Manchester-based Concretene, a nanomaterial expertise firm, has raised £3M (roughly €3.58M) in enterprise capital to launch its carbon-saving concrete admixture.
The spherical was led by Molten Ventures, a tech-focused VC fund, with further help from LocalGlobe, which beforehand invested in Concretene to assist construct its core staff in 2023. The corporate’s aim is to cut back carbon emissions within the concrete business.
George Chalmers, Head of Local weather at Molten Ventures, says, “Concretene has made large strides in getting its expertise out of the lab and into significant real-world tasks and purposes. Its answer, viable right now, is poised to make a significant impression in lowering emissions in one of many hardest-to-abate sectors.”
“We’re delighted to help Concretene’s world-class staff of scientists and operators in scaling its answer throughout the business.”
Concretene: Decarbonising concrete
Concretene, based by civil engineers Rob Hibberd and Alex McDermott, developed a prototype formulation in collaboration with The College of Manchester’s Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC).
Based on the corporate, the prototype achieved a 25-30 per cent improve in compressive energy in lab checks and a median of 17 per cent in discipline trials, permitting for a possible 10-15 per cent discount in CO2 emissions from concrete, relying on the applying.
To organize for the business launch, the founders constructed an skilled staff, together with Dr. Craig Dawson, a former GEIC scientist and co-inventor of Concretene.
The corporate is specializing in sustainable feedstocks for its ‘Gen 2’ product, which contains graphene supplies derived from vitality business waste streams.
Concretene is the primary tenant in Manchester’s new innovation district, which is being developed by Bruntwood SciTech on the previous north campus of the College. The £1.7B challenge, now branded as ‘Sister’, was formally launched on September 27 by Larger Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.
The expertise
Concretene is a graphene-enhanced liquid admixture that reduces the carbon footprint of concrete by bettering its mechanical efficiency, permitting for much less cement and total quantity. It may be added at batching vegetation without having further coaching or tools.
Graphene helps enhance the chemical construction of concrete because it cures, which makes the ultimate product stronger in each compression and bending. This enables for a discount in cement use—answerable for about 85 per cent of the CO2 emissions linked to concrete—whereas nonetheless holding the identical and even higher energy wanted for varied makes use of, comparable to pre-cast, ready-mix, and high-performance concrete.
Graphene additionally accelerates curing occasions, probably reducing challenge prices and durations, and improves the pore construction for higher sturdiness in opposition to water and salts. Ongoing analysis goals to verify and standardise these advantages of sooner curing and elevated sturdiness.
Capital utilisation
The funds will help the event of Concretene’s product, a graphene-enhanced admixture that lowers the carbon footprint of concrete. The funding goals to assist the corporate obtain product certification and improve its income.
Mike Harrison, Chief Working Officer at Concretene, says, “We’re delighted to welcome Molten Ventures to hitch with us and LocalGlobe on our mission to decarbonise concrete. We additionally wish to thank LocalGlobe for his or her enthusiasm and help in getting Concretene off the bottom.”
“Our staff in Manchester has a singular mixture of experience and expertise throughout building and nanomaterial science, which is able to allow us to ship our subsequent stage of improvement and earn business confidence and certification.”
“With the help of our funders and strategic companions Arup and Black Swan Graphene, we’re now well-placed to maneuver ahead quickly to commercialisation.”
Concretene collaborates with business big
Concretene is working with Roger Bullivant, a UK pre-cast producer, and Cemex, a worldwide cement big, to develop low-carbon CEM II/III cement formulations. This challenge is backed by £1.2M in grant funding from Innovate UK, which Concretene secured in 2023.
The corporate can also be collaborating with concrete specialists from Arup to conduct an intensive materials testing programme. This initiative goals to create an in depth dataset that can help the efficiency analysis and accreditation of Concretene as a concrete admixture.
Arup’s concrete supplies lead, Dr Fragkoulis Kanavaris, says, “We’ve seen the strengthening of Concretene’s technical staff on information evaluation, nanomaterials in concrete and graphene formulations. Consequently, we’re more and more assured in Concretene’s skill to expedite the expertise and we’re now working in shut collaboration on consistency of mixes and formulations in the direction of standardisation.”