UK: Material Evolution will launch the UK's ‘largest ultra-low carbon cement plant’ in Wrexham in October 2024, reports the Construction Enquirer. The new facility will produce 150,000t/yr of a cement that emits up to 85% less embodied CO₂ than Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), according to the company. Material Evolution is the driving force behind the €9m Mevocrete project, funded by government-led Innovate UK, and utilises byproducts from the steel industry. Business co-founder Liz Gilligan said that Material Evolution aims to remove one gigatonne of carbon by 2040, while replacing OPC as the ‘go-to’ product for UK construction. The company plans to replicate and scale its production across the UK and Europe.
Chief science officer at Material Evolution and co-lead of the ‘Mevocrete’ project, David Hughes, said "Cement is a binder and what we’re looking at here is creating a net zero embodied carbon cement which is inherently more durable, which means our houses, infrastructure and transport highways would be transformed on mass industry scale, really tapping into a local and national picture of a net zero environment.”
