Concrete is responsible for 8% of global carbon emissions.
That's a staggering number when you consider how much concrete surrounds us every day. So when Daniel from Curvecrete told us his technology could reduce concrete emissions by 70%, we had to understand how. What we learned might change how you think about one of construction's most fundamental materials.
Low-carbon concrete is a practical technology addressing real industry challenges. As sustainability requirements tighten and carbon costs increase, innovations like Curvecrete become competitive advantages rather than nice-to-haves.
For builders considering future projects, understanding these emerging technologies positions you ahead of regulatory changes and client demands. The question isn't whether sustainable concrete will become mainstream - it's whether you'll be ready when it does.
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Website: www.yoursanctum.com.au/
Connect with Matt:
Instagram: @carlandconstructions
Website: www.carlandconstructions.com/
Daniel, who are you?
Speaker:I am an architectural engineer, a, uh, build robots that build concrete things.
Speaker:And do it in a more sustainable way.
Speaker:Alright, great.
Speaker:Thanks for coming.
Speaker:So what do you mean?
Speaker:Do you build the robots or you create the concrete?
Speaker:Both.
Speaker:So I've, yeah, so, so while you're outside on your phone call, before I had a really
Speaker:in, in, in, uh, interesting conversation.
Speaker:So obviously, you know, I'm a like to think of myself as a sustainable builder
Speaker:and, you know, my ears sort of perked up when Matt said, I've got someone who's,
Speaker:you know, making low carbon concrete, so.
Speaker:I reckon, let's start there.
Speaker:Mm. And maybe just explain to the listeners, like, what is it you do?
Speaker:Like, I've been using Eco pack concrete mm-hmm.
Speaker:From wholesome for, for a number of, yeah.
Speaker:I've
Speaker:done, I did my house just recently
Speaker:then for, for a number of years, and have been really happy with it.
Speaker:And I think it's a fantastic product.
Speaker:It's now specified on all our jobs.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But yous is a little bit different.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Could you tell us a little bit about
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, so we've developed a. Low carbon concrete, which is a
Speaker:geopolymer is what we call it.
Speaker:Uh, it's used as, uh, waste byproducts, uh, that replace the cement, which is the,
Speaker:you know, polluting part of the, uh, the, the mix design for, for standard concrete.
Speaker:it is a geopolymer that achieves 50 MPA grade, uh, strength
Speaker:for precast applications.
Speaker:Uh, so we're focused on the precast market.
Speaker:And, uh, curve Crete is positioned in a way where, um, we can then
Speaker:scale up our, uh, material to be utilized on infrastructure projects
Speaker:for noise walls and earth retaining walls and that sort of thing.
Speaker:And that's part of the reason why we're here at Archi Build.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And,
Speaker:and when you say, like they're quite specific.
Speaker:Projects.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:You know, where, where Matt and I from, like a residential point of view.
Speaker:But you are talking about like, I, I can imagine like I'm driving down the Eastern
Speaker:freeway and I see these big walls which are trying to stop noise transmission.
Speaker:Is that the kind of stuff that you are talking about?
Speaker:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, uh, yeah, so they're, you know, noise walls is a big ambition, uh, to
Speaker:solve for freestanding wall elements that are, you know, nine, 10 meters high.
Speaker:There's an abundance of them that are required for
Speaker:infrastructure around Australia.
Speaker:Um, here at the Big build, in Victoria, uh, there's , noise wall elements that
Speaker:are currently being created that are 300 millimeters thick, uh, flat elements.
Speaker:Nine meters high, 300 millimeters thick.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:Yeah, there's a couple of innovations that I have to explain, here.
Speaker:Um, so that's the benchmark.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Three oh millimeter thick.
Speaker:I is high.
Speaker:Uh, with the technology that we developed at Curve Creek, there's
Speaker:the low carbon concrete, right?
Speaker:Um, so if we created one of those panels with our low carbon concrete,
Speaker:it'll, um, avoid 70% of the emissions.
Speaker:Relative to standard concrete.
Speaker:But we also developed a robotic method.
Speaker:Uh, that creates curved concrete elements.
Speaker:And the curved concrete elements are naturally much
Speaker:more stiff, in their geometry.
Speaker:Um, so you can use curvature, uh, to, to make, the elements lighter.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:uh, is that, does that mean you can make them thinner?
