By rosebell
With intention of trial repurposed London clay as a low carbon alternative to cement, Skanska Costain Strabag JV (SCS) has awarded funding.
In order to helping accelerate the decarbonisation of the UK concrete industry, SCS JV has won the funding from Innovate UK along with six other companies working on HS2 London Tunnels.
The aim of SCS JV in using the money will be developing a replacement for carbon intensive Portland Cement with repurposed London clay.
For advancing this project the partners of this team are HS2, technical lead Arup, concrete supplier Tarmac, the University of Leeds and Sika UK along with Expedition Engineering as well as the Mineral Product Association. Considering that the London clay is excavated from the tunnel activities, the team is calcinating (heating to activate) it to use as a replacement for Portland cement in concrete for the HS2 permanent works.
Releasing high levels of CO2, portland cement manufacturing requires large amounts of energy and according to the data of the original trial (REAL Initiative), funded by HS2, calcined London clay excavated from tunnels and other construction activities could be a viable alternative to cement in concrete.
As the preliminary trial results were promising and offering considerable carbon reduction figures, tens of millions of pounds could potentially be saved on a project similar in size to HS2. Also providing more data and research are needed and the funding is going to help the team scale up production and take the trial to the next level.
According to Materials engineering manager Apostolos Tsoumelekas: “The innovation was sparked by discussion with an expert in Arup who had been researching the applications of calcined clays in concrete. Working together with our customer and the supply chain we have been able to help turn this idea into reality. The clay that is excavated from the HS2 tunnels is essentially a waste product. We have developed a process which calcines the clay and grinds it to a powder transforming it into a useful resource which can then be added to concrete, replacing Portland cement. The results have been impressive and hopefully if it’s scaled up it could really help speed up the adoption of low-carbon concrete for commercial use.”
Aimg to help decarbonise the UK’s concrete industry, Innovate UK, which is the UKs innovation agency, is investing £3.2m in seven innovation projects, including SCS JV.
