Biography

Dr. Xiangping XIAN started his research career at Shenzhen University, attained his Master degree and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from McGill University in 2017 and 2021, respectively. In 2023, he was also one of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Future Roads Fellow recipients from Cambridge University. Before joining the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering (ACE) at CityU, he worked as a full-time postdoctoral researcher at McGill University for more than 2 years, supervised by Prof. Yixin SHAO. In the meantime, he was also a part-time postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Xian’s research is mainly about producing green and functional cement-based products made from OPC, industrial waste (i.e., steel slag), municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) residues, concrete waste, etc., through Carbon, Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS), aiming to make contributions to both environmental protection and sustainable development. Beyond that, Dr. Xian is also interested in the engineering application of durable materials and so on.

Currently, he also serves as one Technical Committee for both Code for Practice for Structure Use of Concrete and Code for Practice for Dead and Imposed Loads under the Building Department in Hong Kong. He is also a Fellow of the Hong Kong Concrete Institute (HKCI) and three Technical Committees of Asian Concrete Federation (ACF).

Abstract

Concrete is the most commonly used man-made construction material. As two main components, ordinary Portland cement (OPC) has been used as the primary cementitious material, and aggregates have been applied as the major skeleton for decades. However, the cement and concrete industries contribute to more than 8 % of the total global CO2 emissions. On the other hand, Hong Kong is under enormous pressure to deal with its waste and achieve carbon-neutralization targets. Therefore, this presentation will briefly talk about applying carbonation to convert waste materials including recycled concrete waste, plastic waste, municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash, and steel slag into valuable construction materials, which can not only improve the green concrete properties but also capture CO2, making contributions to decarbonation, environmental protection, and sustainable development in Hong Kong, mainland China, and all over the world.