Fresh Concrete 2022: Exploring new approaches to making and using concrete
Fresh Concrete, produced in partnership with The Building Centre, is intended to be a platform for knowledge sharing for all construction professionals, bringing a fresh approach and fresh thinking for concrete.
The first series of Fresh Concrete, which ran from March to June 2022, showcased some of the innovative practice and new types of concrete emerging to address climate mitigation and adaptation. Summaries of each of the four events are provided below, along with links to the recordings.
This first Fresh Concrete event featured joint winners of the 2021 NRG Cosia Carbon XPrize - CarbonCure and CarbonBuilt. Each demonstrated a different way in which concrete can be manufactured using CO2, reducing both the embodied carbon of the concrete and also permanently locking in captured CO2 emissions. Deployment of their technologies, to avoid and reduce carbon emissions, has been described as a gamechanger for global decarbonisation.
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The second Fresh Concrete event focused on innovative methods of construction using concrete. It included 3D printed concrete and a new structural system, designed to be simply ‘deconstructed’ and re-used or re-configured. The speakers included Glen Rust, R&D Engineering Leader from Laing O’Rourke, and Natalie Wadley, Director, ChangeMaker3D.
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The third Fresh Concrete event focused on innovative technology that has the potential to transform the performance and uses for concrete. It included new concrete being trailed in roads to wirelessly recharge electric vehicles in motion, and self-healing concrete that uses a bacteria-based admixture, to enhance water tightness, reduce maintenance and increase the life span of concrete structures.
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This final Fresh Concrete event featured innovations in the process of making concrete that can dramatically improve the resource efficiency, quality and performance of concrete as well as reducing embodied carbon.
It included Digitised concrete - intelligent, in-transit, real time concrete management and Graphene-enhanced concrete to achieve stronger, more durable concrete that can avoid the need for reinforcement. Both innovations are already being trialled in projects around the UK and each presentation provides more details including principles and benefits of the new technology, as well as its future potential.
2022 Series catch up on-demand
CarbonCure’s innovative technology injects captured CO2 into concrete during mixing, and uses wastewater in the batching plant to convert CO2 into minerals for use in new concrete mixes.
The CarbonBuilt technology enables the production of very low- or no-carbon concrete blocks.
This second Fresh concrete event focused on innovative methods of construction using concrete.
This presentation will describe the processes, opportunities and benefits of this innovative method of construction using concrete.
In this presentation Mauricio will explain the technology and its benefits, as well as its potential applications for sustainable transportation and manufacture.
More effective crack control and watertightness also offers potential to reduce steel reinforcement and additional membranes.
Concrete incorporating graphene has been shown to have enhanced durability, improved early tensile and flexural strength and rapid early progressive strength.
In this presentation, Phillip will explain the benefits of the new technology developed by Cloud Cycle, its use in current trials and projects in the UK including HS2, and its potential to reduce the need for slump tests.