Green concrete trailblazers at UEL event

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Published

21 November 2023

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Industry experts and academics aiming to revolutionise how the world’s buildings and infrastructure are built met at the University of East London earlier this month.

The meeting heard from members of a three-way partnership, Biozeroc, Maplex Technology and UEL, which aims to replace carbon-intensive cement with a bacteria-based material.

They were joined by industry leaders from companies such as Tilbury Douglas, AKTII, Buro Happold and Sensicon, with Adam Robinson, Deputy Director of the UK Environment Agency also present.

The Dean of UEL's School of Architecture, Computing and Engineering, Professor David Tann spoke of the importance of academic expertise and industry collaborations, the first of a series of talks before the attendees visited UEL’s state-of-the-art facilities used to construct low-carbon materials and structures.

The project will use a novel technique to “grow” the new binder using biotech and existing materials, which promises to play a significant role in reducing the UK’s carbon emissions, with concrete production accounting for 8% of all global emissions.

Liv Andersson, CEO of Biozeroc, commented on the importance of such initiatives to combat climate change, saying,

It is exhilarating to see so much interest from the industry to start adopting the carbon-negative cement alternative we are developing. People are done talking about climate change, they are ready to take action.”

Earlier this year, the partnership was awarded a prestigious Innovate UK grant of £815,000 for the project that aims to replace carbon-intensive cement with a bacteria-based binder material. The final part of the event was a laboratory visit for attendees to see the state-of-the-art facilities that are used for low carbon construction materials and structures.

Dr Ali Abbas, UEL Associate Professor of Engineering and Construction, was thrilled to launch this award-winning collaboration with Biozeroc. He said “Biozeroc is a trailblazing industrial partner that shares our goal of making a positive contribution to addressing the climate emergency. Our research work at UEL on low carbon concrete has shown a lot of promise and this new collaboration will take us forward on our journey towards net zero in the construction sector.”

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