In a significant stride towards sustainable construction, Concretene, a pioneering British material developer, has been awarded a generous grant of £1.25 million by the UK government. This funding, comprising two grants from Innovate UK and an award from the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials, marks a pivotal moment for the Concretene project.
Concretene, both the name of the product and the company, is a cutting-edge innovation developed by Nationwide Engineering Research & Development (NERD) in collaboration with the University of Manchester’s Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC). It leverages the remarkable properties of graphene to enhance the strength of concrete, thereby reducing the need for cement and steel in construction, a promising approach to lowering embodied carbon in the building industry.
The Innovate UK grants, totaling £1.18 million, were secured through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme and a call for ‘resource efficiency for materials and manufacturing.’ The KTP scheme aims to expand the range of applications for Concretene, broadening its market potential beyond its existing uses in demonstrator projects. Meanwhile, the resource efficiency funding targets the consistent and repeatable chemical composition of the admixture, ensuring high-quality performance.
Collaborating closely with Concretene are industrial partners William Blythe and Thomas Swan & Co, manufacturers of inorganic specialty chemicals, and Black Swan Graphene, the supplier of graphene nanoplatelets to Concretene and an equity partner in the project. Together, they are advancing the development of this groundbreaking material.
The grant from the Henry Royce Institute, in conjunction with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), will explore the ‘morphology of graphene in aqueous solutions,’ providing invaluable insights into optimizing Concretene’s formulation for superior performance.
Alex McDermott, co-founder and chief development officer of Concretene, expressed excitement about the project’s momentum, emphasizing its potential to revolutionize the construction industry while generating high-value jobs and mitigating supply chain risks.
James Baker, chief executive of Graphene@Manchester, commended the progress made towards scaling up and commercializing nanomaterial technologies. Keith Paton, senior scientist at the National Physical Laboratory, stressed the significance of graphene in reducing CO2 emissions from construction and its role in achieving sustainability goals.
The Concretene project stands as a testament to successful collaboration between academia and industry, ushering in a new era of innovation in construction materials with the potential to make a profound impact on the environment and the economy.
By Proptechbuzz
By Ravi Kumar
