Boral developing lower carbon concrete for infrastructure

Construction materials company Boral Limited (Boral), in partnership with industry players and researchers, is developing a lower carbon concrete product using Australian calcined clay as an alternative supplementary cementitious material (SCM).

Boral has partnered with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Transport for NSW and environmental technology company Calix as part of a project supported by SmartCrete CRC, an independent cooperative research centre (CRC) that brings together collaborators from industry, research and government to help ensure the viability of Australia’s concrete infrastructure.

The two-year project, co-funded through the Commonwealth’s CRC Program, aims to further demonstrate the technical feasibility of calcined clay concrete for use in Australian buildings and infrastructure. The partners — comprising suppliers, university researchers, asset owners and providers — will work on accelerated lab testing and field trials as part of the validation stage.

A first batch of clay has been successfully calcined by Calix’s renewably powered electric calcination technology, demonstrating the potential of the approach to produce a low carbon intensity SCM.

The project follows research and development at the UTS Boral Centre for Sustainable Building carried out over the past three years whereby the suitability of a number of Australian clay sources were identified.

Vik Bansal, CEO and Managing Director at Boral, said: “Boral is committed to a lower carbon future and we never stand still. We are continuously improving and diversifying our lower carbon concrete offering by identifying new ways to reduce the cementitious intensity of our products.”

Dr Ali Nezhad, Head of Sustainability and Innovation at Boral and Boral lead on the calcined clay project, said: “It’s an exciting time to be at the forefront of the research and development being done on lower carbon concrete. The industry is constantly looking for ways to innovate, push the boundaries and find ways to be more sustainable. Given the abundance of clay in Australia, using Australian calcined clay was a natural decision for us.

“We have been impressed with the work done to date and initial testing in this project is promising. We look forward to the building and construction industry in Australia embracing these new innovations.”

Image caption: Calcined clay concrete sample preparation at UTS Boral Centre for Sustainable Building. Image credit: Boral.