Archidust Journal

As the most widely used building material in the world, concrete plays a significant role in the carbon footprint of the building and construction industry. Its key component, cement, is the source of about 8 % of the world’s CO2 emissions, according to think tank Chatham House. The chemical and thermal combustion processes involved in the production of cement places the material with CO2 emissions above aviation fuel (2.5 %) and not far behind agriculture (12 %).

To reach the goals of the Paris Agreement, annual global CO2 emissions linked to concrete will need to fall by steeply in the next few years. As a response to this, Snøhetta has entered a strategic partnership with Norwegian startup Saferock to pilot and market the production of a more sustainable concrete.

Untapped Potential
Globally industrial processes generate vast amounts of various residues with untapped potential. Saferock’s patented technology gives new value to these unutilized by-products. The idea is to develop low CO2 emission concrete as an alternative to the established Portland-based concrete, which is currently the most widely used building material in the world. This multiplex solution is based on on-site production, eliminating both transport emissions and time.

An alternative to Portland-based concrete is geopolymer concrete – a type of inorganic polymers consisting of minerals, typically stemming from waste streams from mining industries and power plants. This provides a unique opportunity where mining waste has previously posed an environmental threat.

The production of geopolymers has a CO2 footprint that is at least 70 % lower compared to the production of traditional Portland cement (reference values from the Norwegian Concrete Association). In addition, geopolymers have several properties that are favorable compared to concrete based on Portland cement for certain applications, such as higher temperature and chemical resistance and significantly lower permeability.