Spotlight on building materials of the future at Com:bau trade fair in Dornbirn

12. March 2024

In 2022, the concrete industry was responsible for 8% of all global CO2 emissions by producing 2.9 billion tons of CO2 (source: F.A.Z:, 31.01.2024). It represents one of the biggest “climate sinners” worldwide – which means that there is no way around a sustainable construction future.

On Friday, March 1, we attended the Com:bau trade fair in Dornbirn, one of the most important construction trade fairs in the four-country region. Numerous trade fair visitors, experts and representatives of the construction industry exchanged perspectives on all aspects of construction.

This year, the focus was particularly on the specialist forum and the special exhibition on "Climate building materials of the future", which offered interesting insights into the latest innovations and solutions in the field of sustainable construction. Top-level presentations focused on the use of biochar in concrete.

What is the current state of research in the field of climate-positive building materials and what specific examples of applications can be mentioned? What is biochar actually and how is it produced and used - for example in our SYNCRAFT reverse power plants? The forum provided answers to these and many other questions. In addition, several best-practice examples showed how climate-friendly building materials can be used in real construction projects.

Climate concrete - building material of the future

One thing is certain: “what if" does not exist - climate-friendly building materials are not a vision of the future, they are already a reality today! We are confident that climate clay as CO2 sink as well as other climate-friendly building materials will be established even faster and with more emphasis in the industry from now on.

What needs to be done in particular? The proportion of cement in concrete needs to be reduced and replaced with climate-friendly materials, as it is responsible for the majority of CO2 emissions. This is where valuable biochar comes into play, which is produced as a third product in our reverse power plants and can store carbon for centuries. It can be added to the concrete and thus acts as an effective carbon sink: around 3kg of CO2 can be stored per kilogram of biochar. It can also improve the functionality of building materials.

DerStandard has taken a closer look at the use of biochar for climate-friendly construction. Read more in the article: Beton mit weniger Zement, dafür Holzkohle soll 80 Prozent klimafreundlicher sein - Edition Zukunft - derStandard.at › Edition Zukunft

 

Sources: