Projects by Skanska UK, John Sisk & Son and five other companies will receive £3.2m in government funding to help decarbonise the UK’s concrete industry.
The projects were awarded the funding through the Contracts for Innovation (formerly Small Business Research Initiative) Decarbonising Concrete competition. This scheme is funded via Innovate UK’s net-zero systems programme.
The competition aims to speed up the commercial adoption of low-carbon concrete and improve engagement between innovative projects and end users.
The seven projects receiving funding and their companies are:
- Cemcor: development of calcined clay from low-grade sources to produce a new type of low-carbon cement and concrete.
- Cocoon Carbon: scaling the production of new cementitious material from electric arc furnace steel production.
- Skanska UK: the funding will allow the contractor to continue repurposing excavated London Clay in concrete applications.
- Cemex UK Operations: development of combining micronised limestone and graphene (CoMLaG) which reduces the carbon footprint of concrete.
- John Sisk & Son: the funding will support Ecocem technology to provide low-carbon concrete solutions on-site.
- EFC Green Concrete Technology UK: scaling up and implementing its LowCast geopolymer cement technology.
- Materials Processing Institute: development of recycled concrete fines as a low-carbon cement substitute.
Advance market commitments
The projects will also be introduced to Innovate UK’s Concrete Commitment Cohort: an alliance of major concrete users developing an advance market commitment (AMC) for decarbonising concrete.
An AMC is a promise, often from government or private donors, to buy or subsidise a product if it is successfully developed to incentivise further production.
This funding system is used when the cost of research and development is too high to be worthwhile for the private sector without a certain quantity of purchases being guaranteed.
The competition is part of a pilot programme to understand how Innovate UK could accelerate the development and deployment of climate tech solutions through AMCs.