Speaker:Thinner, yeah.
Speaker:And, and does the curve.
Speaker:Actually help with that sound deadening, and
Speaker:it, it can help with the scattering effect of sound.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, but that's
Speaker:not the primary reason why
Speaker:you're, it's, that's a bonus.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's a bonus.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, so, uh, so the, the curvature enables a more structurally efficient design.
Speaker:It means the panels can be 150 millimeter thick instead of 300.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:I didn't know.
Speaker:So, so curved concrete is stronger than straight concrete.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:That's Now
Speaker:why is, why is it?
Speaker:Concrete's really good in compression.
Speaker:Um, so if you have a flat, uh, you know, everyone can do this exercise at
Speaker:home, you know, with a piece of paper.
Speaker:If it's a flat piece of paper, it's floppy.
Speaker:You know, if you fold it, it becomes a little bit more stiff, or if you
Speaker:curve it, it also becomes stiff.
Speaker:That makes sense, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Even though it's a thin sheet of paper.
Speaker:Um, so you use the same principle on concrete.
Speaker:you talked about like this benchmark wall that your comparative that you
Speaker:are, you know, you, you talked about a 300, 300 wide wall by nine minutes tall.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And you're saying that your product is 70% less carbon?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:In the material itself?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:In the material itself.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So, so it's not in.
Speaker:'cause yours are 150 mil thick, so there's obviously less material.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So ultimately less carbon.
Speaker:But you are saying it's even lower.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Because you can have less product and it's 70%.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:Alright, cool.
Speaker:So we
Speaker:go to 85% less now.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Then.
Speaker:And then Then a comparative than a comparative.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So
Speaker:70% is within the product and the rest is remaining the way that you construct.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And you are you reducing the cement?
Speaker:Through flash and slag or Correct.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay, cool.
Speaker:Well, well, you're,
Speaker:you're eliminating the cement because you've got a, a geopolymer,
Speaker:I thought you can't eliminate a hundred percent cement.
Speaker:You can Yeah.
Speaker:Because you're using a different, so, so, um, while you're outside on your
Speaker:phone, we're talking about a company, uh, in Queensland called Wagners.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And they've actually got a, a, a geo another.
Speaker:They're like, you guys, it's a geopolymer and there's no cement cement in it.
Speaker:So what's a geopolymer that it's a. Do.
Speaker:Is it like a plastic?
Speaker:Uh, no, no, no.
Speaker:It's, so this common misconception 'cause the polymer in the name, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But the geo is what counts.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So the geo part of it is that's really mineral substance.
Speaker:It's more like rock.
Speaker:it's usually a metal with a metal oxide with, with some carbon atoms
Speaker:attached to it and that sort of thing.
Speaker:Or silica.
Speaker:So yeah, a geopolymer.
Speaker:Primarily in its chemistry is an illuminous silicate.
Speaker:Um, and, um, you know, it creates these sort of gels, um, that are based
Speaker:on those materials rather than the polymers which are, uh, hydrocarbons.
Speaker:So is
Speaker:that a more rigid, is it more fluid structure compared to a rigid structure?
Speaker:It's,
Speaker:it's,
Speaker:uh, no, no.
Speaker:It's, uh, very similar to concrete.
Speaker:It's rigid, A polymer can be like flexed and ductile.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:But a geopolymer is very much more like a rock.
Speaker:It's an artificial rock, just like concrete.
Speaker:And so
Speaker:why is Portland cement than bad?
Speaker:Two reasons.
Speaker:One is that, uh, you have to heat it to high temperatures,
Speaker:go through this, you know, uh, process of, uh, creating clinker.
Speaker:, That uses a lot of energy.
Speaker:Uh, but the second thing is, is almost unavoidable, is
Speaker:within the chemistry itself.
Speaker:When you do heat it, it releases carbon dioxide, uh, in the process.
Speaker:And if you , combine those two, processes, it 8% of all global emissions.
Speaker:Uh, so 4% from the heating of the cement and another 4% from the emission
Speaker:of CO2 in that chemistry process.
Speaker:Second most used substance on the planet, uh, to water, uh, is emitting.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the thing
Speaker:is, it's such a fucking good pro product.
Speaker:Like, it's such an amazing material.
Speaker:We put that much concrete.
