July 30, 2025 • 30 mins
Concrete might be the backbone of modern society, but it comes at a steep carbon cost.
As global climate pressures intensify, the business of “greening” this essential material is heating up, and few are more determined to crack the code than Zarina Bazoeva, co-founder of Neocrete.
In the latest episode of The Business of Tech, Zarina sits down for an in-depth interview about how her New Zealand startup is tackling one of the world’s most stubborn climate problems: cement, the glue in concrete, is responsible for around 8% of global CO2 emissions.
“To produce cement, we use a lot of fossil fuels, and so partly that's the reason why it's so carbon intensive, and the other part is because the chemistry of cement contains CO2 in it, so it is released during the manufacturing process,” Zarina told me.
Neocrete is using volcanic ash and its own additive to replace conventional cement ingredients, with promising results. With Neocrete shipping product to its first customer in Southeast Asia and embarking on a Series A capital raise, join us to hear Zarina outline her vision for cities build from low carbon concrete.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Business of Tech powered by two Degrees Business.
I'm Peter Griffin, and today we're diving into one of
the most urgent challenges facing our planet, the massive carbon
footprint of concrete. Now, cement which goes into concrete is
responsible for around eight percent of global CO two emissions.
(00:24):
That's more than the entire aviation industry, so it's huge.
But change is in the air. My guest, Zorina Bosover,
co founder with Matt Kennedy Good of Auckland based startup Neocrete,
is working on a breakthrough that could dramatically reduce emissions
from concrete production. Instead of just tweaking the old cement recipe,
(00:46):
they're leveraging volcanic ash, a material quite plentiful here in
New Zealand and which the Romans use for their famously
durable structures. They're adding a proprietary chemical activator to that
to replace carbon intensive cement. Now this technology can slash
carbon emissions bay up to fifty to sixty percent in
(01:06):
the lab. According to Neocrete, the goal is to completely
eliminate those emissions that currently exist from cement production by
twenty twenty seven in the research setting, and by twenty thirty.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
In real world construction.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Now, if we're serious about moving to a low emissions economy,
changing the way we make concrete is one of the
biggest levers we can pull. Concrete is quite literally the
foundation of modern life, used in everything from high rises
to highways. Neocrete just won the inaugural Pineal Innovation Award
from the Pineal Business Association, which gives them access to
(01:42):
free advice from ice House Ventures and Outset Ventures, both
of which are based in Pineal. It comes just as
Neocrete is about to embark on Series A fundraising, so
it's really well timed for them. Before we get started,
I thought when I listened back to the interview, it
might be useful just to explain the difference between cement
and concrete, which are not actually the same things.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Now.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Cement, often called Portland cement, is a sort of fine
powder that acts as a binder when it's mixed with concrete. Concrete,
on the other hand, is a composite material made by
combining cement, water, and aggregates like sand and gravel. In
other words, cement is a compound of concrete, but concrete
(02:29):
is the final product used in construction, so With that
in mind, here's Zorena Besova on the quest to revolutionize
construction worldwide with the use of low carbon cement. Sorena,
(02:49):
welcome to the business of tech.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
How are you doing great?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Thank you for having me, Peter, really excited to catch
out with you again.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
It is it's been a few years.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
I was actually working at Callahan Innovation doing some work
on really innovative startups at the time, and that's where I.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
First came across neocrete.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Probably might have just been before COVID, So it's a
lot of water under the bridge, a lot of concrete unfortunately,
has been used since then, and you're still tackling this
big issue and have made some pretty good progress on
the issue of our concrete use and how carbon intensive.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
It is all over the world.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I think that the headline figure is still accurate. Around
eight percent of global CO two emissions come from the
production of concrete.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Is that accurate?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Yeah, A production of cement of cement, yes, And that
is because to produce cement we use a lot of
fossil fuels and so partly that's the reason why soil
carbon intensive, and the other part is because the chemistry
of cement contains to in it, so it is released
during the manufacturing process.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, and I think at the heart of it so
called clinker, which is an industry term for it. So
this is at the heart of cement. It involves heating
limestone to what four hundred and fifty degrees celsius. That's
pretty hot. So then obviously to maintain that and to
(04:26):
have big furnaces that are doing that, that's hugely energy intensive,
isn't it.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
It is And basically cement was invented when the humanity
discovered fossil fuels and managed to now achieve those kind
of temperatures and that's like, okay, if we heat it
after these extreme temperatures, then we produce this amazing building
material that can set fast and help us build bridges
(04:51):
and tunnels and high rise buildings.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, it's been incredible.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
The metropolis you see in any countries, cities of ten
million people or above, wouldn't be possible without this revolution
in cement and concrete productions. So it's been responsible for
the advancement of society in the last one hundred years.
