Innovate UK has this week announced plans to pour £3.2m of fresh funding into seven projects designed to accelerate the decarbonisation of the UK concrete industry.
Selected projects include work by Cemcor to turn calcined clay into low carbon building materials, Skanska UK’s plans to repurpose excavated London clay, and Cocoon Carbon’s work producing novel cement from electric arc furnace steel production.
Other projects to secure funding include Cemex UK’s efforts to combine micronised limestone and graphene, EFC Green Concrete Technology UK’s geopolymer cement rollout, and the development of low-carbon cement substitutes by the Materials Processing Institute.
As well as receiving investment from the UK’s government-backed innovation agency, winning projects will have the chance to collaborate with Innovate UK’s Concrete Commitment Cohort and contribute to ongoing work to develop an Advance Market Commitment (AMC) that aims to boost demand for low carbon concrete.
“We’re pleased to announce the projects receiving funding via the Decarbonising Concrete competition,” said Dr. Stafford Lloyd, clean growth strategy innovation lead at Innovate UK. “These projects are cutting-edge, and we can expect to see them looking at producing alternative cements and whole new production methods with new additives.
“Together with our work on AMCs, we’re really starting to accelerate innovation in decarbonising concrete.”
The Contracts for Innovation Decarbonising Concrete Competition aims to accelerate the commercial adoption of low-carbon concrete, thereby building engagement between innovative projects and end-users.
Projects that applied but did not receive funding can continue to engage with the wider concrete decarbonisation programme and the work to develop an AMC, Innovate UK said.
The announcement comes in the same week the Climate Group and consultancy Ramboll published a new study claiming that nearly half of companies surveyed are ready to pay a premium for lower emission steel and concrete.
The Steel and Concrete Transformation: 2024 market outlook on lower emission steel and concrete revealed 40 per cent of firms quizzed would be willing to pay a premium for emissions reductions of 25 per cent or higher for concrete, while 49 per cent were willing to do so for emissions reductions of over half.
The report also stated that while progress is accelerating, 84 per cent of businesses see cost as the most significant barrier to the adoption of lower carbon steel and concrete.
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