Posts in the Category: ultra-low carbon cement
Meet the team: Dr Dali Bondar
The low-carbon project brief
Securing a place on CRH Ventures’ highly competitive Sustainable Building Materials Accelerator programme marked an exciting opportunity for Material Evolution to collaborate with CRH, a leading provider of building materials solutions across 28 countries. The accelerator also presented an opportunity for Material Evolution to build on ongoing work with CRH portfolio company Tarmac, one of the leading ready-mix companies in the UK.
Following a successful pitch, Material Evolution was selected to launch a commercial-scale pilot of MevoCem, and to explore the next generation of ultra-low carbon cement products – all with the aim of redefining the future of construction.
Material Evolution, CRH, CRH Ventures & Tarmac at the Mevo A1 Production Facility in Llay, Wales
Length of project
Material Evolution was selected as a winner of CRH Ventures’ Sustainable Building Materials Accelerator in April 2025 for demonstrating the readiness to deliver a commercially viable solution that can lower CO₂ emissions, enhance performance, and boost the uptake of waste feedstocks in the manufacture and supply of building materials.
The 12-month pilot project will begin in July 2025.
Key pilot stats
- Commercial-scale pilot will demonstrate MevoCem performance against Flex350
- Lab testing will quantify the benefits of Material Evolution’s patented alkali fusion process
- Ongoing collaboration will include joint commercial development of Material Evolution’s next-generation products
Our approach & expected results
The CRH-Material Evolution collaboration will centre on launching a commercial-scale pilot project to showcase Material Evolution’s groundbreaking MevoCem. Ready-mix components of the demonstration pilot will be tested and carried out in collaboration with CRH portfolio company Tarmac, precast elements through another CRH portfolio company, and in collaboration with a contractor to be announced.
This pilot project is expected to act as a key example of a construction project conducted under the British Standards Institution’s Flex350 code of practice, and may help provide the data necessary for Flex350 to be incorporated into the broader BS8500 concrete standard – which is equivalent to the EU’s EN206.
The other two components of the collaboration will include lab work and further commercial development:
Specifically, lab work to quantify the reactivity benefits of Material Evolution’s alkali fusion process, which will be done in collaboration with CRH’s Innovation Centre for Sustainable Construction.
Finally, the joint development will aim to position CRH as an early adopter of Material Evolution’s next-generation ultra-low carbon cement products, currently under development. These are expected to include versions of low-carbon cement products that include low or no GGBS.
The technology
By using our proprietary alkali-fusion technology to produce MevoCem, Material Evolution have eliminated the need for heat as part of the cement production process. This cuts CO₂ emissions to just 144-196 kg of CO2e emitted per tonne – an up to 85% reduction compared to traditional cement.
The Material Evolution process also makes use of industrial feedstocks, promoting circular economy principles, with no impact on strength or durability. We harness artificial intelligence and machine learning models to optimise formulations from feedstocks from different geographies, enhancing performance while continuously reducing emissions.
Alkali fusion refers to Material Evolution’s patented mechano-chemical process. This is a non-heat process that uses shear energy in the presence of chemicals to increase the reactivity of less reactive materials, including industrial byproducts like GGBS and PFA, waste materials like mine tailings and steel slag, and abundantly available rocks and materials like natural pozzolans. The reactivity uplift through the alkali fusion process enables these lower reactivity materials to become a cement replacement powder that only requires water for activation.
As the biggest producer of low-carbon cement in the UK, Material Evolution’s Mevo A1 Production Facility in Wrexham has the capacity to produce 120,000 tonnes annually, making the company the largest producer of ultra-low carbon cement in the UK. We’re leading the charge toward a greener future: read more about our sustainability credentials here.
The vision
Eduardo Gomez, Head of CRH Ventures, commented: “Through our latest set of partnerships, CRH are aiming to drive growth and deliver market-ready innovation to our customers across the construction value chain.”
Josh Bennett, National Technical Manager for Ready-Mix at Tarmac, commented: “We have been working with Material Evolution for close to a year, and we have been consistently impressed by their innovation and product development. We are excited to work together under the CRH Ventures accelerator to deliver scaled projects to prove to the world that ultra-low carbon cement is ready today.”
Contact us today to discuss your low-carbon cement solution
Interested in trialling MevoCem in your next ready-mix application? Reach out to our team via the link here to start building a low-carbon future with us.