Nothing new under the sun or maybe it's the same only different!
When one reads the source article: http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2013/06/04/roman-concrete/
"seawater formed highly stable CA-S-H and Al-tobermorite, insuring strength and longevity. Both the materials and the way the Romans used them hold lessons for the future.
“For us, pozzolan is important for its practical applications,” says Monteiro. “It could replace 40 percent of the world’s demand for Portland cement. And there are sources of pozzolan all over the world. Saudi Arabia doesn’t have any fly ash, but it has mountains of pozzolan.”
We see that this amazing new discovery is not new, at least to anyone who has been in or around the Ferro-cement boat culture over the last hundred years or more that the use of pozzolan (ultra fine volcanic ash) has been used all along for it's ability to completely fill the pores in the 'cement' mix by the nature of pozzolan's small aggregate size, allowing it to be impervious to water penetration when fully cured.
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Nothing new under the sun or maybe it's the same only different! When one reads the source article: http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2013/06/04/roman-concrete/ "seawater formed highly stable CA-S-H and Al-tobermorite, insuring strength and longevity. Both the materials and the way the Romans used them hold lessons for the future. “For us, pozzolan is important for its practical applications,” says Monteiro. “It could replace 40 percent of the world’s demand for Portland cement. And there are sources of pozzolan all over the world. Saudi Arabia doesn’t have any fly ash, but it has mountains of pozzolan.” We see that this amazing new discovery is not new, at least to anyone who has been in or around the Ferro-cement boat culture over the last hundred years or more that the use of pozzolan (ultra fine volcanic ash) has been used all along for it's ability to completely fill the pores in the 'cement' mix by the nature of pozzolan's small aggregate size, allowing it to be impervious to water penetration when fully cured.