Suvo Strategic Minerals has received $380,236 from the Federal government for R & D work on its low carbon cement research under the Federal Government’s R&D Incentive Scheme.The Perth-based company’s licensed proprietary “Colliecrete” technology has achieved a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction of about 50 per cent compared to ordinary Portland cement (OPC).

In October last year, Suvo revealed it had entered into an intellectual property (IP) licence agreement with Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia, to licence and commercialise Murdoch’s technology relating to a geopolymer concrete batching plant and the low carbon “Colliecrete” formulation.

The company began work with Murdoch two years ago to investigate geopolymer concrete using Suvo’s “metakaolin” product, with the dual aim of determining potential markets and possible plant locations located near supply points for the necessary materials required for the product’s manufacture.

Low carbon geopolymer concrete is manufactured by reacting aluminate and silicate bearing materials with a caustic activator, such as metakaolin, fly-ash, finely-ground blast-furnace slag and other materials derived principally from industrial wastes to make cement.

The new tech concrete is a suitable replacement to the traditional binder known as OPC which for decades has been the traditional binding agent used in conventional concrete manufacture.

The manufacture of OPC however is an intensely carbon dioxide (CO2) emitting process, with about one tonne of CO2 being required for each tonne of OPC produced.

With concrete being amongst the most-consumed products on Earth, the GHG emissions component of its manufacture is considerable and Suvo says it can make a material difference to the impact of this level of CO2 output.

At the same time, it sees an opportunity to also clean-up a potential host of often intractable industrial wastes which typically accumulate in the big, often chemically-polluting dumps around the world.

Murdoch University has constructed a small pilot plant at Collie in WA’s south-west, a town most commonly associated with its central industry, the 854 mW coal-fired Muja power station which supplies the entire region, including Perth, 200km north of Collie.

The Murdoch pilot plant has been used to test a variety of geopolymers over the preceding 6 months, in a bid to produce a low carbon concrete – preferably one that emits zero GHG – which could become an alternative building material to conventional concrete.

Suvo says it plans to commercialise the Murdoch technology, initially by launching studies to upscale the pilot plant to enable production of Colliecrete and other geopolymer concrete formulations which could include its Pittong kaolin and other waste-derived products such as furnace fly-ash, among others.

The R & D refund relates to the company’s expenditure on its Colliecrete development and Suvo expects to continue R&D works and being able to claim future tax offsets over the coming years.

Following the recently-formed “EcoCast” Joint Venture (JV) between Suvo and concrete specialists PERMAcast - a cornerstone investor - the partners are evaluating other possible state and federal grants which could assist with ongoing research, development and product commercialisation.

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