Patrick Lemougna Ninla (photo), a young Cameroonian researcher, has just been honored with the National Young Scientists Kwame Nkrumah Prize, organized by the African Union and the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS).
At the origin of this distinction which has just been given to him in Yaoundé by the Minister of Scientific Research and Innovation, Madeleine Tchuinté, a discovery which is likely to bring a small revolution in the production of cement. This 30-year-old researcher, a chemistry graduate from the University of Yaoundé I, has developed a variety of cement produced from laterite, a material available in 70% of Cameroonian territory, but very little used.
In addition to the availability of the raw material, “cement made in Lemougna” has significant ecological advantages, since, we learn, its production process emits much less CO2 than Portland cement, made from clinker and pozzolan heated to 1400 degrees.
With raw material available and inexpensive, ecological cement based on laterite should be able to drive down cement prices in Cameroon and Africa in general, as the young researcher dreams.
But, for the time being, its production project is still only in the pilot phase. Industrializing it requires significant funding which, unfortunately, is very lacking for young African researchers.
read on: agenceecofin
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