The flip side of that, obviously, is this little problem
(05:18):
with emissions and CO two emissions in particular, which is
the real serious one.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
So what's the state of play. I mean, you've got
neocrete here.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
There are other startups in New Zealand and around the
world tackling this issue. But in terms of our overall
approach to emissions, are the big concrete makers making any
inroads so far? Are there technologies and efficiencies that they've
been able to introduce into their process to start chipping
away that eight percent?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yet?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Well? Yes, Fortunately there are a lot of initiatives around
the world to tackle the huge problem. It's also a
huge market, so no wonder. There's a lot of competition
around the world, which is a good thing, we believe.
But they're basically three different ways to tackle it. One
(06:16):
is to sweep the fossil fuels heating out for for
those furnaces. For more for less carbon intensive energy sources
or electric furnaces are being introduced. The other way is
to actually capture all the CEO two that gets or
most of the SEER two that gets emitted at the
end of the cemine production process. And lastly is to
(06:40):
actually replace cement with the low carbon materials. And that's
where neocre neucrete technology lies, and there are issues or
big challenges with all three of these approaches. We're trying
to change a huge global industry as very costly and
(07:00):
very slow, and all of them, all of the other
alternatives require significant capital infrastructure changes, significant investments in it.
Our technology is different because we actually remove or significantly
reduce the need for processing of raw materials and we
turn the raw materials into cement using our activator, which
(07:22):
is an additive that we're basically blend with those raw,
low cost, low carbon materials and turn them into cement
without the need for this bulky, costly and carbon intensive infrastructure.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Okay, So in terms of the raw materials you're talking
about there, what are you actually using Because the core
ingredient in cement, what is it? Typically we talk about
Portland cement, I think, which is one of the main
types of cement that is used in construction around the world.
What's that actually made from? What's the core ingredient there?
(07:57):
And what are you using as an alternative?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Yes, ament is typically made of limestone, clay and a
little bit of gypsum. So limestone chemical formula is calcium
SOO three, so it is heated and that furnaces to
extreme temperatures and that's when c R two gets released
and we get calcium oxide that is used for clinker production.
(08:21):
So we don't use limestone. So we can actually use
limestone as a filler as well, but we basically use
volcanic ash, and this is the material. They're called natural
pozzlans and the name comes from Italy where the Romans
discovered amazing binding properties of those materials and then they
(08:44):
turn them. They use them before cement was invented. That's
what was used previously in concrete and that's what we
mainly used. We can activate it further with our technology
and turn that volcanic ash into a better alternative for cement.
We can also work with activate waste materials from other
(09:05):
carbon intensive industries like coal production for power plants. It's
called fly ash. There's waste and slag. But they have
been already used in constructions for some time outside of
New Zealand, mainly.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
So when you go to Herculaneum and Pompeii and Italy,
those beautiful buildings that have been unearthed from the volcanic ash,
those buildings were actually made from volcanic ash as well.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Absolutely, and you can see how durable they are and
how much longer they stay. And the biggest thing is
because that material being natural and not highly processed, it's
not in conflict with the environment. So modern cemine based
concrete is always in conflict with the environment. So things
(09:50):
like even sea or tow or seawater or any rainwater
eventually destroys the structure of concrete and then gets to
steel reinforcement and then it can really deteriorate. So pozzolanic concrete,
that's why we're big advocates of that, is actually in
harmony with the environment, and water can actually make it stronger.
(10:12):
So that is the big secret of durability of pozzolanic
or Roman concrete that we're definitely using for our modern technology.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
So you've got that aspect of it, the raw materials,
how you're processing it. Take us through that if you can.
