Furthermore, the concrete industry where Cementa is included has the past years invested in ways of decreasing the amounts of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere. Carbon capture and storage (CSS) is an example of idea to capture CO2 and the discharge under the seabed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:ltu-88797 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Landqvist, Patrik |
| Publisher | Luleå tekniska universitet, Institutionen för samhällsbyggnad och naturresurser |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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