Ecocem has been awarded €4 million in research funding to develop electric arc furnace slag-based low-carbon cement.
Ecocem received the funding as part of a consortium featuring academic and industrial leaders from the European Innovation Council (EIC) as part of the EIC Pathfinder Challenges 2024.
Ecocem’s submission was one of only 31 winners out of 401 submissions. Ecocem’s new research will aim to optimise electric arc furnace slag reactivity. The research will determine how to make EAF slag work more effectively as a supplementary cementitious material without compromising the durability of the cement.
“This recognition confirms Ecocem’s position at the forefront of sustainable innovation in the cement industry. For many years, we have been pioneering the use of a range of slags and cementitious materials to create scalable and durable low-carbon cement,” Ecocem corporate development executive director Eoin Condren said.
“Thanks to this grant, we will continue our groundbreaking work as the steel industry transitions to new manufacturing processes, delivering a viable solution for a new generation of waste from steel.”
Ecocem’s submission was conducted in collaboration with ArcelorMittal, the University of Toulouse, the FehS Building Materials Institute, the CNRS – Géosciences Environnement Toulouse, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, and the ETH. The programme will run for the next four years, with testing taking place in Paris in partnership with ArcelorMittal.
“This award is also a testament to the importance of collaboration between scientists, industry players, innovators, and public bodies to significantly accelerate the development, scaling, and adoption of low-carbon technologies,” Condren said.
“I am confident that working with this group of highly respected organisations we will deliver groundbreaking innovation. It is only by working together to tackle our industry’s most pressing challenges that we can hope to meaningfully decarbonise the cement industry in line with net zero goals.”
