Displaying items by tag: concrete

UK: UK-based startup Cocoon has raised €4.9m in pre-seed funding to develop technology that repurposes byproducts from electrified steel furnaces into a ‘near-identical replacement’ for blast furnace slag, according to the company. The modular technology integrates into existing steel-making processes without disrupting operations or requiring high capital expenditure, reports UK Tech News. Cocoon targets a 50% replacement of cement in concrete, aiming to reduce emissions for producers. Initial tests are underway at a steel plant in northern England, followed by another in the US.

Cocoon CEO Eliot Brooks said "We’re turning a byproduct with little use into a valuable product that the market badly needs and can be easily integrated into existing supply chains. By repairing a broken link in the circular economy, Cocoon provides steel makers with a new revenue stream while meeting the low-carbon material needs of the concrete industry. For every 1t of Cocoon’s slag-based cementitious material used, 1t of CO₂ can be avoided."

Brooks hopes Cocoon's climate technology will be integrated into a pilot plant by late 2025.

Denmark: Building products company IBF says that it will replace some cement in all of its drainage products with ground granulated blast furnace slag. Dagbladet Licitationen News has reported that performance and prices will be unaffected, according to the company.

CEO Jesper Bang said that trials will commence with a few specific drainage products, prior to full roll-out. This will eventually result in a 40% drop in the products’ CO₂ emissions.

US: Heidelberg Materials North America have supplied slag and Portland cement for the construction of TSX Broadway in New York City. The construction involved advanced demolition and building techniques, utilising concrete's properties for strength and stiffness.

Stan Trella, Sales Manager Metro New York/Long Island at Heidelberg Materials North America, said "The use of slag cement was beneficial in multiple ways. Not only does slag cement optimise concrete’s strength, but it reduced the environmental impact of this high-profile venue by lowering the percentage of ordinary Portland cement in the mix."

India: The Samruddhi Expressway stretches 701km from Nagpur to Mumbai. This project by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has been focused on reducing environmental impact by the use of fly ash and blast furnace slag in its concrete.

Anil Gaikwad, managing director of the MSRDC, said "Fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag were also used in the concrete,” He continued “Fly ash has been used to the extent of 20% in the concrete."

The project emphasised circularity by reusing and recycling materials. Responsible sourcing of materials was a key component, ensuring vendors complied with environmental standards. Innovative water management strategies were also implemented, including the creation of farm ponds through agreements with local farmers.

Canada: Concrete block producer Canal Block has integrated CarbiCrete’s cement-free concrete production technology at its Port Colborne plant in Ontario. CarbiCrete’s technology produces concrete from steel slag. The integration at the Port Colborne plant commands US$2.24m-worth of funding from the global innovation cluster NGen, towards a total project cost of US$5.97m.

CarbiCrete CEO Chris Stern said "We are tremendously grateful for NGen's continued support, which is helping Canada position itself as the undisputed world leader in low carbon concrete."

Canal Block president Durk Bylsma said "Canal Block has had a long history of developing sustainable products for the masonry industry. We are excited to partner with CarbiCrete to bring this truly revolutionary technology to market and further our commitment to be an ecologically and socially responsible manufacturer."

UK: CCP Building Products has been working with Carbon8 to develop cement-free, carbon negative concrete blocks. The blocks will be produced using parent company SigmaRoc’s Greenbloc technology with Carbon8’s carbon negative aggregates. The approach is based upon reducing the cement content in concrete and CCP has developed a process that uses ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) as the main raw ingredient. Carbon8’s technology captures and stores more CO₂ in the aggregates than is released in the manufacturing process, resulting in a carbon negative block.

CCP and Carbon8 announced in July 2023 that the first trials of the project had been successful. Ian St Hillaire, the Technology & Innovation Director for SigmaRoc, said “We set about producing trial samples of concrete blocks at site production scale to push the boundaries of possible. This led to some exciting developments in our Greenbloc technology using Carbon8 carbon-negative aggregate. Combining the alternative aggregate with cement-free technology in the right proportions allows us to successfully produce a concrete block that is not only ultra-low in carbon embodiment, but is actually carbon negative.”

CCP are planning to move on to larger plant trials and then start producing environmental product declarations (EPDs) to verify the new product’s carbon negative claims.

India: Construction is underway on a section of National Highway 66 in Maharashtra which is being built of concrete made from ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) and slag cement. India Today News has reported that the Central Road Research Institute developed the technology, in partnership with the National Institute for Transforming India Aayog and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.

UK: Teesside University is working with a number of partners, including Material Evolution, on developing a new type of concrete using steel slag. The ‘Mevocrete’ project has a total budget of Euro8.6m and it received around Euro3.5m funding from the Innovate UK scheme. It intends to build a full scale on-site unit for cement production using waste steel slag at the Teesworks industrial zone. Researchers from the university’s School of Computing, Engineering & Digital Technologies will analyse the steel slag and its chemical composition and measure how efficient it is at sequestering carbon. The projects aims to manufacture a concrete that emits up to 85% less CO₂ compared to a traditional concrete made from Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC).

Material Evolution is the lead industrial partner on the project. Other partners include Celsa Manufacturing UK, LKAB Minerals, Nanomox, Enursan, Retaining UK, Geocast, Playfair Capital and ZTL Contracting.

India: Finland-based Betolar has launched its first concrete products manufactured using Geoprime on the Indian market. Geoprime is an additive designed for use in cement-free concrete production with ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS). The new concrete product range consists of precast blocks, paving slabs and tiles, and is currently on display at World of Concrete India in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Betolar's India managing director Abhishek Bhattacharya said "We are happy to introduce our first products to our customers for the Indian markets. We have now moved from laboratory tests into the production phase, and can show concretely how well this solution works. It is great to hear the feedback from the concrete industry in the region to our sustainable solution. Decarbonisation of the concrete industry is a very current and important topic."

Ireland: Ecocem has launched Superfine, a ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) for use in specialist applications in the European market. The product is a GGBS that has been ground to a very fine particle size. It is intended to be added to other products to improve their strengths in applications such as high performance and ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC). It can also be used to improve the finish of concrete and reduce the amount of pigment required.

Superfine will be launched across Europe, with the product already being trialled in Abu Dhabi and specified in projects across Ireland. It is designed to be used as a specialist additive in binders, industrial mortars, ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) and precast concrete.

Susan McGarry, the managing director of Ecocem Ireland, said “After extensive time in research and development, launching Superfine onto the Irish market is testament to our global range of innovative and sustainable concrete solutions.”