Concrete: addressing CO2 & resource availability challenges using reclaimed materials

Manufacturing processes for concretes using Portland cement (PC) are well established and account for 5-8% of global man-made CO2. End users of concrete products now demand low environmental impacts. However, reducing these impacts whilst still meeting user requirements (product performance and volume) remains a major challenge for the industry in the UK & globally. The project will address this challenge by developing and scaling up new manufacturing processes and implementing materials innovation to enable the cost effective production of low CO2 concrete products from alternative binders to PC based on waste or byproduct materials that harden by a chemical activation. The project will also assess the use of reclaimed materials (e.g. landfilled pfa) without use of conventional PC and as a partial replacement for PC in conventional concrete. It will thus address manufacturing challenges and broaden the scope of materials inputs & end user segments to create solutions scalable by UK SMEs and support them to develop new services for a large market.