Ecocem ACT cement will be tested on a section of Wembley Park, where Sisk has been working for developer Quintain for the past 20 years.
Ecocem is an Irish supplier of low carbon cement. Its ACT cement replaces clinker with a range of alternative, low carbon cementitious materials including hydraulic, pozzolanic and filler materials, covering both industrial and natural sources. ACT reduces the clinker content of cement from 75% to below 25%, reducing the carbon content by 70%, it is claimed.
Sisk and Ecocem, working with Ramboll, Loughborough University, Creagh Concrete, Capital Concrete and BRE Group, have secured a £500,000 grant from Innovate UK for the demonstration trial.
Sisk innovation and design director Sarah-Jane Pisciotti said: “This is an R&D project that a collaborative team at Sisk working alongside our consortium partners have been working on behind the scenes for several months. The consortium’s approach builds on the technical expertise of each party to build long-term resilience and sustainability in our industry, working towards a sustainable future for the communities in which we operate.”
Ecocem director of concrete technology deployment John Reddy said: “Since embodied CO2 in construction is 11% of all global emissions, and clinker, the critical ingredient in cement, generates 65% of these, finding ways to reduce emissions from cement and concrete is critical. We have assembled a great delivery team of experts under the leadership of Sisk and our consortium will demonstrate that rapid decarbonisation of the cement and concrete industry is possible now, using ACT technology, which brings new thinking to existing proven materials and processes. This funding from Innovate UK is a very welcome investment in delivering a low carbon future for construction and a great example of how governments can take the lead in scaling innovation and enabling decarbonisation.”
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