Displaying items by tag: research and development

India: A team at SRM Institute of Science and Technology has patented a new concrete paving block produced using fibres from waste printed circuit board (WPCB). The refuse-derived material will replace some sand and clay in the concrete mix. SRM Institute of Science and Technology said that India generates 2Mt/yr of electronic waste (e-waste), and additionally imports this type of waste from other countries. Besides being non-biodegradable, WPCB is contaminated with colouring chemicals.

The developers said "The steadily rising volume of electronic waste poses a serious hazard to human health and the environment."

Australia: First Graphene has partnered with Suvo Strategic Minerals to develop graphene-enhanced metakaolin for use in cement and concrete production. Metakaolin is a pozzolanic material derived from kaolinite clay. The partners believe that the technology has commercial potential to improve concrete performance and reduce CO₂ emissions.

China: China Building Materials Academy (CBMA) has patented a new 3D printing method which uses short rebars to reinforce printed layers. The developer says that this will enable builders to ensure structural strength without the disruption caused to 3D printing by the long rebars of conventional building skeletons.

CBMA said that "An inverted U-shaped or inverted L-shaped short rebar is vertically inserted into the cement slurry layer, wherein the bending mechanism comprises two bending members, separately disposed on two sides of a clamp."

UK: Denmark-based architecture fund Henrik Frode Obel Foundation has named Seratech as winner of its Obel Award 2022. The award recognises architectural contributions to global development. Seratech has developed an olivine-based composite cement produced using CO₂ from flue emissions, which can sequester double the CO₂ of ordinary Portland cement (OPC). When used as 40% of a blend with OPC, it is able to completely offset the emissions of concrete production.

Team member Barnaby Shanks said "The beauty of the idea is that you can just use it as normal concrete. There are other carbon-neutral materials, but they can be limiting because they can only be precast, cured in a lab in special conditions and shipped elsewhere. We want people to retain the freedom to use concrete the way that they are used to. We don’t want to limit people in any way because we’ll just lessen the amount of impact we can have."

Canada: Investment bank BDC Capital has invested US$3.7m in concrete testing technologies supplier Giatec. BDC Capital hopes that the investment will further the development of CO₂-reducing technology and AI-based concrete testing.

Giatec CEO Pouria Ghods said "The BDC Capital investment will propel Giatec's expansion into international markets and accelerate our innovation in CO₂-reducing technology, moving the concrete industry towards carbon neutrality. BDC has a long history of supporting emerging Canadian cleantech firms in their growth through exports, research and development. We at Giatec are looking forward to working with BDC in our mission to revolutionise the concrete industry and to create yet another success story for the BDC cleantech practice.”