Solutions For Low Embodied Carbon Concrete

The strength, durability, and versatility of concrete has made it the most widely used building material globally in buildings, parking structures, tunnels, bridges and more. However, its global dominance as a building material has a downside due to one of its key components, portland cement, which can account for as much as 90 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with concrete. Therefore, the opportunity to reduce cement content is key to reducing embodied carbon and, globally, Master Builders Solutions has industry-leading technologies to do so.

Master X-Seed – Our patented strength-enhancing admixture is capable of reducing embodied carbon in environmentally-preferable concrete mixtures by 5 to 20 percent while maintaining the strength requirements needed for high quality, sustainable concrete solution. Because of its unique versatility in enhancing concrete strength while lowering cement content, when Master X-Seed admixture is used in combination with other Master Builders Solutions admixture technologies, embodied carbon in a concrete mixture can be reduced by as much as 30 to 50%, without sacrificing strength and durability requirements. This has resulted in the use of Master X-Seed admixture in a wide range of applications with reduced embodied carbon requirements; in particular, data centers in both precast concrete and tilt-up concrete construction.

The demand for reduced embodied carbon concrete has led to a shift from the use of traditional portland cement to portland-limestone cements and ternary cements in concrete production. This shift has led to challenges ranging from concrete workability and finishability, and strength development. Master X-Seed admixture is being used to successfully address these strength development issues and it provides synergistic benefits when used in combination with MasterEase admixture.

MasterEase – Workability and finishability issues with portland-limestone cements and ternary cements are being resolved by using MasterEase admixture. This concrete conditioning admixture is also capable of reducing pumping pressure by as much as 30 percent; thereby, contributing to faster concrete placement and reduced energy use associated with placing and finishing operations.

Green Sense® Concrete - A highly optimized concrete mixture design in which recycled cementitious and non-cementitious materials are combined with specially formulated Master Builders Solutions admixtures. This concept has been used on some of the world’s most iconic structures, such as, One World Trade in New York City and the Shard in London. This high-performance sustainable concrete (HPSC) has demonstrated performance of over 70% replacement of cement and over 70% reduction in embodied CO2 in comparison to industry-standard concrete recipes. Additionally, the Green Sense® methodology allows for lower energy demands, lower water demands, and other reductions in environmental impacts.