Decarbonization: Startup alcemy enables the production of sustainable concretes

Unfortunately, the carbon footprint of the construction industry is currently still huge. The startup alcemy wants to help change that in the future with its products for cement and concrete manufacturers. To this end, the team has developed a unique artificial intelligence that can be used to closely and continuously monitor the production of low-clinker and CO2-reduced cements and concretes. Hoang Hoang Nguyen, Head of Communications & Sustainable Construction at Alcemy, tells Ambivation in an interview how this came about and what the team learned during the concreting of the 32nd and 33rd floors in the EDGE East Side Berlin office tower.

Hi Hoang, what problem was Alcemy founded on?

Our goal is to contribute to the decarbonization of the construction industry, more specifically the cement and concrete industry. Currently, this industry is responsible for eight percent of global CO2 consumption. It’s hard to imagine, but new buildings on the scale of New York City are being built every month. This is happening not only in industrialized nations, but especially in emerging and developing countries. With our AI-based quality control software, we believe we can give our customers in cement and concrete an effective and powerful digital tool to make their products lower in CO2 and more sustainable.

Can you tell us a bit about your founders’ background?

Sure, our founder Leo Spenner grew up with building materials, his family has been producing cement and concrete for 96 years and the company is one of the largest manufacturers in Germany. Before alcemy, our second founder Dr. Robert Meyer built the machine learning team for automatic price control at a large German mobility service provider. At alcemy, the two then combined their competencies. Industry know-how met technical expertise, so to speak. In particular, Leo’s network and his family business opened many doors for us and gave us opportunities to develop our products. However, we are 100% independent of Spenner and also have many other customers.

With your software, manufacturers can produce concretes that save 50-70% CO2 – How do you manage to do that?

I’ll have to elaborate a bit more on that. Well, concrete consists primarily of water, sand, gravel, admixtures and cement. Cement is the most important ingredient in concrete, but unfortunately it is also responsible for the immense CO2 consumption. More specifically, the culprit is primarily cement clinker, which is burned at 1400 degrees in a rotary kiln, emitting CO2 in a chemical reaction. The problem is that cement clinker is enormously important because it functions like a kind of glue and plays a very crucial role for concrete.

With the help of our software, manufacturers can basically first monitor their production better and more closely. They can use it to reduce fluctuations in the quality of cement and concrete. However, the full potential becomes possible with sustainable concretes: Here, manufacturers can produce concrete types that contain significantly less cement clinker, but still meet the required quality characteristics.

What substitutes do you use for the cement clinker?

You can use various substitutes: Many manufacturers use granulated blast furnace slag, a by-product from the steel industry, or fly ash, which is produced during coal-fired power generation. The problem is that these materials are hardly available. We will not be able to decarbonize systemically with them. That’s why we, or rather our customers, are focusing on limestone powder. A cement clinker substitute that is very low in CO2 and at the same time available in large quantities. Until now, manufacturers have always resisted this, as the use of this substitute is quite challenging. But this is exactly where we come in. With our software, we enable the production of these more difficult cements and concretes.

How did you develop your technology?

The construction industry is generally a bit conservative. Cement and concrete manufacturers would normally never give out the necessary data. In this respect, the development of our solution would hardly have been possible without access to Leo’s family’s company. There, we were also able to try out for the first time whether our software solution really works. However, it is very important for us to emphasize that we are not financed by Spenner Herkules and operate completely independently. Our customers now include 10 cement plants and 20 ready-mix concrete plants.

With your help, two upper floors of the EDGE East Side Berlin office tower were built with CO2-reduced concrete. How did that come about?

It was more or less a coincidence. Someone in our personal network works at EDGE. What you need to know: Project developers now have a lot of pressure to make buildings as sustainable as possible, both in terms of the construction process and building operation. That’s why we immediately met with interest there. In a way, EDGE opened the doors for us and brought all the parties involved to the table.

What are the special features of your concrete?

First things first: it is 55% lower in CO2 than reference concretes! At the same time, there are some special features that participating companies have to adjust to, especially the possibly slower early strength development. We are happy to advise companies on how to plan the construction process in such a way that individual construction phases are not prolonged, and we are also sure that construction companies will only work with such concretes in the future.

Why were only two floors of the EDGE built with your concrete?

The problem is existing standards that prevent cements and concretes that are really significantly clinker-reduced from being used. But we used a little trick and stayed within the standard. But we also know that we have to bring sustainable concretes into mass application. Therefore, we are talking to many project developers and construction companies who are willing to use sustainable concrete produced with our software in their construction projects.

alcemy founders Dr. Robert Meyer and Leo Spenner

Were there any special learnings for you guys?

Our most important learning was that our product contributed significantly to the successful use of concrete. At the same time, it has once again become clear how crucial it is to involve everyone, every single link in the chain. Only when everyone is convinced and pulling in the same direction can a project like this succeed.

You are already on the road in the USA? Can you tell us something about that?

We are not allowed to name our customer there yet. We are currently in the pilot phase at a cement plant.

There are various approaches to making construction more sustainable. Do you think that these will complement each other even more in the future, or will one approach rather prevail in the conservative construction industry?

You always have to take the context into account. Not every building should be concrete. But for roads, bridges and generally infrastructure projects or high-rise buildings, it is currently indispensable. Black-and-white painting definitely doesn’t help us here, but openness to new ways. Wood and concrete, for example, are materials that can complement each other wonderfully. There is no either-or, it’s the mix that makes it.

Contact

Website: https://alcemy.tech/en/

LinkedIn: Hoang Anh Nguyen