The MANAL project - a lighthouse project for sustainability and circularity

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Decarbonising the building materials industry, divest from cement and enable circular economy is a key challenge for the construction industry. At Oxara, we developed patented admixture and binder technology, cement-free, waste based, non-toxic and non-hazardous to produce circular, low CO2building products. The goal is to verify the use of Oxacrete Oulesse®, an eco-friendly binder (with 70% less CO2 emissions), in MANAL, a landmark project for sustainable construction in Luzern. Each year around 190 Mio tons of cement is consumed in EU (Cembureau) accounting for 150 Mio tons of CO2 emissions. Meanwhile 400 Mio tons of construction waste (Eurostat, 2019) is landfilled, an important amount of resources needed to promote circular economy in the construction. This is a reality in Switzerland and as well as around the entire world. In view of the climate issue and resources challenges, the EU tackles the issue through Green Deal policies to promote circularity and net Zero by 2050 and in June 2023, Switzerland voted to reach Net Zero in 2040. Companies and start-ups are making effort in reducing CO2 of concrete and cement, the most well-known are carbon sequestration and carbon curing technologies. Yet, the impact to save 10kg of CO2/m3 of concrete is low versus the emissions of 260 kg CO2/m3 of concrete. Imagine, we could transform construction waste into a cement-free binder with significantly lower CO2 emissions,. With the vision to facilitate sustainable construction and promote affordable housing on a global scale, Oxara has developed and patented a binder technology named Oxacrete Oulesse®, that upcycles construction demolition waste through grinding, milling and an activation process to have a low energy, low emission binder. Mixing Oxacrete Oulesse® with aggregates and water, we developed a disruptive concrete named Cleancrete Oulesse: a cement-free, circular concrete with potential to substitute around 40 % of conventional concrete on the current market and significantly reduce the CO2 emission by 70% (70 kg CO2/m3 versus 260 kgCO2/m3). Furthermore, Cleancrete Oulesse allows the usage of similar concrete infrastructures and processes such as mixing in concrete plants, transport with conventional concrete trucks, casting in concrete formwork and more. A key advantage for fast adoption. However, to implement and adopt building technologies at large scale, we recognise the complexity of the construction industry, the trust in new building product, and the urgent need for a landmark project showcasing the novel product. In light of these challenges, Oxara initiated the MANAL project, a circular and sustainable exhibition building construct on the Campus of University of Luzern, Horw. It is a large-scale architectural project involving Swiss industry stakeholders such as Kibag as material producer, Marti as construction company, WaltGalmarini as engineering office and HSLU as academic partner. The MANAL pavilion, to be built by February 2024, displays the use of Cleancrete Oulesse walls, exposed to natural conditions such as rain, snow but also incorporates reinforcement materials. Due to performance of Cleancrete based on the Oxacrete Oulesse® binder, we identified versatile applications in the MANAL project. It can be employed in an array of scenarios, including but not limited to load-bearing walls, non-load bearing walls, floors, screed, mortar, earth stabilisation, pre-cast elements, and porous concrete. To date, the product has successfully completed its internal development phase and is currently advancing into the implementation stages including market validation and market entry planned for the first quarter of 2024. Detailed project goals:Within the framework of the CBI Booster funding program, Oxara has delineated its project objectives, which primarily revolve around facilitating the implementation of the MANAL project in order to accelerate the market entry of the Oxacrete Oulesse® binder and the corresponding Cleancrete Oulesse, as followed: - Finalise the industrial validation of Cleancrete Oulesse for the implementation in the MANAL project - Cast Cleancrete Oulesse walls in the the MANAL project using recycled construction demolition waste from Kibag- Define market entry strategy and marketing campaign of Oxacrete Oulesse® and Cleancrete Oulesse,- Create a commercial document highlighting the LCA, circularity, price, and production advantage of the product in a real project. Project partners:Kibag – Cleancrete Oulesse development and industrial validationMarti – construction companyWaltGalmarini: engineering officeHSLU academic partnerProf. Dr. Robert Flat, ETH Zurich, Dep. of Civil, Env. and Geomatic Eng. – product development advisor How do we intend to secure third-party funding (10% of the total grant amount)? Marti Zurich GmBH agreed to sponsor part of the construction of Pavilion Zero while Kibag committed to produce Cleancrete for walls and foundation element. In total around 50 kCHF will be invested by third party partners, attached the commitment letter signed by both companies.