Speaker:We,
Speaker:we pour the amount to build Manhattan per week.
Speaker:Is that right?
Speaker:Something?
Speaker:Yeah, something like that.
Speaker:Something crazy.
Speaker:Amount of concrete, like it's on, it's literally everywhere you see him, so.
Speaker:I wanna go back.
Speaker:Where did, are you a chemical engineer?
Speaker:What's your background?
Speaker:, My background,
Speaker:I, I, put it mostly on my father as electronic engineer, who, you
Speaker:know, from, from a young age, I got exposed to creating, uh,
Speaker:electrical circuits and things.
Speaker:Um, you know, uh, some of the toys that I made, uh, it was a remote control boat.
Speaker:Um, my dad.
Speaker:Uh, didn't just buy the components that we could build the remote control boat.
Speaker:He showed me a design of a circuit for, , you know, radio receiver and I soldered it
Speaker:myself and had to figure out the circuitry when I was, uh, about 13 years old.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:, So created my first circuit world there and, um, and then built all sorts of.
Speaker:Things, you know, always building things, furniture out the garage.
Speaker:Designing them.
Speaker:Introduced to cad, you know, computer aid design.
Speaker:When I was 17 through my graphic design teacher at school, I
Speaker:was like, oh, this is cool.
Speaker:Can do things in 3D.
Speaker:And had a passion for architecture.
Speaker:Uh, that put me on this journey in academia.
Speaker:Uh, 'cause I got accepted to aerospace engineering.
Speaker:Um, he's a real engineer.
Speaker:He's a real, got a smart bookie.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Love math.
Speaker:You know, that was, what do we call him?
Speaker:Rocket scientist.
Speaker:Rocket scientist.
Speaker:Rocket.
Speaker:Real, real rocket scientist.
Speaker:Anyway, there's, there's a lot of history there, but, um, in a nutshell, aerospace,
Speaker:eng, civil Eng and architecture, all sort of combined academically.
Speaker:And helped found the, uh, architectural engineering, uh, course
Speaker:at Swinburne University, which I still lecture at and teach the,
Speaker:the young architectural engineers.
Speaker:And we're trying to build, you know, Australia's capability
Speaker:and architectural engineering.
Speaker:'cause that's where all the design, integration and innovation
Speaker:happens in the industry.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Could you maybe just define architectural engineering?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because I mean, usually they're split up.
Speaker:You've got an architect and you've got an engineer who don't talk.
Speaker:Yeah, well some, occasionally they talk loudly at each other.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, so, so what, what does that mean?
Speaker:So, architectural engineer,
Speaker:I'll name drop Simon de Silva.
Speaker:'cause he, he mentored me as a young lecturer at RMIT when I was there.
Speaker:And, um, he, he used to say, there's a building, you, you wanna
Speaker:take this hand in glove approach.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So, , the architecture is the hand and the, the gloves, the, the, um,
Speaker:engineer or the structural engineering, and it's, um, they, they should work
Speaker:as one, So the, the, the architecture side of it is all the human side
Speaker:of how you make buildings work.
Speaker:Uh, the engineering side is all the technology and stuff that
Speaker:makes the architecture function.
Speaker:And when you have all of that floating around in one brain rather than two
Speaker:separate brains, you can begin to sort of iterate in between those two
Speaker:things and set goals for the human aspects of the design and make the
Speaker:functional things sort of achieve that.
Speaker:Um, so in a very general way, it's the way of thinking.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:So within like Swinburne architectural engineering degree, they learn structures,
Speaker:uh, but they don't learn it from, uh, like using a similar approach to civil
Speaker:engineering while they do the fundamentals and design a beam in isolation.
Speaker:In some cases with the civil engineering portion of it, uh, we teach how
Speaker:to design the entire building as a system, as a structural system
Speaker:that can be pushed and pulled and.
Speaker:You know, adjusted as the design iterates.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So then you can adjust it to the human requirements.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, with light and, and heat and et
Speaker:cetera.
Speaker:So you walk out as into this degree, are you able to write yourself
Speaker:on the architect board or an engineering board or what do you
Speaker:It's an engineering board.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So it's an fully accredited, um, engineers Australia degree.
Speaker:So I was just thinking, 'cause we, we've, we've interviewed a,
Speaker:a, an architect today, right.
