The performance of Portland cement in concrete or mortar formation is very well influenced by chemical compositions among other factors. Many engineers usually have little information on the chemical compositions of cement in making decisions for the choice of commercially available Portland cement in Ghana. This work analyzed five different brands of Portland cement in Ghana, namely, Ghacem ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and Portland limestone cement (PLC), CSIR-BRRI Pozzomix, Dangote OPC, and Diamond PLC. The chemical compositions were analyzed with X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer. Student’s-test was used to test the significance of the variation in chemical composition between standard literature values and each of the commercial cement brands. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was also used to establish the extent of variations between chemical compositions and brand name of the all commercial Portland cement brands. Student’s-test results showed that there were no significant differences between standard chemical composition values and that of commercial Portland cement. The ANOVA results also indicated that each brand of commercial Portland cement varies in terms of chemical composition; however, the specific brands of cement had no significant differences. The study recommended that using any brand of cement in Ghana was good for any construction works be it concrete or mortar formation.
Each year, nearly 40 billion tonnes of raw materials extracted from the Earth’s crust feed into the construction industry. The associated material flows dramatically contribute to anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Therefore, more sustainable supply chains must be envisaged based on the use of locally available resources and the principles of circular economy. Drawing inspiration from vernacular architecture, innovative solutions for green construction based on sustainable exploitation of local resources can be posited. This strategy has also inspired the proposed practice of in situ resource utilization on planetary bodies such as the Moon and Mars.