Sustainable concrete mix completes pilot pour with EllisDon

Key Takeaways:

• Bio Graphene Solutions’ graphene-enhanced concrete admixture reduces cement content by 10% in standard commercial mixes.
• The pilot concrete pour, completed in collaboration with EllisDon Corporation and Tomlinson Ready Mix, demonstrated their product in a real-world construction setting, validating lab results and showcasing its potential for broad industry adoption.
• BGS says its mixture is the only solution capable of reducing cement content by up to 20% without compromising performance.

The Whole Story:

Bio Graphene Solutions has completed a pilot commercial concrete pour with EllisDon Corporation, a global construction services and technology company, and Tomlinson Ready Mix, one of Ottawa’s largest concrete providers and part of the Tomlinson Group of Companies.  

The company’s proprietary graphene-enhanced admixture was integrated seamlessly into the operational flow of a Tomlinson Ready Mix 32MPa-C-2 sidewalk concrete pour at an active construction project managed by EllisDon’s Ottawa team. The biographene-enhanced concrete mix utilized 10% less cement than the control mix design without sacrificing the fresh properties of the concrete.

Bio Graphene stated that the pilot testing is a critical milestone in demonstrating the in-situ performance of the biographene-enhanced mix, validating lab trials which have shown that the concrete achieves the 28-day targeted strength of 32MPa by 7 days. Their team added that the real-world applicability and benefits of the biographene-enhanced admixture are many, providing measurable material cost savings and significant embodied carbon reductions – as much as 280kgCO2e¹ per average concrete truckload.

“EllisDon strives to be at the forefront of how sustainability is changing the face of construction and what’s expected for the future of the industry,” dsif Jolene Mclaughlin, Vice President of Climate and Sustainability of EllisDon. “The implementation of innovative and new technologies, like BGS’s graphene admix solution, is a great example of how material science can drive meaningful change in embodied carbon reductions. Implementing innovations like these on our worksites can enable our company to develop some of the most sustainable concrete structures in Canada, in collaboration with our subtrade partners. We look forward to the successful completion of this project with BGS and our other partners.”

In 2023, BGS announced the development of a 100% “green” graphene-enhanced admixture for commercial concrete mix designs. Developed primarily to tackle the removal of cement (the binding material in a concrete mix that also contributes to more than 8% of the global CO2 emissions), the Company’s graphene-enhanced admixture can remove up to 20% of the cement content in concrete without sacrificing the compressive strength performance of the overall concrete product. BGS believes its product is the only admixture solution in the market that can facilitate the removal of cement and still provide significant cost and CO2 savings to its potential customers in non-specialized commercial concrete mix designs (30MPa to 50MPa mixtures).

“We are extremely fortunate to have the ability to work with partners like EllisDon and Tomlinson who support innovative and new technologies,” said David Fisher, CEO of BGS. “In a market that’s typically resistant to change, it’s important to highlight that there are sustainable and cost-effective solutions, like our graphene admixture product, that can provide meaningful value to the construction supply chain in a non-invasive manner. We look forward to the success of this pilot project and further working with EllisDon and Tomlinson in supporting commercial adoption of BGS’s graphene products overtime.”