Speaker:And um, so this is a couple of thoughts running through my brain.
Speaker:First thought is, it's such a practical approach when you put
Speaker:those two things together because there's synergy between the two.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think one of the limiting things that come to my mind though is that
Speaker:you actually remove some of the creativity that architects then
Speaker:are allowed to kind of flourish in.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:When they're not limited by the practical engineering side of things.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Now, I'm not saying one's.
Speaker:Better than the other because I think both have merit from a builder's point of view.
Speaker:I love the whole architecture engineer thing because that
Speaker:makes so much sense to me.
Speaker:It makes so much sense.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But then I think if I hadn't, if we hadn't have talked to Danny today, I
Speaker:wouldn't have even brought this up.
Speaker:I love the fact that they spend five years at at uni and they just say, just
Speaker:let your brain be free, be free, and create and do all those crazy things.
Speaker:I mean, I don't know where I'm going with this.
Speaker:It just, it just happens to have been like these two thoughts that came to my mind
Speaker:then that, that, that both have merit.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Both.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, you know, we, we need architects to challenge engineers Yes.
Speaker:To, you know, create what needs to be created for society.
Speaker:I feel architecture responsibility to do that.
Speaker:I, I think, um, sometimes they, you know, actually are maybe.
Speaker:You know, holding back a little bit.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:With, with some engineers, like, you know, you gotta keep the pressure on and Yes.
Speaker:And get them to innovate.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and really be comfortable with, with something that's more interesting.
Speaker:And, and that's good 'cause everyone's kind of forcing everyone to step
Speaker:outside of their comfort zone.
Speaker:So then you get these amazing results.
Speaker:I mean, I love that you are kind of talking about that middle part though.
Speaker:Mm. That, that the real practical.
Speaker:Space where everyone kind of comes together and it can, it's actually
Speaker:can be achievable because I think a lot of ideas just remain ideas.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Whereas yours is like the idea and the solution.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So the robotics part, what have you, what, talk to me about that.
Speaker:What, what is like if you develop a robot that makes the form
Speaker:work or it is the formwork.
Speaker:Hang on the robot
Speaker:is the form work?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I completely, you're gonna, you're gonna have to,
Speaker:okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So form work wants to be rigid, right?
Speaker:Um, so that's the challenge.
Speaker:, But to, to just to explain it, what are we doing?
Speaker:We're casting concrete traditional casting method, right into a form, but
Speaker:that form has multiple different shapes.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:That it could be in.
Speaker:So essentially it's an adjustable or adaptable form.
Speaker:Work moves different curvature, uh, curve curved shapes.
Speaker:Fucking brilliant.
Speaker:So you're actually using, so maybe I'm gonna break this right back down.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:So you've got form work that is a robot that will just essentially move
Speaker:to whatever you want the robot to hold itself as and then you pour it Correct.
Speaker:And the next time, like you take the concrete out and then on the next
Speaker:pour, it could be different shape of that exact same bit of form work.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:And that does not require any like manual labor to make the form work.
Speaker:I mean, this is fucking genius because all you are then doing is
Speaker:telling the computer what it to be, and the robot's just doing that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So could we then see form work, um, was there an opportunity
Speaker:to invest in this company
Speaker:so you could potentially wipe out all form work for construction workers?
Speaker:I'd grab a term sheet, yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:You could, you could potentially wipe, what's the minimum investment?
Speaker:Could you wipe out all form work, construction, labor in the future?
Speaker:Uh oh yeah.
Speaker:I
Speaker:mean, possibly.
Speaker:So the, in, in a con,
Speaker:in a controlled environment, I would say, yeah, there's an opportunity for sure.
Speaker:The, my mind splits in two when you ask that question, because technically yes.
Speaker:Um, but then commercially, how does that work?
Speaker:I was gonna say 'cause well if we do even commercial sector, that's one
Speaker:of the biggest types of construction or trades on site, is form work.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I wonder how they're gonna go if you are like, no, we're gonna cut
Speaker:all the jobs and we can do these.
Speaker:'cause you could sit significantly reduce price.
Speaker:'cause we know Labor's one of the most big components,
Speaker:you know, if it's a, a company like, you know, form 700 or, or, um.
Speaker:Perry, you know Yeah.
Speaker:Porn, working systems, like they've got their systems right.
