ARC Innovations was founded with the objective of pushing the limits of alternate solutions for the challenge of sustainable construction via the production of composite cements.
About
The development, commercialisation, and ultimately the use of hybrid cement technology provides for a far more sustainable and environmentally responsible process with the potential to replace traditional and widely used cement.
Hybrids are a type of inorganic polymer that can be formed at room temperature by using industrial waste or by-products as source materials to form a solid binder that looks like and performs a similar function to normal cement.
Hybrid binders can be used in applications to fully or partially replace cement with important environmental, technical and importantly, cost benefits – including an 80 – 90% reduction in CO2 emissions and improved resistance to fire and aggressive chemicals.
Hybrid cement is made from aluminium and silicon, instead of calcium and silicon. The sources of aluminium in nature are not present as carbonates and therefore, when made active for use as cement, do not release vast quantities of CO2.
Benefits
With only a few additional requirements, placing hybrid concrete is very similar to placing traditional cement concrete, which means any conventional concrete crew is able to place it without additional training or expensive equipment.
Other benefits include:
- The engineering and construction properties of hybrid cement, when used to make concrete, have been repeatedly and independently shown to be equivalent or better than traditional cements.
- Hybrid cement exceeds traditional cement performance specifications in areas such as chemical or salt resistance and fire resistance. Its fire resistance has been tested to be well over twice that of traditional concrete which has distinct technical benefits, particularly in high-rise construction buildings.
- Hybrid cement has a far lower carbon footprint, produces fewer cracks, is more resistant to corrosive elements such as sea salt, o ers excellent frost resistance and durability in cold climates, and is available with rapid setting binders available.
- Porous hybrid cement is lightweight, easy to work with and insulating. No additional insulation is needed.
- Recycled waste materials can be used to make hybrid cement, thereby making the material 80-90% more carbon neutral.
The main process diff erence between traditionally-used cement and hybrid cement, however, is that normal cement relies on a high-energy manufacturing process that imparts high potential energy to the material via calcination.
This means the activated material will react readily with a low energy material such as water.
On the other hand, hybrid cement uses very low energy materials, like Fly Ashes, Slags and other industrial wastes and a small amount of chemical activators which may be in the form of neutral salts or alkali and acidic activators, or specific combinations of the above to bring about reaction at the surfaces of particles to act as a glue.
This approach allows the use of measured amounts of chemicals to tailor the product to a particular specification, rather than using an amount of very high-energy material, regardless of whether the material is used to build strength.
This approach results in a very large energy saving in the production of hybrid cement, amongst other benefits.
Winning with ARC Technology
The Gautrain was one of the largest infrastructure projects in the world in 2008 using over 1000000m³ of concrete. The original estimates for cement usage was 344 000t of Portland cement, with applying ARC technology to the project we reduced the amount used on site to approximately 210 000t of Portland cement while replacing the difference with the by-product/waste from coal-fired power station, Lethabo.
Countering the carbon dioxide emitted from producing 344 000t of Portland cement would require a rain forest of 4.5 x 3.5km alive for 40 years, due to the unnatural resource replacement through ARC technology this was reduced to 2.5 x 3.5km required. With compressive strengths 75% higher than expected when compared to standard concrete technology.
Global Impact
The standard Portland cement replacement with SCM’s is approximately 15-30% worldwide. Due to early strength requirements for buildings, SCM’s generally only constitute 15-20% of the binder content in concrete.
The costs to customers amount to a fraction of their economical savings We provide the technology and design on a royalty basis, for a monthly fee which could range from 35%- based on sales.
