A carbon capture company has received the UK Queen''s Award for Enterprise: Innovation 2017.
The accolade was presented to Carbon8 Systems for successfully putting its patented Accelerated Carbonisation Technology (ACT) into commercial operation to create what it claims is the world's first carbon-negative aggregate.
Co-developer of ACT, Dr Paula Carey, Carbon8 Systems’ managing director, stated: "Having successfully commercialised ACT for one specific waste stream in the UK, we are now working with some of the largest businesses in the world, including HeidelbergCement, Shell, Lafarge, Saint Gobain and ArcelorMittal, to commercialise ACT throughout Europe, North America and Asia."
The company, formed in 2006 as a spin-out from the University of Greenwich, aims to create a global portfolio of waste treatment plants that make a significant contribution to preserving the environment through the permanent capture of waste carbon dioxide (CO2).
Carey developed ACT with Professor Colin Hills, technical director of Carbon8 Systems, in the School of Engineering and Science at the University of Greenwich.
ACT combines CO2 gas with industrial wastes, such as cement dusts, steel slags, oil shale ash, incinerator ash or paper ash, and contaminated soils to form new products. They can then be used as carbon negative construction materials by the building industry.
In 2010, Kent-headquartered Carbon8 Systems licensed ACT to Carbon8 Aggregates, which subsequently built three ACT plants in the UK.
Professor Hills added: "This is a huge vote of confidence in the technology which mineralises carbon, gives wastes value, and is a unique example of innovative UK low-carbon technology. Being acknowledged globally for our innovation will now spur us on to translate this into successful international trade deals, and support sustainable construction around the world."
Carbon8 Systems has also been working on adding value to fine grained or silty dredgings, improving their geotechnical properties so they can be used in land reclamation or sea defences.
Many port areas also have sources of carbon dioxide and reactive industrial wastes that could be used in the ACT process, the company said.
Carbon8 Systems plan to run a workshop on the reuse of dredgings in collaboration with the Crown Estates and the Environment Agency in September this year.
The Carbon8 Systems team will receive its award from the Lord Lieutenant of Kent and attend a royal reception at Buckingham Palace hosted by Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom later this year.