What are you doing differently about the processing of it.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
So usually to turn the raw materials into something useful
for concrete or like turn it basically cement, it is
a glue that holds all the sand and aggregates together.
So to turn something into the glue, usually the raw
materials are heated to stream temperatures or ground to really
really fine powder, which we do we use chemistry, so
(10:50):
we produce our really small additive which is edited only
it's three percent of total semontitious material to the volume
of that material, and using chemistry, it actually turns the
raw material that's with low processing material that's only ground
to a certain particle size, not super fine particle size,
(11:13):
and turns that material into cemine because our particles are
with a very high surface charge that gets transferred to
all the whole volume of the semlititious material. So we
actually activate cement in simltitious materials like volcanic ash without
the need for heat.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
I guess the big advantage we have here is we
have a lot of volcanic ash.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Or is it that simple?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
I mean, are there lots of deposits of this that
are easily mineable and useful for the concrete industry.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Absolutely, they are easily available in New Zealand and around
the world, and they're already being mined and being used
for some low value materials like cat litter for example,
or VA filtering, so they're already being used. So it's
just really hard a specially New Zealand to make use
of them as an alternative to cement because they're not
(12:04):
highly reactive in New Zealand. Comparatively, they're not very old.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
You've got this chemical additive that you've developed, you know,
years ago, now that's readily available, You've got the raw materials,
you've got lots of experience now and actually making this concrete.
In terms of your tests, what is the sort of
the emission savings that you are seeing now? And you've
(12:29):
probably been through a few iterations of the technology since
I spoke to you last, but I think you were
talking at the time about maybe twenty percent saving and
emissions from concrete. Have you managed to improve on that?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Yes, absolutely, that's a very good memory. We can now
get to depending on the material, we can get to
fifty or sixty percent reduction in carbon and concrete and
we're not stopping there. We're on track to completely replace
cement and carbon emissions associated with concrete by twenty twenty seven.
That's in the lab and by probably twenty thirteen in
(13:02):
real life building.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Well. So it's really advancing in terms of the technology
and at the efficacy of it. You've also had some
big wins in terms of sort of showcase buildings or
concrete structures that you've worked on. Tell us about some
of those you've been working with Cayanga Aura for instance.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yes, and that was one of the earlier projects we
had that was worth Kanga Aura and Concrete Tech and
it was a passive house for social housing in south
off in Auckland, South Auckland, and they used neocrete panels
pre cast panels and the cement production from memory was
(13:42):
around twenty five percent And that was a successful project
and at the time, twenty twenty five percent reduction in
cement was quite significant.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, and that's tax payer money ultimately that's going into
those developments. So if they can scale that up and
use that across their build program, that's not only emission
savings but cost savings as well.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Yeah. I believe kang Or is the largest developer in
New Zealand, so that would be great that or we
can achieve a bigger scale if that project gets rolled
out or used as an example for the other development.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Is there a particular type of construction that your product
is really suitable for? Is it really sort of buildings
or would this work for bridges and tunnels and highways.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
The good thing is a universal product. It can be
used for anything. We can actually achieve higher savings, carbon
savings and cost savings for higher grades of concrete, which
are usually typically used for infrastructure projects like tunnels and bridges.
The thing is that until we get to that point,
they're also associalated with high risk, so that's not where
(14:51):
the customers would want to trial a new product. So
before we get to that point, we would probably til
it or and we have already child it lower risk
project like foundations and slabs and roading, and that's what
we have been doing in the last few years in
New Zealand and overseas.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Now, yeah, I guess you know it's a valid concern.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
If you're building a highway like Transmission Galley down here
in Wellington, that's a multi billion dollar project. If you're
underlaying that with concrete, you want to make sure that
concrete is going to last forty or fifty years. So
building that confidence in the concrete industry that this alternative
is going to be as durable over the long term,
that's a big priority for you.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Absolutely, and we're actually not concerned with the durability for
the reasons that we discussed earlier. But he is convincing
the industry that it is safe to use concrete with
significantly less cement. That's a big change in perception. The
whole industry is actually built around the performance of cement.
