From armoured vehicles to granular cement:
Canadian conglomerate asserts
game-changing innovation to
reduce greenhouse gases
Canadian Design and Construction Report
staff writer
A company better known for ar-
moured vehicles and security sys-
tems says its scientists have invented
what it describes as “the first-of-its-
kind granular cement – a major ad-
vancement in addressing the
deficiencies of one of the world’s
most widely used building materials.”
Toronto-based INKAS says its gran-
ular cement overcomes problems
with conventional powdered cement
and other attempts to create the
building material in granular form.

Cement granulation is not a new
concept, and has been regarded as
an ambitious objective in materials
science,” the company says in a
statement. “Although various pro-
cesses have been
patented after physically
achieving granulation, they
have not been applied in
practice since their initial
invention. Despite the nu-
merous attempts over the
past decades to success-
fully granulation cement,
the outcomes have not
produced cost-effective or
practical solutions that can
be used in the field.”
The need for granu-
lated cement is widely rec-
ognized in the industry
since, in its powdered
state, cement has a short
shelf life due to premature
hydration from moisture in
the air.

“Additionally, the pow-
dered cement exposes
workers to the adverse ef-
fects of dusting,and with
more than three billion
tons used each year, it is one of the
two largest producers of carbon diox-
ide (CO2) – creating up to 5-10 per
cent of man-made emissions of this a
major greenhouse gas worldwide,”
the statement says.

“The determination of INKAS sci-
entists has successfully led to the
creation of a patent-pending granu-
lated cement whose characteristics
and shelf life exceed that of conven-
tional powdered cement.”
The company says its scientists
discovered that the key to creating
granulated cement lies within the
physicochemical activation of cement
powder which is caused by placing
cement under mechanical stress. Fur-
thermore, this process makes it possi-
ble to granulate/pelletize the activated
cement with practically any com-
12 – WINTER 2019-2020 — The Canadian Design and Construction Report
monly used equipment.

“The mechanical energy applied to
the cement grains causes changes
within the particle, and results in the
rearrangement of atoms and
molecules in a crystal structure.

These changes lead to altering the in-
ternal energy of the cement particles,
thereby causing their activation.

“Physicochemical activation in-
creases the attraction of cement parti-
cles to each other, as the cement is
energetically charged in this state.

The energy charge of the activated
cement is the binder that holds the
cement grains together in the granula-
tion process.”
INKAS says its scientists have
been invited to present their findings
at the Seventh International Confer-
ence on Durability of Concrete Struc-
tures (ICDCS 2020),Jinan City,
China, next June, “where they
will be speaking amongst es-
teemed subject matter experts.”
The INKAS website says is it
is global conglomerate with
presence in a multitude of in-
dustries and geographies head-
quartered in Toronto, Canada.

“For over two decades,
INKAS® has been offering inte-
grated security solutions for re-
tailers, government agencies,
financial institutions, global cor-
porations and high-profile indi-
viduals all over the world, the
company says. “INKAS started
its operations in October 1995
in Toronto, Canada. To date,
INKAS has grown to employ
over 350 highly skilled and spe-
cialized team members who
produce the highest value prod-
ucts and services in the indus-
try.”