Seratech's decarbonisation technology wins OBEL Award

UK-based Seratech Ltd has won the 2022 OBEL Award for its technology for the decarbonisation of cement and concrete. The award, a new international prize for architectural achievement, is presented each year by the Henrik Frode Obel Foundation and aims to honour outstanding architectural contributions that help to positively change our physical environment. For 2022 the theme of the award was “embodied emissions”.

Seratech Ltd has developed a process that consumes olivine and waste CO₂ from flue gases to produce silica and magnesium. The silica can then be used as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in concrete, reducing the amount of Portland cement in the concrete by up to 40 per cent. As the silica comes from a carbon negative process, the resulting concrete becomes carbon neutral. The magnesium carbonate produced by the process can be used to make a range of zero carbon construction materials and products, including alternatives to building blocks and plasterboard.