My dad who is our head of R and D,
(15:54):
he is a scientist and an engineer. He loves cement
and then everything around it. I think it's really hard
to convince engineering community that actually there are better alternative
to semine.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
How are you doing convincing the industry that this is
a viable alternative. I think you've been working with the
cement companies here but also internationally. Now you've got partnerships
as well.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Yes, so we've won a few challenges, international challenges run
by Global Cement and Concrete Association, for example, where we
were selected as one of the four finalists amongst seventy
applicants around the world, and that was to decobnize the
industry using materials just like ours. And we are now
working with a consortium made of global cement manufacturers representing
(16:40):
around thirty percent of global cement market. They're sending us
there or they've already seen us all of their materials
around the world. Pozzolanic Materials mainly natural that are really
hard to activate, and we're doing testing for them to
activate it without technology.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
They obviously want a source of this poslanic material that's
close to them, so they need to make sure that
your additive and your process works on the raw materials
that they have easily accessible.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
And yeah, and the exciting finding out of that project
was that the activator that we developed using New Zealand's
volcanic ash was actually applicable to all other different sources
of volcanic ash around the world. So we use the
same exact activator across a multiple materials from around the
(17:27):
world that are otherwise really hard to activate.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Excellent.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
So it sounds like you're on the cusp really of
you know what they call the scale up by guests,
going from startup to having revenue coming in from cement
makers and that, but actually getting your product out there
and widely used around the world.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
How far into your startup journey are you now?
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Well, we're officially no longer pre revenue. So we have
first customer in South East Asia that is a ready
mixed company that runs six ready mix plants, and we're
just seen our second shipment earlier this week. A second
shipping container overseas, and they have been successfully trialing our
(18:12):
product with their waste material because they have a lot
of fly ash. They have a big oil refinery that
is powered by a coal power plant, right, and so
they have a lot of that ungraded, low quality, very
cheap fly ash that otherwise gets dumped by the sea,
and so they really are keen to get rid of it.
(18:33):
And without our technology they managed to only replace around
five percent of cement with their flyash. With the neocrete activator,
they are now replacing forty three percent of cement with
three percent activator and forty percent flyish. So not only
we're managing to save se or two from cement, we're
also recycling the waste product that otherwise it's really hard
(18:57):
to recycle. And we're also saving them some costs because
that material is very cheap and it's abundant.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
That's incredible.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Yeah, And look, it is unfortunately abundant in industrial facilities
around the world. In China, which is responsible for i
think fifty percent of cement production, that there's a lot
of fly ash sort of there. So to be able
to apply your additive to that as a huge advantage.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
It would be a great advantage. We also don't want
to focus too much on recycling the materials. I think
it's a medium term strategy to get rid of that waste.
As long as, like while all those common intensive industries
transition to cleaner ways of generating power or producing steel, I.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Think that's the way to go. We've got to mitigate
these emissions. And you know, the whole carbon capture and
story seeing has been so slow to get moving, it's
very difficult to scale it up. So I think you're
on the exact right track in terms of your capital
journey and that you've raised some money. Are you where
you at in your sort of fundraising cycle.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Yes, so we are about to start series A raise
and my co founder Matt is going to be leading that.
