Zeobond Pty Ltd was founded by Professor Jannie S.J. van Deventer, a world-leading expert in geopolymer technology and former Dean of the Engineering Faculty, University of Melbourne. The vision of Zeobond is to provide a practical and realistic solution to creating a sustainable alternative to the manufacture of cement, one of mankind's most polluting activities.
Zeobond can legitimately claim to be a global pioneer in commercialising geopolymers, offering a unique combination of leading-edge technology, practical know-how and ability to deliver like no other company in the building materials industry.
Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, with owned and licensee operated manufacturing facilities in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia, Zeobond's mission encompasses national priorities of tackling the challenge of climate change by:
- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions with our Portland - cement replacement technology. See our independent Life-Cycle Analysis for further information.
- Recycling industrial by-products that might otherwise be sent to land-fill.
- Promoting energy efficiency across the building materials industry. Zeobond is a member of the Green Building Council of Australia's Expert Review Panel for Concrete, setting the bar for what constitutes sustainable concrete in Australia.
- Shaping global trends and providing a solution that is truly global in scope. Zeobond is expanding into developing markets where cement production is rapidly growing to meet infrastructure needs.
- Keeping Australia Competitive by creating new jobs and securing existing jobs in the construction industry that could be under threat in a carbon constrained economy.
The Geopolymer Solution
Geopolymers 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 OPC. Geopolymer binder can be used in applications to fully or partially replace OPC with environmental and technical benefits, including an 80 - 90% reduction in CO2 emissions and improved resistance to fire and aggressive chemicals.
Geopolymer 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. The most readily available raw materials containing aluminium and silicon are fly ash and slag – these are the materials that Zeobond uses to create its low carbon emission binder.
The main process difference between OPC and geopolymer cement is that OPC 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, geopolymer cement uses very low energy materials, like fly ashes, slags and other industrial wastes and a small amount of high chemical energy materials (alkali hydroxides) to bring about reaction only 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 specification, rather than using an amount of very high-energy material required for OPC, regardless of whether the material is used to build strength (such as the inside of particles). This approach results in a very large energy saving in the production of geopolymer cement.
The properties of geopolymer cement, when used to make concrete, have been repeatedly and independently shown to be equivalent to other cements in terms of the structural qualities of the resulting concrete. Indeed, the fire resistance of E-Crete™ has been tested to be well in excess of double that of traditional concrete. This is a highly significant technical benefit of E-Crete™ and will drive wide scale adoption in high-rise construction in the near term, including in some government department buildings.
Technology
As world leaders in the commercialisation of geopolymer technology, Zeobond is able to bring together cutting edge research from both the academic and commercial sectors. Here, we will showcase the best research literature as it becomes available.
Fire Resistance of E-Crete™
Zeobond has tested the fire resistance of E-Crete according to the Standard Time-Temperature Curve (STTC) heating profile, which is the heating profile specified in the ISO834 Standard. A 4 x 4m panel was installed into a specially designed furnace ast the Fire Engineering Facility of Victoria University of Technology in Werribee for the purpose of fire resistance testing. This test has shown E-Crete™ to perform considerably better than OPC based concrete at high temperatures. The test was turned off at 4 hours, which is the maximum period of time possible under the test protocol, where an equivalent OPC based concrete would typically fail at 2.5 hours. This makes E-Crete pre-cast concrete panels a very cost effective way to achieve fire ratings in pre-cast concrete construction.
Products
E-Crete™
E-Crete™ is Zeobond’s proprietary geopolymer technology product. Consisting of fly ash, the by-product of burning coal at a power station, and slag, the by-product of steel manufacturing, E-Crete™ reduces the embedded CO2 of concrete by at least 60% compared to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) based concrete. This provides two significant environmental benefits: the first is CO2 abatement, which is unparalleled in the construction industry, and the second is the use of recycled industrial waste resulting in less quarrying of raw materials.
E-Crete™ is Zeobond’s proprietary geopolymer technology product. Consisting of fly ash, the by-product of burning coal at a power station, and slag, the by-product of steel manufacturing, E-Crete™ reduces the embedded CO2 of concrete by at least 60% compared to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) based concrete. This provides two significant environmental benefits: the first is CO2 abatement, which is unparalleled in the construction industry, and the second is the use of recycled industrial waste resulting in less quarrying of raw materials.
E-Crete™ can be used in a range of pre-mixed applications such as footpaths, driveways, house-slabs, in-situ pours, etc. Its performance is similar to OPC in many ways, and even exceeds traditional performance specifications such as chemical or salt resistance and fire resistance. University of Melbourne fire resistance testing has shown a 150mm E-Crete™ slab has a fire rating well in excess of 4 hours, compared with the typical 2.5 hour rating for a comparable OPC based concrete slab. Like OPC based concrete, E-Crete™ is specified as, for example, 25, 32, 40 or 55 MPa.
Precast
Availability: In Victoria, Australia, Precast E-Crete™ wall panels are available through Antonello Precast Concrete.
Applications
Zeobond has been using E-Crete™ in everyday concrete applications since 2006, building up a track-record of success with users including VicRoads, local government councils and large housing developers.
E-Crete™ has been used in a broad range of applications, however, Zeobond is currently focusing on the commercialisation of the following products:
- Pre-mixed concrete for driveways, footpaths, house-slabs,
- in-situ pours, etc
- Pre-cast concrete wall panels
- Concrete pavers
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