Hello CLF - Does anyone have perspective to share on Wagners Earth Friendly Concrete: * Wagners Earth Friendly Concrete I am looking at their product for projects in Australia, the UK, and Middle East.
Also, I am also still interested in learning if CEMEX has shared additional information about their Vertua product, and if they have responded to concerns raised in these posts from last summer: Vertua: Net-Zero CO2 Concrete / Comments on Reduction Claims?
Regards,
Aaron
Wagners sounds interesting, but looking at their website it seems like it is a standard substitute cementitious product?
These are good for short term carbon emissions reductions but not all jurisdictions allow you not to count the carbon emitted in the production of these industrial byproducts. And ideally some of these by byproducts won’t be available once we transition to renewable clean energy.
Not sure about the CEMEX product. Looks like they are approaching the multiple avenues of carbon emissions in the supply chain but no information about how the specific product achieves the reductions:
We analyzed the potential for geopolymers to replace OPC in the Australian context, including assessment of Wagners EFC: Rethinking Cement - Beyond Zero Emissions
Catherine is correct in that their product is a flyash/slag bended geopolymer, and the supply of these is already starting to reduce. Of course once you have the geopolymer production in place and the demand in the market it is feasible to switch to other feedstock (red mud, metakaolin, and agricultural waste ash). Australia has the benefit of having performance based standards for cement and concrete, whereas North America largely uses prescriptive standards.
One thing to note is that while the long term durability of the EFC product is not proven (this is debatable though) the use cases are designed to mitigate the risks from carbonation and chlorides, e.g., Wellcamp airport is in a relatively rural area, the boat ramp example uses FRP rebar, and the UoQ Global Change Institute building uses EFC for internally exposed slabs.
I’ve not been able to find much information on CEMEX Ventura, but it looks like optimizing OPC, which can only go so far.
Thank you both for your comments.
Has the CLF developed a concrete design solutions decision matrix to help design teams consider which “innovations” are best positioned to be leveraged for the type of transformational change required to align with 1.5C Climate Action this decade? As an Architect I find the navigation of this issue to be front and center.
Regards, Aaron
Hi Aaron,
I recommend this webinar if you are having trouble navigating how best to reduce the embodied carbon of concrete in the built environment:
Although it was sponsored by CarbonCure, the bulk of the presentation is on other methods of reducing the embodied carbon of concrete in the North American context.
Regards,
Phil
Thank you. I have a big toolbox for concrete decarb, and am leaning toward performance spec. relative to carbon intensity when possible to do so. Do you know of a good White Paper that looks at the construction market and embodied carbon with specific recommendations on which concrete decarb strategies and technologies should/could be scaled this decade for greatest impact? I’m looking for an informed/rigorous prioritization of concrete decarb. for this decade.
I might sound like a broken record…but I really hate supporting CarbonCure when they sell their carbon sequestration as 3rd party carbon offsets, leading to double carbon accounting. This is not helping the buildings or other built environment projects that implement the technology take credit for the carbon reductions.
I like this record, play it again! It’s also a relatively small volume of sequestration compared to the emissions intensity of concrete (~0.5 kgCO2e/m3 sequestered vs. ~350 kgCO2e/m3 emitted). The cement industry as a whole has been trying to push carbonation as a form of sequestration as well, but the decay of CO2 in the atmosphere almost certainly accounts for this, so it is double counting again.
In Canada the CarbonStarⓇ: Technical specification for concrete carbon intensity quantification and verification looks pretty great to me, and does not allow carbonation over the life to be counted.
The report I linked above provides a 10 year plan to decarbonize cement in Australia, it is a little out of date now but most of the concepts are applicable in other geographies.
@will.nash - noted that its a small component of a larger carbon footprint. Regardless, its pushing a greenwash narrative that is counterproductive and downright annoying.
Thanks for sharing the link, I’ll take a look over the weekend!
You might also look at www.geopolymertech.com in Houston. They were concentrating more on fireproofing by Cements are/were also in the mix
