High Value, low CO2 active binder concrete products

Conventional Portland cement (PC) production is a major contributor to global CO2 emissions and hence there is a great deal of commercial interest in low carbon cements. One variety of such low carbon cements can be produced by mixing binder materials (including heat treated clays, industrial ashes or slags) with an alkaline chemical activator and construction aggregates to form concrete. The mixture sets and hardens but the new cements have associated CO2 emissions that are much lower than those associated with PC manufacture. These cements (which are the subject of this project), now need to be optimised, manufactured and their performance demonstrated as fit for purpose on a commercial scale.
The project includes a supply chain focused consortium including manufacturers of chemical activators, precast and ready-mixed concretes. The project is conducting industrial plant trials, generating performance and durability data, optimising the chemical activator compositions and addressing barriers to market.