Commercial production of Pozzonala cement starts June (Spread)

GHANA will commence the large-scale production of Pozzolana cement in June this year.
The factory, which will be situated in the Gomoa area in the Central Region, is expected to produce 4,000 bags of cement per day.
This was made known in Accra yesterday by the Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Ms Sherry Ayittey, when she had her turn at the meet-the-press series organised by the Ministry of Information.
The event centred on the programmes and projects of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The CSIR is the largest scientific organisation in Ghana, with 13 research institutes, each of which has a mandate to cover a specialised area of importance for the growth and development of the country.
Specific issues the minister touched on included agriculture and processing, industry, infrastructure, the environment, health, as well as human resource.
Addressing journalists, Ms Ayittey said Pozzolana had the potential to replace by 40 per cent the Portland cement used in the country and save the country $30 million per year on clinker imports.
Pozzolana, a good substitute for clinker which is used in Portland cement, is made from local clay. The product was developed by CSIR.
Ms Ayittey pointed out that Ghana’s Pozzolana cement had been tested and proved internationally to be very durable.
She noted that the establishment of the factory would provide jobs for the youth, as well as reduce foreign exchange expended on clinker imports, adding that “it will also reduce the cost of housing and make affordable housing truly affordable”.
The minister also touched on the development of other building construction technologies, including the fast-track, cost-saving construction technique which aimed at optimising available local resources in construction with the potential of reducing conventional house building cost by between 15 and 20 per cent.
Ms Ayittey disclosed that the government had constituted an inter-ministerial team to ensure that local raw materials were utilised aggressively in the building and construction industry.
Touching on agriculture and processing, she said the CSIR nurtured many of the local agro-processing companies by developing processing technologies, providing training for personnel, undertaking chemical and microbiological analysis of their products, as well as fabricating the appropriate machinery and equipment to meet the competition.
“Examples are Neat Foods Limited, Elsa Foods Limited, Flakan Foods Limited, Pioneer Food Cannery Limited, Ghana Agro-Foods Company Limited, Blue Skies, among others,” she stated.
The minister also touched on the other works the council was doing in the development of poultry, grasscutter rearing, aquaculture, the manufacture of palm kernel extractors, among others.
She also talked about the development of industrial crops such as cotton and also the introduction of high-yielding and pest-resistant Kapaala variety of sorghum which could be used in the brewery industry.
Under the environment and health, Ms Ayittey said the CSIR had developed a technology known as biochar which had the ability to suppress the emission of greenhouse gases and also improve the physical structure of soil, adding that the council, through technology, had reclaimed more than 250 hectares of degraded forest in 10 areas in the Afrensu Brohuma Forest Reserve, the Pamu Berekum Forest Reserve and the Southern Scarp Forest Reserve.
On waste management, she said the CSIR had designed and supervised the construction of bio-sanitation toilet systems for the new Ankaful Maximum Security Prison near Cape Coast, adding that the project would generate biogas from human excreta to be utilised by the prison kitchen and also for natural fertiliser for the prison farms.
That is in addition to the construction of three incinerators at the Abokobi, Engresi and Nkawkaw District hospitals.
She hinted that the country would organise an international science congress around October this year to enable Ghanaian scientists to showcase what they were capable of doing and also share ideas with one another, as well as their colleagues from neighbouring countries.