Speaker:And they're, they're got a bit marketed in situ, you know, uh, form work.
Speaker:You know, we could go into that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, what we're.
Speaker:Focusing on is precast at the moment.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So you could
Speaker:wipe the
Speaker:whole precast.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I should refer back, change my comment.
Speaker:You could ref, you could change the whole precast environment.
Speaker:You, you know, you can, you're, you're, you're, yeah.
Speaker:Absolutely not one site.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You're shaking it up
Speaker:like you're, you're dis you're disrupting it.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So, so at the moment you, you are talking about like, um, sound barriers, right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Moving warehouses or, well, just, this is my next thing, like, I mean, you're
Speaker:talking about the curvature allows you to make more efficient designs.
Speaker:But could you then apply that same logic to like a precast factory?
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So that's what we're doing now.
Speaker:Yeah, so we, we have our own factory in West Foot Gray.
Speaker:We're producing product products.
Speaker:We in
Speaker:West Gray, I mean,
Speaker:oh yeah.
Speaker:That's cool.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:Come by.
Speaker:Are you down, just down towards Tottenham Way or are you at the back end?
Speaker:No,
Speaker:Tottenham.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:, Yeah, 500 square meter facility there.
Speaker:It's our prototyping facility actually now, but we, we produce.
Speaker:Product out of it.
Speaker:We're currently working with the MAD team, um, on the Northeast link to, uh,
Speaker:produce some, uh, earth retaining walls, which are actually on show here now.
Speaker:Sold in Preco today.
Speaker:I'll go into that in a bit more detail in a sec, but, uh, yeah, we
Speaker:we're producing urban furniture.
Speaker:We're producing earth retaining walls.
Speaker:Yeah, we're producing product already.
Speaker:The noise walls, the bigger elements, that's where ambition lies to, to go.
Speaker:And we're doing that, um, in, in partnership with advanced precast.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I'd
Speaker:love to just know a little bit more about the, like, the mix, like I, I just
Speaker:think about like how like concrete just work the concrete and they wait for it
Speaker:to dry to a certain point before they can start finishing and stuff like that.
Speaker:What is the process with your product?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, it's actually very similar.
Speaker:So you are able to potentially remove steel as well from your,
Speaker:me, like your concrete, and then really reduce carbon footprint.
Speaker:Yeah, so look, the challenge with us at Curvecrete is that we, we we're
Speaker:continuously optimizing things, um, and we need to create that clear
Speaker:narrative of what we're doing.
Speaker:Haven't delved into that, so that's a really good question though.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, but, um.
Speaker:We've managed to demonstrate that you can actually eliminate, a lot of the
Speaker:steel reinforcement in concrete as well, um, by utilizing, rock as the
Speaker:reinforcement, uh, which sounds funny, but, uh, basalt, um, is the rock that you
Speaker:can use when you, uh, when you melt down basalt and stretch it into long strands.
Speaker:You can create, um, basalt reinforcement.
Speaker:And it's got a higher tensile capacity than steel.
Speaker:It's lower density than steel.
Speaker:So you end up with this compounding effect where you got about an 88% reduction
Speaker:in carbon emissions from, uh, the, uh, comparison of those, uh, those metrics.
Speaker:So steel versus the equivalent strength in basalt Rio, 88%
Speaker:reduction in carbon emission.
Speaker:What's the catch here??
Speaker:I feel like it's all too good to be true.
Speaker:So, uh, so like, that's like.
Speaker:Where my, sorry, hang.
Speaker:Where my brain goes is like, but but why isn't this now just
Speaker:like what everyone's going to
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's just a different way of engineering the system.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:So the standards for since 1850, you know, uh, are, you
Speaker:know, steel reinforced concrete.
Speaker:Everyone's familiar with it.
Speaker:They, they get it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's easy to
Speaker:come at.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But you, you need some driving factor to change.
Speaker:Like some significant driving factor for these types of concrete structures.
Speaker:In, uh, Canada and other regions where, you've got freeze thaw issues, um,
Speaker:where cracks open up, uh, that's whatt.
Speaker:Reinforcement's really, really good because it doesn't corrode.
Speaker:Um, so
Speaker:yeah, con concrete cancer's gone eliminated.
Speaker:Yeah, so.
