New Zealand Commercial Design Trends Series NZ Commercial Design Trends Vol. 30/12 | Page 116

An overall shorter building time and lower costs
as a result of less cement, concrete and possibly
steel are further benefits.
Greater design flexibility
Due to the thinner, lighter slabs and columns
required, CNT-enriched concrete offers considerable design flexibility. This benefit will become
particularly significant if the need for steel can
be eliminated entirely. This would open the way
for far greater design flexibility and new building
techniques, such as 3-D printing of high-strength,
lightweight concrete structures that could
revolutionise structural design.
Greatly reduced carbon footprint
Concrete is the most widely used man-made
product in the world. Approximately a tonne of
concrete is produced every year for every person
on Earth – the US uses in excess of 700 million
tonnes annually. However, cement production
accounts for an estimated 5% of annual anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). By
reducing the amount of cement and concrete
required for any given structure, this could significantly reduce the overall GHG footprint of the
cement industry.

108

search | save | share at trendsideas.com

The development follows more than 20 years of
research into carbon nanotubes, and the possible
applications that might benefit from such technology. Eden has already developed with the
University of Queensland (UQ) a low-cost pyrolysis
technology to produce CNT and hydrogen from
natural gas. Eden acquired the technology from
UQ and Eden’s US subsidiary, and scaled up the
process to a commercial scale.
Monash University was able to increase the
compressive strength of cement paste by up to
30% by adding only one half of a percent of CNT
to cement. Eden, in US trials, achieved a similar
increase, plus an increase in flexural strength of
nearly 14%. Analysis by Monash showed that CNT
created nucleation points for cement hydration,
producing denser, stronger cement with the CNT
firmly bonded into the hardened cement paste.
Eden’s research with Monash is ongoing. The
company believes CNT-enriched concrete has
enorm