Project Idea Metadata

Project Idea Name: The MANAL project - a lighthouse project for sustainability and circularity
Date: 9/4/2023 3:49:33 PM
Administrators:

Project Idea Description

Each year around 190 Mio tons of cement is consumed in EU (Cembureau) accounting for 150 Mio tons of CO₂ emissions. Meanwhile 400 Mio tons of construction waste (Eurostat, 2019) is landfilled, an important amount of resources needed to promote circular economy in the construction. This is a reality in Switzerland and as well as around the entire world. In view of the climate issue and resources challenges, the EU tackles the issue through Green Deal policies to promote circularity and net Zero by 2050 and in June 2023, Switzerland voted to reach Net Zero in 2040.

Companies and start-ups are making effort in reducing CO₂ of concrete and cement, the most well-known are carbon sequestration and carbon curing technologies. Yet, the impact to save 10kg of CO2/m3 of concrete is low versus the emissions of 260 kg CO2/m3 of concrete.

Imagine, we could transform construction waste into a cement-free binder with significantly lower CO2 emissions,. With the vision to facilitate sustainable construction and promote affordable housing on a global scale, Oxara has developed and patented a binder technology named Oxacrete Oulesse^®, that upcycles construction demolition waste through grinding, milling and an activation process to have a low energy, low emission binder.

Mixing Oxacrete Oulesse^® with aggregates and water, we developed a disruptive concrete named Cleancrete Oulesse: a cement-free, circular concrete with potential to substitute around 40 % of conventional concrete on the current market and significantly reduce the CO2 emission by 70% (70 kg CO2/m3 versus 260 kgCO2/m3). Furthermore, Cleancrete Oulesse allows the usage of similar concrete infrastructures and processes such as mixing in concrete plants, transport with conventional concrete trucks, casting in concrete formwork and more. A key advantage for fast adoption.

However, to implement and adopt building technologies at large scale, we recognise the complexity of the construction industry, the trust in new building product, and the urgent need for a landmark project showcasing the novel product.

In light of these challenges, Oxara initiated the MANAL project, a circular and sustainable exhibition building construct on the Campus of University of Luzern, Horw. It is a large-scale architectural project involving Swiss industry stakeholders such as Kibag as material producer, Marti as construction company, WaltGalmarini as engineering office and HSLU as academic partner.

The MANAL pavilion, to be built by February 2024, displays the use of Cleancrete Oulesse walls, exposed to natural conditions such as rain, snow but also incorporates reinforcement materials. Due to performance of Cleancrete based on the Oxacrete Oulesse® binder, we identified versatile applications in the MANAL project. It can be employed in an array of scenarios, including but not limited to load-bearing walls, non-load bearing walls, floors, screed, mortar, earth stabilisation, pre-cast elements, and porous concrete.

To date, the product has successfully completed its internal development phase and is currently advancing into the implementation stages including market validation and market entry planned for the first quarter of 2024.

Detailed project goals:

Within the framework of the CBI Booster funding program, Oxara has delineated its project objectives, which primarily revolve around facilitating the implementation of the MANAL project in order to accelerate the market entry of the Oxacrete Oulesse® binder and the corresponding Cleancrete Oulesse, as followed:

- Finalise the industrial validation of Cleancrete Oulesse for the implementation in the MANAL project

- Cast Cleancrete Oulesse walls in the the MANAL project using recycled construction demolition waste from Kibag

- Define market entry strategy and marketing campaign of Oxacrete Oulesse® and Cleancrete Oulesse,

- Create a commercial document highlighting the LCA, circularity, price, and production advantage of the product in a real project.

Project partners:

Kibag – Cleancrete Oulesse development and industrial validation
Marti – construction company
WaltGalmarini: engineering office
HSLU academic partner
Prof. Dr. Robert Flat, ETH Zurich, Dep. of Civil, Env. and Geomatic Eng. – product development advisor

How do we intend to secure third-party funding (10% of the total grant amount)?

Marti Zurich GmBH agreed to sponsor part of the construction of Pavilion Zero while Kibag committed to produce Cleancrete for walls and foundation element. In total around 50 kCHF will be invested by third party partners, attached the commitment letter signed by both companies.