Speaker:In environments like that, it's really essential to solve that problem.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So they use those types of systems, but here we don't have that issue as much.
Speaker:So, so I just wanna go back to the vessel.
Speaker:So we're introducing it.
Speaker:I wanna go back to the vessel thing.
Speaker:'cause it, it kind of makes sense 'cause mineral is, is air
Speaker:spun rock, it's, it's spun rock.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:It comes itself together.
Speaker:So surely that whole process though is incredibly energy exhaustive.
Speaker:So like the actual like process of.
Speaker:Creating this basalt reinforcement is hugely, you know, and the
Speaker:energy intensive, energy intensive.
Speaker:But what you are saying, just to confirm Mm. Is that it's
Speaker:less intensive than, than steel.
Speaker:Than steel.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So there's still, there's still some embodied carbon there,
Speaker:but it's a better, it's, it's
Speaker:way less, yeah.
Speaker:How,
Speaker:um, because the, you can look at it as simplest perspective as just
Speaker:look at the density of the material.
Speaker:So density of steel is, you know, 7.8 specific gravity.
Speaker:Whereas Sure.
Speaker:Yeah, I knew that one off the top of my head too.
Speaker:Yeah, sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So from, from memory, yes.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Uh, basalt is 2.7, so you know, of course.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Alright, well you know what, penny drops now?
Speaker:Two and a Yeah, it's two and a half times lighter.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So then you, you know, if a lighter substance, less atoms.
Speaker:You know, um, so less
Speaker:heating.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So does that mean, and that's assuming that you're not using renewables
Speaker:or something to create that too?
Speaker:Like if you had renewables, you'd Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:It's, it's, you don't need as much to get there too.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So we've solved all the problem.
Speaker:Now we've got rid of Rio, we've got rid of Portland cement.
Speaker:So why isn't this everywhere?
Speaker:I think the, you know, uh, the big challenges commercially are, well,
Speaker:how do you scale up, uh, these, these low carbon concretes where
Speaker:you have like a, a training, overhead or you know, some other different safety
Speaker:procedure or, um, you know, um, testing that's required prior plus politics.
Speaker:Uh, yeah, I mean, yeah, so, so all the, yeah, so the big, uh, cement
Speaker:manufacturers, you know, cement Australia and, and their, um, their people their
Speaker:technical departments are awesome.
Speaker:Like we, we chat to them all the time.
Speaker:Yeah, the sustainability department.
Speaker:We get along with them really, really well.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They're all really enthusiastic to do things.
Speaker:But then when it comes to, uh, getting it done, actually,
Speaker:uh, it's a little bit slower.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So what we've done is we've looked at, well, you know,
Speaker:can we work with independents?
Speaker:Um, and, and start to like a wholesome or like a borrow or something
Speaker:like that?
Speaker:Or even No, no, smaller.
Speaker:Like even smaller again.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like
Speaker:wholesome.
Speaker:Global.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Wholesome actually in vi Yeah.
Speaker:In Victoria.
Speaker:They're like, not like, I think Pronto's the biggest in Victoria.
Speaker:Proto.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But, but
Speaker:Hol Wholesome is a global company.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yes, yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, um, so's
Speaker:bur
Speaker:actually Yeah, bur as well.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, and, and, uh, Heidelberg materials or Hanson.
Speaker:We work with them, we work with, um, you know, master builders and Sicker Yeah.
Speaker:And these sort of, um, you know, uh, producers of, of raw material as well.
Speaker:Like it's all pretty collaborative.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But then when it gets to the large commercial scale, it's,
Speaker:it's quite difficult to navigate.
Speaker:So the, the best that we can do is demonstrate that it can be used, get
Speaker:specified to specify these types of new materials and put pressure on the
Speaker:industry at large to, to use it more.
Speaker:And, and is that the reason why, I guess you're then targeting
Speaker:like, I would say that they sound.
Speaker:Infrastructure is a product.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Is that why you've kind of targeted that at this point in time?
Speaker:'cause then there's a proof of concept that's,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:That's kind of like a North Star, um, yeah.
Speaker:Product.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Um, so, , we worked with Arup as well, I should mention.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, they, uh, helped us a lot with, uh, you know, engineering
Speaker:the system to the point where it can be, you know, uh, specified.
Speaker:So they proved out that.