And yeah, we raised four million US plus some non
deluged funding with from government and other organizations for the
means of grants. So that was set round two years
(20:26):
ago now, almost two years ago now, and yeah, so
we're about to start serious a round and that round
last time was very successful where we were oversubscribed. We
try to fit in like the investors in New Zealand,
but it was led by a big investor from overseas,
wave Maker from Singapore.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
That's great to have that international interest. It seems like
the capital market for startups is actually pretty healthy. We've
seen three companies It was track Suit, Halter and there
was another one, Project Works in Wellington. Between them raised
like a couple of hundred million dollars. That was mainly
down to halt Her. They had a huge raise. But
we're seeing a lot of international vcs partnering with the
(21:10):
likes of ice House and at who may have been
in on previous rounds. So it seems like the appetite
is there, and particularly in the clean tech space. That
is an area sort of coming out of deep tech,
which can take longer and is a bit riskier. But
we definitely seem to have a growing scene here in
New Zealand that's attracting capital and interest from overseas.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Yes, but also we still believe that the VC climate
is not perfect toy it. It's not as healthy as
it used to be maybe five six years ago. Also
with the new US administration, there is a focus away
from clean technology and we definitely noticed that. But I
think it's actually to an extent beneficial for companies like
(21:57):
neo creed because maybe obviously all this US competition and
clean technology almost had unlimited amount of funds in terms
of grants. It will be hundreds of millions of dollars
that was giving them a non dilute of funding. And
some of that technology I believe will never work because
it doesn't make sense scientifically. There's a lot of hype
(22:19):
around it. So I think with the reduction in total
volume of available investments, the investments are going to be
more into the technologies that are not that capital intensive
but can bring revenue and return much faster, So people
will be more probably thorough in choosing clean technologies to
(22:40):
invest in.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
You talked there.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
About non dilute of funding, so essentially that's government grants
and there have been under the Biden administration as part
of his stimulus package post COVID put a lot of
money into clean text, literally billions of dollars in non
dilute of meaning that you don't have to give away
party your shareholding in the company to get that money.
(23:03):
And Wellington recently the Big Clean Tech conference run by
Creative HQ. Some great startups were showcasing their work there
and there were complaints there about we don't have access
in New Zealand too much in the way of non
dilute of funding, especially with the demise of Callahan Innovation.
I guess that's a concern for yourself and people coming
(23:23):
up behind you in clean tech as well.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Absolutely, And we definitely made the most of those grants
when they were available, and some of the grants are
still available like Oro here for example. We managed to
get that and so we're very grateful that happened, and
it actually happened in critical time for the company to
be able to prove our technology and before the VCS
(23:47):
would even look at us. So I hope there'll be
some alternatives that will still help startups and that non
dilute of funding as much as possible. I don't think
we'll ever be able to compete with the US and
you're in terms of you know, government grants, but what
it means it will teach our businesses to probably be
more efficient with the funding that we do get, and
(24:10):
that will be our competitive advantage because we actually don't
have that unlimited the unlimited resources.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
That's a good point, Max Oorshowsky said last week on
the episode featuring Zeno astronautics. He was basically saying, when
vcs look at New Zealand startups, they go, wow, these
are incredibly lean companies capital efficient. So to some extent,
you know, that is an advantage. It shouldn't be the
case that our startups are funded to a lesser extent
(24:39):
or have to take less for their shareholding. But it's
definitely a string to our bow.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Yeah, and maybe it's just a first step really in
the journey. And as you said, than being more efficient
with the funds, then you can survive a few like turmoils,
you know, if anything happens. So I think it teaches
us a valuable lesson that. Yeah, the politics changing and
the move or shift away in some countries from clean
(25:06):
technology and commitments to decarbonizing the industries. The thing is
that our technology is not just clean and green, it
actually is better and more efficient and less costly. So
then we can survive all of those different political ways.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I think it's a phase we're going through, but we'll
get back on track.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
We'll have to get back on track.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Look at you know, the summer, the northern hemisphere summer,
the heat waves are increasing in frequency and intensity. It's
becoming evident now to so many people that we need
to do something about CO two emissions. And here we
have eight percent coming from the production of concrete. And
there are solutions actually and more easy to apply than
(25:48):
in some other industries where it's quite tricky. You know,
aviation fuel, replacing that in a sustainable way is a
tricky one. But concrete is bigger than the entire aviation
industry in terms of its carbon footprints, so it's a
no brainer.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
And yeah, and I actually believe that decarbonizing industries can
absolutely start with a cement and concrete manufacturing because as
you said, at least it's one product, you know, and
once we replace some me you know, it's going to
be such a massive for a billion tons of cement
get produced every year, so if we replace that, it's
(26:21):
going to be a massive, massive wind for us. All
some countries are mother shifting away. Some countries are not,
like Europe. That's why you're off is our next big market.
That's where're targeting at co founders already there.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Right, you just won a prize from the Parnell Business Association.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
That's really cool.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
And actually, you know, there's a lot of startups clustered
and Parnell because Callahan is there and there's Outset Ventures
and that, so that's actually.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
A big deal.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
You know, there's some stiff competition in that part of town.
