Agrocrete: Carbon-Negative Building Material

About Solution

We, at GreenJams, have developed a building material, Agrocrete, that provides a remedy for one of the major contributors to climate change, and a pressing social issue;

Built Environment: In a report released by the World Green Building Council in September 2019, the built environment (construction and operations) have been deemed responsible for 39% of all the carbon emissions in the world. In effect, carbon emissions from the Indian built environment will be responsible for the loss of 7000 sq. km of land mass due to the rising sea levels.

Crop Residue Burning: A MDPI Journal Article published in 2019 reports that in India, an average of 100 million tonnes of crop residues are burnt which results in the emission of 150 million tonnes of CO2 and approx. 12 million tonnes of other greenhouse gases and particulate matter. About 50% of the blame for the 1.2 million deaths due to the poor air quality in India, for the year 2018 rests with the emissions from crop residue burning.

Agrocrete is a lightweight carbon-negative building material that is a combination of crop residues and a lime-based binder comprising of industrial wastes, to be used for walling applications. In comparison to the existing building materials such as AAC Blocks, Red Bricks, Concrete Masonry Units, the major advantages of Agrocrete are:

  • lower thermal conductivity,
  • higher thermal mass,
  • lightweight,
  • high durability and
  • less than zero embodied carbon.

The manufacture of Agrocrete is a simple and scalable process wherein we procure the crop residues from the farmer post-harvest and combine it with a lime-based binder that utilises the wastes from Steel and Power Plants.

For every sq. m. of wall made using Agrocrete, we sequester 15 kg of CO2, save 8 kg CO2 annually due to improved energy efficiency and prevent 55 kg of crop residues from burning, resulting in annual carbon savings of several million tonnes.

While we transform the construction industry into a sustainable one and create value for the crop residues, we have unprecedently enabled the farmers to become a stakeholder in the real estate sector, thereby creating a circular economy. The utilisation of the crop residues provides an additional income to the farmer and recognises their contribution to the economy, addressing the socio-economic concerns of farmers.

1

Comments

Contact Us

If you have any questions