Speaker:You know, we could reduce the material by half.
Speaker:And, you know, have all the re reinforcement, detailing everything.
Speaker:There seems like there's a lot of red tape that you gotta go through.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:In my, my mind like immediately goes to, well.
Speaker:Why aren't I pouring this concrete next week in my residential lab?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that's where my brain like, why?
Speaker:And I'm
Speaker:just like, why aren't we just doing this?
Speaker:Because if you like just sitting with you now, like is enough for me to go.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Well that makes all the sense.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But I guess if I think about all of the infrastructure that's around us at
Speaker:the moment is purely based around that.
Speaker:Using Portland cement.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:We've got plants.
Speaker:We put it in the back of a concrete truck and then we deliver it to site.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Like that network's all already there and Yeah.
Speaker:And, and existing, I'd imagine it would be like, 'cause the, the, the
Speaker:opportunities for you guys are endless.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Like.
Speaker:Like,
Speaker:why is a normal car?
Speaker:This is why I've asked the question before, like, why don't it just
Speaker:get rid of normal concrete and just only use low carbon concrete?
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:I'd said this on, like, I was just saying this, um, bef you know, before
Speaker:you came in, Matt, that, you know, I drive past that, you know, we we're that
Speaker:main hub of, um, all the buzzes with this new tunnels and links that we're,
Speaker:you know, that we've got at the moment.
Speaker:And there's a Boral plant right in the middle in Bo.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And I had a thought the other day as I was driving past and I thought, I wonder why
Speaker:they're not using low carb concrete on.
Speaker:All of this concrete infrastructure that's going in.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And I guarantee that, um, it's not happening.
Speaker:It's just, it's just the same old, same old stuff.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And why is it not mandated that it's has, that it's low carbon?
Speaker:Because there are tons, like tens of millions of tons of concrete
Speaker:that are getting, putting in there.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:It just, it,
Speaker:I, I actually don't, it actually really frustrates me.
Speaker:It's just like, just roll with a new one.
Speaker:Because once you have more.
Speaker:Like supply of it.
Speaker:The cost comes down.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Like, it just, we just hate that.
Speaker:We're just gonna make that one obsolete now because it's outdated.
Speaker:We've got a better technology.
Speaker:Are you just targeting a product?
Speaker:And in my mind, a precast panel is a product, rather than going, all
Speaker:right, well, we're just, we're gonna try and target every single plant
Speaker:that's out there and have their
Speaker:trucks filled with our concrete.
Speaker:You're like, we can provide you a solution.
Speaker:Here's the solution for this problem.
Speaker:And it's quite specific.
Speaker:It's precast panel.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Do you think that that's easier for you guys to focus on?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But, but ultimately your market is infinite.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like, we could use this in a slab.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:the, the challenge, um, that is faced with these things, to be real is.
Speaker:, That, if you've got a, uh, init concrete supplier, um, that deals with
Speaker:concrete, and they're just churning it out, you know, they've got their
Speaker:supply contracts, they've got, you know, um, they know how to work
Speaker:the material, these sort of things.
Speaker:Um, they don't have training overheads and this sort of thing, so.
Speaker:You know, there, there's a training overhead, there's, it's the
Speaker:same concrete, like we've used it.
Speaker:My concrete, our reckon have no idea about the difference.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But I, I see where you are coming from though, because like, 'cause there is
Speaker:that, there's a, there's a real like, change here that needs to happen.
Speaker:It's just
Speaker:that, it's the, the unfamiliarity of it, from the specifier's
Speaker:perspective, I, I think that it comes down to, so I'm, I'm in the.
Speaker:, Nitty gritty of, um, you know, how how do we inform, concrete suppliers
Speaker:about not using cement at all.
Speaker:And also educating the specifiers at the same time.
Speaker:Uh, to say you can specify this, you don't have to specify just standard concrete.
Speaker:If it gets too far in that design process or specification process,
Speaker:and then the alternative comes in, , that sort of consultancy
Speaker:overhead, you know, doesn't exist Yep.
Speaker:On projects.
Speaker:So the, the money doesn't get spent on trying to change something.
Speaker:It's just, oh, it's already done.
Speaker:Um, so there's two, two angles, uh, that we have to attack essentially.
Speaker:So like may maybe.
Speaker:I know dumbing down's the right term, but Oh, sure.