So you got some i think funding and some mentoring
from ice House Ventures as on offerers. Well, how are
you going to take advantage of that?
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Yeah? Absolutely, we're very happy to have won that award
from a Panel Business Association. We actually brought the whole
team into that final when it was the announcement, so
it was a big event for the whole team. So
we're very grateful to be recognized here in Pinel, in
our home. Every little counts for a startup, So the
(27:23):
free advice we're going to receive from ice House and
Outset is valuable, especially now when we are about to
start raising again. It's probably the best advice we can get.
We can get from the biggest we see in the country,
so that is amazing. And yeah, the whole team was
celebrating because we don't celebrate wins enough and that was
one of those days that. Yeah, we definitely made the
(27:45):
most of it.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Well, it sounds like you're on the right track. Good
luck with the fundraise series A. There's been some good
ones in New Zealand recently, so I hope that rubs
off a bit on neo crete as well.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
And good luck for particularly for.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Your spearhead into Europe, where I say there is a
heck of a lot of opportunities. So good luck and
thanks for coming on the business of tech.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Great, Thank you very much, Peter.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
So that's Serena from Neocrete on a very worthy mission
to cut emissions from cement and hopefully they're on the
cusp of raising the capital that will get them to
the next level. Now, a few weeks back I came
across another startup called Rock Extract. It's only been around
about six months. It's a spin out from what was
GNS Science, now known as Earth Sciences New Zealand, and
(28:36):
is founded by doctor Peter Rendall. Rock Extract was one
of the startups showcased in Creative HQ's Aurora Clean Tech Accelerator.
They all pitched their technology at an event in Wellington
I attended. Peter Rendall was there. He's an experimental hydro
thermal geochemist based in Taupo. He works on geothermal energy
(28:57):
stuff up there. He didn't go into much detail about
Rock extracts technology. But here's what he did have to say.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
My name is Peter Rendell. I'm a senior scientist at
Genet Science and the founder of rock Extruct. At Rock Extruct,
we develop a completely new type of cement. This is
not a petitive or a supplement, but a completely new material.
Our material have a similar performance, costs and scalability to
normal cement, and it also takes many other boxes which
(29:27):
the industry is looking into. But more importantly, our process
completely removes the need for calcination and by doing that
we can slash carbon emissions by more than ninety percent.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
So clearly a different approach to niocrik being employed by
doctor Rendall at Rock Extract, and its very early days.
The company isn't looking to raise capital at the moment,
but it has been selected as one of the startups
in the Global Cement and Concrete Associations in a Vandi
Open challenge where they'll gain access to the labs and
(30:04):
plants off the world's biggest concrete makers, so that's going
to be really useful for them. It's great to see
too promising Kiwi startups with differing approaches to the same
problem carbon intensive cement production. I wish to find us
all the greatest success. We really need them to make
a serious dent, literally in one of the hardest problems around.
(30:25):
That's all for this week's episode of the Business of Tech.
Head over to the podcast section at Businessdesk dot co
dot nz to find the show notes about these companies
and my weekly tech reading list as well.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Thanks so much for tuning in.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
If you enjoyed the episode, don't forget to subscribe in
your favorite podcast app or on iHeartRadio and join us
next week as we explore more tech driven solutions to
the world's toughest problems.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
I'll catch you then,
Welcome to the Business of Tech powered by two Degrees Business.
I'm Peter Griffin, and today we're diving into one of
the most urgent challenges facing our planet, the massive carbon
footprint of concrete. Now, cement which goes into concrete is
responsible for around eight percent of global CO two emissions.
(00:24):
That's more than the entire aviation industry, so it's huge.
