Why we invested in ecoLocked - Building the largest manmade Carbon Sink
Our blue and green world is becoming greyer by the second. With most of our future infrastructure yet to be built, the demand for concrete continues to grow. By 2060, projections estimate a need for a staggering 230 billion square meters of new construction - equivalent to erecting a city the size of Paris every week.
At ~8% of global emissions, the cement & concrete industries emit more CO2 than global aviation and all the heavy trucks in the world combined. In terms of emissions on a national scale, it would stand as the third-largest emitter globally, trailing only China and the US.
About 60% of these emissions stem from the fundamental chemical reactions involved in the calcination process of the key ingredient in cement, clinker, while the remaining 40% come from the coal used to power the process. During calcination, limestone releases nearly half of its weight as CO2 when heated to 900 degrees Celsius, which is a crucial step in producing ordinary Portland cement.
The fundamentals of limestone and cement emissions
Even if cement production were entirely powered by renewable energy, it would still emit over a billion tons of CO2 annually due to the direct emissions from clinker production.
Cement emission reduction options
Solution: Cut the emissions by replacement, reduction and/or removal of cement
To tackle the environmental impact of concrete production, the obvious step is to tackle the carbon intensive materials in the process. The solutions can be summarized as follows:
1. Replace cement (or clinker) with new materials: Innovations like Brimstone, Biomason, and Material Evolution offer promising alternatives to traditional cement, leveraging novel materials to reduce environmental impact. Paebbl aims to mineralize captured CO2 within concrete.
2. Reduce use of cement through technological advancements: Solutions including sensors and AI-driven solutions like Alcemy, facilitate the optimization of cement usage, minimizing the carbon footprint.
3. Removal of CO2 from the atmosphere by embedding CO2 in building materials. This can be done using the CO2 gas (e.g. CarbonCure or Carbonaide) or by solid carbon in the form of biochar like ecoLocked.
4. Recycling of concrete waste: Efforts such as C2CA and Neustark focus on recycling concrete waste, offering a circular solution to minimize environmental impact.
Hurdles to navigate for industry wide adoption of these sustainable solutions
While there are a myriad of solutions, the centuries old industry is difficult to transform. A few key reasons include:
Capital (and time) intensity: Existing cement plants would need to be adapted to the new processes and supply chains, which would entail a high capital investment.
Low willingness to change: Overcapacity and fierce market competition in the cement industry impede the adoption of decarbonization innovations. Incumbents are reluctant to shift to new approaches that could render their existing assets obsolete or oversized.
Fragmented innovation: The broad range of innovations available in the market do not necessarily complement each other or the incumbents, causing economic and time inefficiencies.
Price parity hurdles: Without openness to adoption by the bigger players, there is no clear path to price parity for many of the new approaches as they can only demo the parity once they scale. Any green premiums put them at a disadvantage vs. the existing players in a highly volume-price sensitive market with low margins.
Regulatory changes: In some regions traditional construction and building codes specify the use of materials and, in some cases, mix proportions for a given application. Given the innovativeness of the presented solutions, they often do not fit within the rather conservative standards. To accommodate the newer solutions, some regions are implementing rules that focus on material performance instead of the nature of a material.
ecoLocked: Maximizing impact in the concrete industry through integrated Carbon Storage and Utilization
Biochar is one of the most cost-effective and scalable CCUS methods. Biochar Carbon Removal (BCR) accounts for 94% of delivered carbon credits in 2023. By incorporating biochar into concrete, ecoLocked creates durable carbon sinks, enabling the global scale-up of BCR, and simultaneously supplies the construction industry with valuable materials to achieve its sustainability goals.
ecoLocked’s platform enables fast and cost-efficient development of high-performing biochar-based building materials. Powered by data on biochars, suppliers, and other materials & technologies, ecoLocked develops additives and admix materials that can partially replace conventional materials like sand and cement. These additives and admixes are delivered along with optimized recipes, as well as technical and climate impact consulting. ecoLocked’s recipes are customised and certified for different concrete market segments, with the potential to make entirely CO2 free concrete with improved properties, such as thermal insulation, weight reduction, or curing acceleration. This offers biochar producers access to a highly scalable end application and unlocks the built environment as the largest man-made carbon sink.
For example, ecoLocked’s first product line, eLM Zero, is an admix material, enabling the production of certified carbon-neutral concrete. Multiple concrete producers in the DACH region and the Netherlands have already embedded eLM Zero into their product portfolio. Additionally, ecoLocked is collaborating with prominent players in the cement industry and works with municipalities and real estate developers to bring down the carbon footprint of various construction projects.
Among the myriad of approaches considered by Climentum, ecoLocked emerged as a comprehensive solution to the challenges posed by the industry:
Immediate viability: ecoLocked offers ready-to-use materials in a suitable format, paired with technical consulting to support seamless integration for buyers.
Cost-competitive: Despite a slight price premium at the current stage, ecoLocked demonstrates potential for cost parity through scaling and targeted market penetration.
Complementary integration: ecoLocked integrates seamlessly with existing production methods, fostering collaboration. They complement biochar producers, concrete companies and other novel cement & concrete production technologies, such as the ones presented above.
Regulatory compliance: Positioned to operate in segments where regulations are not prohibitive, ecoLocked can gain traction quickly and gradually move into markets with tighter regulations.
Collaborative industry approach: By collaborating with existing producers of biochar, cement and concrete, ecoLocked establishes itself as a partner in the industry instead of going against it, akin to established additive companies like Sika and Masterbuilders.
ecoLocked will use the fresh funds from the seed round to expand its production plant, launch additional product lines, and accelerate the offtake of its products. With investments in its R&D team, ecoLocked is furthermore set to expand its AI-driven platform. This enables them to make use of variable feedstock to efficiently create consistent, high-quality products for specific segments, which is a key challenge for the construction sector, ecoLocked is poised to scale up and remove more than five million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030 and a cumulative 1Gt by 2040. The solution works now and can be combined with future decarbonization technologies for concrete.
