Net-zero construction materials

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Decarbonising is a big challenge for the construction industry due to the very large amount of resources required in the erection of buildings and the absence of carbon neutral construction materials. Composite Designers Ltd will demonstrate feasibility of manufacturing net-zero construction materials in this project. We will achieve this by substituting traditional kiln fired clay bricks with bricks bonded using no-bake binders. This will eliminate the need for firing and reduce carbon process emissions. In addition, we will substitute silica (sand) aggregates which is becoming a rare commodity with other fillers. We have identified fillers which can have carbon storage potential. We will benchmark existing types of bricks for binder -- filler ratios and prepare test mixtures to identify most promising solutions. We will also benchmark other solutions trialled in the literature when preparing novel cements or asphalts. We will qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate our test samples and produce prototype bricks with the most promising test mixtures. Aside from their carbon credentials, we will also evaluate the processability of our mixtures to ensure that our products can be produced using existing production plants to promote quick adoption of our products. We are confident that our outside-the-box development approach to this civil engineering challenge will help the industry to become resource efficient and the UK industry more resilient to outside factors.