The 1^st International Conference on concrete and circular economy (CCE2025)

About CCE2025

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The international conference of Concrete and Circular Economy (CCE) is scheduled in terms of natural resources sustainable management and environment preservation as the world is leading a massive transition to circular economy by reusing/valorising the millions of tons of concrete wastes resulting from the buildings and infrastructure demolition and precast concrete industry.
CCE2025 is a great occasion to civil engineering researchers and industrials to share their findings in the field of waste valorization within concrete manufacturing.
As part of this congress, several topics will be discussed and a promising four days’ technical program is expected based on keynote lectures delivered by high selected speakers and including oral sessions and poster participations.
Perspective authors are invited to upload abstracts, then, once accepted, full papers using exclusively the CCE2025 Electronic Submission Portal below.

Organizers:

The 1^st edition of the conference will be hosted in TUNISIA by :
- Geomaterials, Structures and Environment Laboratory (GESTE) at National School of Engineering of Sfax (ENIS)
- Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME)
- Tunisian Concrete Association (ASTUB)

Partners:

- The civil engineering laboratory (LGC) of the National School of Engineering of Tunis (ENIT)

- University of Sfax (USF)

Call for papers

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You are invited to upload full papers using the CCE2025 Electronic Submission Portal below. Regular papers should be prepared with this template of no less than 6 pages including results, figures and references. Your submission should contain sufficient details to allow for critical review. All submissions will be evaluated by at least two reviewers.
Papers are solicited in, but not limited to, the following topics:

Keynotes

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KEYNOTES:
CCE 2025 keynotes include:

• Novel Approaches Towards the Sustainable Management of Concrete Civil Infrastructures

• Sustainable and Resilient Built Environment in a Changing World - Challenge for Concrete Structures

• Valorization of natural resources and industrial by products in ecological hydraulic binders

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Keynote Speaker1

Novel Approaches Towards the Sustainable Management of Concrete Civil Infrastructures

Abstract
The scope of this lecture is to indicate novel approaches and provide some examples on how sustainability should be included on the operation and management of concrete civil infrastructures, namely when concerning building materials and building construction. Concepts as resilience based management, towards increasing the preparedness and adaptability of the built environment to an hazard (or multi-hazard scenario), in face of climate change, will be duly provided. Also, their connection with quality control and life cycle approaches will be provided, with a focus on concrete structures. All these applications are supported by simple examples, some of them from previous and running R&D projects, and some good practices are indicated within the lecture.

Qualifications of the speaker

Dr. Jose C. Matos Assistant Professor at Department of Civil Engineering of the School of Engineering of University of Minho. Since 2007, he has been teaching, supervising master's and doctoral theses at UMinho. Member of ISISE- Institute of Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering. Graduated in civil engineering in 2002, he obtained a master's degree in civil engineering structures in 2008 and a PhD in civil engineering in 2013, in the area of probabilistic safety assessment of existing structures. Research fields are asset management systems, life cycle costs (LCC), safety assessment, risk assessment and sustainability.

Author or co-author of more than 250 publications in international conferences and journals. He participates in several international committees, coordinating several international working groups. It also coordinates research projects such as SIRMA - Strengthening Infrastructure Risk Management in the Atlantic Area (Interreg), InfraCrit - Development of a Management System for Critical Infrastructures (Portugal 2020), SustIMS - Sustainable Infrastructure Management System (Portugal 2020) , SAFEWAY - GIS_Based Infrastructure Management System for Optimization of Response to Extreme Events in Land Transport Networks (Horizon 2020), Action COST TU 1406 - Quality specifications for road bridges, European-wide standardization (BridgeSpec), among others. Past-President of the European Association on Quality Control of Bridges and Structures (EuroStruct), VicePresident of the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE) and Chairman of Commission 8 of fib - federation internationale du beton.

