High-Performance Graphene Enhanced Cement: A Revolutionary Innovation in Low Carbon Manufacturing Process

Narrative

Concrete is universally regarded as the most consumed man-made material on earth. The inherent benefits of strength, resilience, durability, and accessibility that are attributable to concrete have made it a cornerstone of infrastructure development. Concrete comprises of various ingredients and cement is the hydraulic binder that holds them together, which is why current global cement demand is 4.1 billion metric tonnes per year and is expected to rise by 12-23% by 2050. The construction industry and the cement subsector contribute immensely to the global economy, through job creation and GDP. For instance, the construction industry accounts for 10% of global GDP and employs 220 million people, while the global cement market was valued at $405 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $490 billion by 2027. Despite the undeniable relevance and global accessibility of cement, its manufacturing process currently accounts for almost 8% of global CO2 emissions, with approximately 50% of the emissions directly linked to the chemical processing of raw materials.

In recent years, significant efforts have been directed towards introducing new supplementary materials that can help reduce the overall volume of CO2 released from cement and concrete production through reductions in the amount of cement required while at the same time maintaining/boosting strength. Amongst the alternatives, graphene was identified as a suitable candidate able to both reduce the carbon footprint and boost the strength of the concrete. Unfortunately, the dispersion of graphene throughout the cement mixture, which ensures consistent performance throughout a concrete batch, remained a challenge to practical application.

To address this, our research group, in partnership with First Graphene, Morgan Sindall, and Breedon Cement, engaged in an 18-month InnovateUK project to study different approaches to maximise graphene-cement dispersion through a powder-to-powder (P2P) dispersion mechanism.
Results demonstrated that the powder-to-powder injection and homogenisation mechanism proposed in this study has cost-effectively generated graphene-enhanced cement with good degrees of dispersion, which has increased the compressive strengths of CEM I and CEM II cement samples by approximately 20%.

Following the completion of the research study, phase one Full-scale production trials were conducted with 600 tonnes of graphene enhanced cement produced using First Graphene’s PureGRAPH®. Initial results published in October 2023 show up to a 10% increase in early-stage cement compressive strength compared to an equivalent control. The trials were conducted on a CEM II cement, which has a reduced clinker factor compared to CEM I. The lower clinker factor is an enabler to an approximately 15% reduction in CO2 emissions associated with cement production. The manufacture process used in the study demonstrated the viability of producing industrial-scale quantities of graphene enhanced cement.

Impact date	Aug 2021
Category of impact	Economic, Environmental, Technological, Attitudes and behaviours
Impact level	Benefit