Our technology

Graphene is the name for a single layer of carbon atoms, which displays very different physical properties from the bulk material - graphite - from which it most commonly derives. It is exceedingly strong, light and flexible and is the most conductive material of both electricity and heat yet discovered.

Methods of graphene production have developed rapidly in recent years, with manufacturing processes developing to produce this material not only from raw graphite but from plastic waste, hydrogen production, battery production, wood char and other forms of industrial carbon waste.

The application drives the form and origin of the graphene used and high-volume production has created a viable, real-world application in concrete. Crucially, only very low dosages of the material, in some cases less than 0.01%, are required to deliver significant performance gains in mortars and concrete, meaning cement volume can be reduced, saving embodied carbon.

Graphene is water-repellant (hydrophobic), which means getting it to mix, interact and disperse evenly in a water-based material such as concrete is highly complex.

The use of surfactants aids the dispersal process, but the formulation requires precise chemistry to achieve optimum, repeatable performance gains with source materials that will enable a price-point acceptable to industry.

The strength benefits conferred by graphene are understood to occur due to nanoplatelets acting as sites for preferential crystal growth during the cement hydration process, developing a more robust structure in the finished product.

Where graphene is present it can also use its exceptional strength to reduce crack propagation, adding further to strength of curing and cured material.

Numerous companies have conducted trials of graphene-enhanced concrete, but to date only Concretene has proven the performance at meaningful scale with a patent (pending) on its dispersal technology.

Concretene’s value proposition depends upon the cost and scalability of its constituent raw materials versus the potential to reduce carbon.

Our working assumption is that Concretene will be cost-neutral to the user as a price-point that increases the cost of a cubic metre of concrete by 10-15% will be offset by the reduction in cement required for equivalent performance. Ultimately, an asset owner benefits from significantly reduced embodied carbon on their construction project at little or no additional cost.

Over time, our value to the customer will increase as:

• performance gains are further refined in successive iterations of the Concretene formulation, including complementary interactions with carbon sequestration technologies;
• the price of graphene nanoplatelets continues to fall rapidly;
• carbon taxes begin to be applied: a) This will increase the cost of cement – for example in Canada, an early adopter of carbon tax regimes, cement is forecast to double in price in the five years from 2023-28*. b) The UK’s incoming Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will, by 2027, apply an effective carbon price to imports, for example raising the cost of commonly used supplementary cementitious materials (eg. GGBS, fly ash) to commercially unsustainable levels.

Furthermore, improvements in durability – for which we have had positive indicative results on porosity and are investigating further – will provide further benefits in whole-life carbon due to increased longevity of assets.

* Alliance Manchester Business School report on Canadian concrete market, 2024