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Keynote Speaker2

Sustainable and Resilient Built Environment in a Changing World - Challenge for Concrete Structures

Abstract
Recent developments and changes in the natural and socio-economic environment require new technical solutions for the construction of new buildings and the modernisation of existing ones. Buildings, infrastructure and the entire built environment should be better prepared for new conditions – they should be sustainable, resilient and adaptable to new situations.
Concrete is the second most widely used material in the world after water. This raises the need to save resources for new concrete and to recycle old concrete structures within the framework of circular principles.
Concrete and new advanced types of silicate composites, including the use of recycled components, are gradually becoming building materials with a high potential for new technical solutions that lead to the necessary reduction of environmental impact and subsequent social and economic improvement.
The lecture will present the implementation of the sustainability and resilience approach to the development and design of concrete structures using the principles specified in the new fib ModelCode 2020 (MC2020). This new ModelCode not only addresses traditional requirements for safety and serviceability, but embraces sustainability, which is becoming a paramount core requirement responding to broader issues such as social responsibility, environmental quality and economic efficiency.
Some examples of research results and examples of specific structures contributing to a sustainable and resilient environment will also be presented.


Qualifications of the speaker

Pr. Petr Hájek is Professor of Civil Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague, former Head of Department of Architectural Engineering at Faculty of Civil Engineering and senior researcher of Composite Structures Laboratory at University Centre for Energy Efficient Buildings. He is an expert in sustainable concrete structures, sustainable construction of buildings, complex assessment and rating of building performance quality, LCA, optimization of concrete structures and use of recycled materials.

P. Hajek is a member of General Assembly of fib (International Federation for Structural Concrete), past chairman of fib Commission 7 – Sustainable Concrete and convener of TG 7.1. Sustainable Concrete – general framework. Until 2014, he was the Vice-Chairman of the fib C3 – Environmental Aspects of Design and Construction of Concrete Structures commission. Since 2005 he has been a member of the board of the international organization iiSBE (International Initiative for Sustainable Built Environment). In 2020, he was awarded the fib Medal of Merit for his many years of work in the international organization fib. P. Hájek is the Chairman of the Editorial Board of the journal Beton TKS.
P. Hájek is an author and co-author of more than 200 research-based publications, 3 patents, 12 design and utility models, 5 books and 5 text books. WoS: 34 research papers, h-index 17, 769 citations, RG: 158 research items, h-index 19, 1312 citations.

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Keynote Speaker3

Valorization of natural resources and industrial by products in ecological hydraulic binders

Abstract
With the increasing of cement production, the depletion of natural resources, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions related to its manufacturing are becoming worrisome. Indeed, cement production is responsible for approximately 5 to 8% of the total CO2 emitted, associated with global warming. It is therefore imperative to develop low-carbon cements that are less energy consuming, while promoting recycling and using certain industrial wastes and by-products as raw materials in this sector. In this context, we are working on families of cements, called low carbon by substituting part of the clinker, prepared by a heat treatment at 1450 °C, with clays or by-products (blast furnace slag, sand washing waste, dam sediments, etc.) calcined at moderate temperatures (< 900 °C). Depending on their nature, the latters are likely to present hydraulic reactivity (called pozzolanicity). Another way of valorizing these by-products is to incorporate them as raw material for clinker manufacture. Furthermore, we are intersted by the synthesis and characterization of a new family of ecological materials called geopolymers by acid or basic activation of aluminosilicate materials, mainly local clays.

Qualifications of the speaker

Pr. Basma SAMET Professor Basma SAMET received her Engineer diploma in Material Science from National School Engineers of Sfax. She completed her doctoral thesis in the field of civil engineering materials at the University of Sherbrooke, Canada. Alongside her role as assistant professor at the Tunisian university, she joined the Laboratory of Chemical Industry (currently Laboratory of Advanced Materials) from the University of Sfax and received her diploma “Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches”.

Being aware of the environmental impact of Portland cement manufacturing, the main research field of Pr. Samet is the valorization of natural and industrial by products to produce ecological hydraulic binders and geopolymers. In addition, she has good skills in optimization by experimental designs.
Pr. Basma founded the Tunisian Ceramic Association, of which she became president in March 2023. In july 2023, she managed to associate the Tunisian Ceramic Association to The European Ceramic Society.

Organizing Committee

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Important Dates

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Submission

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The proceeding will be published by RILEM Bookseries with Springer
In the first time authors are invited to send their abstract with this Abstract_template

We invite authors to submit their communications according to the template below. The number of pages should be at least 6 pages
Word Template : Word
Latex Template : Latex


The abstract and the full papers should be submitted in PDF format through the online submission system CMT Conference Management Service