Environmentally smart binder reduces CO2 and improves efficiency of ready mix concrete for housing

Important results from the project

Is it possible to lower the CO2 footprint of concrete for certain “difficult” applications like winter and moisture proof concrete? Yes, our results show that this is entirely possible via a combination of using highly efficient CSA based cement that reduces the amount of cement needed in the concrete, and concrete mixing in a mobile concrete station that reduces the need for transport of ingredients.

Expected long term effects

We comfortably achieved both rapid drying and rapidly hardening winter concrete, without the need for heating and accelerators, with 25% less cement demand vs conventional cement. Combined with the mobile concrete mixing using local material at minimum transport needs, we can reduce the CO2 footprint of the resulting concrete by at least 50%. The results indicate that substantial further improvements are possible using fillers and especially when CemVision’s ultra low carbon cement is ready for commercialization.

Approach and implementation

Using the available results from Vinnova Start-ups I we further optimized the mix designs. The general lack of high performance CSA based cements in Europe forced us to delay the project in order to successfully redesign our recipes with a different cement. We had to reduce the number of field tests to meet the deadline, but we were nevertheless able to meet the performance targets.