Startup Mixing Concrete and Graphene Wins Government Grants
A Manchester-based startup combining concrete with graphene has secured three government grants totalling £1.25m.
By adding graphene – often described as a ‘wonder material’ – Concretene says its material is as much as 30-50% stronger than standard concrete and produces fewer carbon emissions.
The solution was created by Nationwide Engineering Research & Development and the University of Manchester.
“Reducing CO2 emissions from construction is a key national and international challenge, and graphene offers a route to achieve this,” said Dr Keith Paton, senior scientist at the National Physical Laboratory.
“By measuring the dispersion of graphene flakes in Concretene, the formulation can be optimised, improving the performance in the final application.”
Two of Concretene’s grants (£1.18m) come from Innovate UK, with the remainder from EPSRC and the Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials.
Graphene has a wide variety of use cases due to its heat and electric conductive properties. Manchester is referred to as the home of graphene after it was first isolated by the University of Manchester.
Alex McDermott, co-founder and chief development officer of Concretene, said: “Our success with these awards is part of the growing momentum around Concretene and shows its potential to be a game-changer in lowering embodied carbon in construction.
Venture capital firm LocalGlobe invested £8m into the graphene and concrete startup at the beginning of the year.
Another firm disrupting the concrete sector is Mimicrete, which recently appeared in UKTN’s guide to university spinouts.
Read the original article on UK Tech News (UKTN).