Speaker:Just, yeah.
Speaker:Dumb it down.
Speaker:So, so if, hypothetically speaking mm-hmm.
Speaker:Your product was taking the place of Portland cement.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And, and, and is that the c the, the component in the
Speaker:mix that you are replacing?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So remove Portland cement input your, yeah.
Speaker:Your yours into that supply chain.
Speaker:So two, two part question.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Does the rest of their, infrastructure and delivery of it change or is it the same?
Speaker:The infrastructure slightly changes.
Speaker:Because, with our mix design you're using, uh, slag and flash Yeah.
Speaker:Rather than cement.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, you know, some batching plants might have, you know, just a silo for cement.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Maybe just a silo for.
Speaker:You know, flash or something.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Maybe they need to introduce another silo for the slash
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And this is what I was getting at.
Speaker:Yeah, because there's all those costs as well.
Speaker:Investment from the plan.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:But
Speaker:then you go back to your Boral comment where they've just
Speaker:made one on the new freeway.
Speaker:Like why isn't it just like, that's what we're making.
Speaker:But then,
Speaker:but then, you know, if you give the example, like we, we've been doing
Speaker:a little bit of, um, back and forth with Geo Quest up in Aubrey, um,
Speaker:the Hanson facility hub, Heidelberg materials facility that has.
Speaker:Cement, uh, slag and flash there, already.
Speaker:But that was because Geo Quest pushed, sorry, sorry, Hanson.
Speaker:But you know, um, geo Quest pushed them to Yeah.
Speaker:To put it in there because they really want to do it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, um, the pressures from Precasters, or other builders potentially, um, and
Speaker:institute Concreters, if they pressure.
Speaker:The raw material suppliers to Yeah.
Speaker:Change their facilities.
Speaker:They'll change it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If the demand is there.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Um, and so we are here to like build that demand.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So you, so
Speaker:you are now creating demand.
Speaker:So, so my, my second question Yeah.
Speaker:Is.
Speaker:, If, you know, there's this demand and ma magically tomorrow mm-hmm.
Speaker:Everyone's like, well, you know what, we're just gonna be using your concrete.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Do you have the supply chain for it?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, I mean, yes.
Speaker:And, and in and in my mind, and I'm, I'm assuming this is like a synthetic
Speaker:kind of, so, so you've got the fly ash and then what you, I know you
Speaker:can't talk about your special sauce.
Speaker:Oh, the, so yeah, the sauce, the secret sauce.
Speaker:So is that, is that like just easily manufactured.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Okay, so it's a no brainer.
Speaker:Now we need, we need to wrap this one up, so, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:This, this is exciting.
Speaker:Yeah, this is exciting.
Speaker:I, I had
Speaker:an announcement, by the way.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Go, go for, go, go.
Speaker:What's, what's the announcement?
Speaker:I'm breaking news now, so Breaking news.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, breaking news.
Speaker:Literally just got an email a couple hours ago from my patent attorney.
Speaker:And, , the, uh, patent That we're applying for, for our robotic technology, the
Speaker:adaptive mold, after seven years, um, wow.
Speaker:Just got granted congrat.
Speaker:Congratulations.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:So there's a certificate there.
Speaker:I mean, you can, you can certificate of, you can show it
Speaker:to the, that is, you can see that.
Speaker:That is
Speaker:pretty cool.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Geez.
Speaker:We're token wherever dropping all the, here Jackie Fate.
Speaker:Unreal.
Speaker:Hey, look, I'm, I'm, you know what?
Speaker:I guess like, just broadly speaking, like I'm excited.
Speaker:You know, right now we're surrounded by a pretty innovative product, even
Speaker:though it's been around forever.
Speaker:You know, Dura panel, you know, we're talking to you
Speaker:now of a low carbon concrete.
Speaker:You know, for me, I don't know, concrete.
Speaker:I, I love it and I hate it at the same time.
Speaker:Like it's solves the problem
Speaker:that we have
Speaker:concerns with.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:You know, it's, it's there forever.
Speaker:Um, this for me, I dunno, this is the future.
Speaker:Mm. It's amazing.
Speaker:Well done.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Thank you very much for coming on, mate.
Speaker:Cheers.
Speaker:Cheers.
Speaker:Cheers.
Speaker:Cool.