US: Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed an AI tool to compare studies of alternative raw materials for cement production. A collaborative team from the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub and MIT s recycling research programme, Olivetti Group, published its findings in the Nature journal. The team mined 5.7m academic publications to identify 14,434 alternative raw materials. These belonged to 19 types, including bottom ashes, fly ashes, calcined clays and slags, as well as less homogenous types such as biomass ashes, glasses and mine tailings. The study more than doubles the number of fly ashes and slags recorded on a database of this kind. The tool then provides a unified assessment of cementitious reactivity and pozzolanicity, also accounting for variables in particle size and amorphous content. /Global Cement