But change is in the air. My guest, Zorina Bosover,
co founder with Matt Kennedy Good of Auckland based startup Neocrete,
is working on a breakthrough that could dramatically reduce emissions
from concrete production. Instead of just tweaking the old cement recipe,
(00:46):
they're leveraging volcanic ash, a material quite plentiful here in
New Zealand and which the Romans use for their famously
durable structures. They're adding a proprietary chemical activator to that
to replace carbon intensive cement. Now this technology can slash
carbon emissions bay up to fifty to sixty percent in
(01:06):
the lab. According to Neocrete, the goal is to completely
eliminate those emissions that currently exist from cement production by
twenty twenty seven in the research setting, and by twenty thirty.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
In real world construction.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Now, if we're serious about moving to a low emissions economy,
changing the way we make concrete is one of the
biggest levers we can pull. Concrete is quite literally the
foundation of modern life, used in everything from high rises
to highways. Neocrete just won the inaugural Pineal Innovation Award
from the Pineal Business Association, which gives them access to
(01:42):
free advice from ice House Ventures and Outset Ventures, both
of which are based in Pineal. It comes just as
Neocrete is about to embark on Series A fundraising, so
it's really well timed for them. Before we get started,
I thought when I listened back to the interview, it
might be useful just to explain the difference between cement
and concrete, which are not actually the same things.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Now.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Cement, often called Portland cement, is a sort of fine
powder that acts as a binder when it's mixed with concrete. Concrete,
on the other hand, is a composite material made by
combining cement, water, and aggregates like sand and gravel. In
other words, cement is a compound of concrete, but concrete
(02:29):
is the final product used in construction, so With that
in mind, here's Zorena Besova on the quest to revolutionize
construction worldwide with the use of low carbon cement. Sorena,
(02:49):
welcome to the business of tech.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
How are you doing great?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Thank you for having me, Peter, really excited to catch
out with you again.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
It is it's been a few years.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
I was actually working at Callahan Innovation doing some work
on really innovative startups at the time, and that's where I.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
First came across neocrete.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Probably might have just been before COVID, So it's a
lot of water under the bridge, a lot of concrete unfortunately,
has been used since then, and you're still tackling this
big issue and have made some pretty good progress on
the issue of our concrete use and how carbon intensive.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
It is all over the world.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I think that the headline figure is still accurate. Around
eight percent of global CO two emissions come from the
production of concrete.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Is that accurate?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Yeah, A production of cement of cement, yes, And that
is because to produce cement we use a lot of
fossil fuels and so partly that's the reason why soil
carbon intensive, and the other part is because the chemistry
of cement contains to in it, so it is released
during the manufacturing process.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, and I think at the heart of it so
called clinker, which is an industry term for it. So
this is at the heart of cement. It involves heating
limestone to what four hundred and fifty degrees celsius. That's
pretty hot. So then obviously to maintain that and to
(04:26):
have big furnaces that are doing that, that's hugely energy intensive,
isn't it.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
It is And basically cement was invented when the humanity
discovered fossil fuels and managed to now achieve those kind
of temperatures and that's like, okay, if we heat it
after these extreme temperatures, then we produce this amazing building
material that can set fast and help us build bridges
(04:51):
and tunnels and high rise buildings.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, it's been incredible.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
The metropolis you see in any countries, cities of ten
million people or above, wouldn't be possible without this revolution
in cement and concrete productions. So it's been responsible for
the advancement of society in the last one hundred years.
The flip side of that, obviously, is this little problem
(05:18):
with emissions and CO two emissions in particular, which is
the real serious one.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
So what's the state of play. I mean, you've got
neocrete here.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
There are other startups in New Zealand and around the
world tackling this issue. But in terms of our overall
approach to emissions, are the big concrete makers making any
inroads so far? Are there technologies and efficiencies that they've
been able to introduce into their process to start chipping
away that eight percent?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yet?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Well? Yes, Fortunately there are a lot of initiatives around
the world to tackle the huge problem. It's also a
huge market, so no wonder. There's a lot of competition
around the world, which is a good thing, we believe.
But they're basically three different ways to tackle it. One
(06:16):
is to sweep the fossil fuels heating out for for
those furnaces. For more for less carbon intensive energy sources
or electric furnaces are being introduced. The other way is
to actually capture all the CEO two that gets or
most of the SEER two that gets emitted at the
end of the cemine production process. And lastly is to
(06:40):
actually replace cement with the low carbon materials. And that's
where neocre neucrete technology lies, and there are issues or
big challenges with all three of these approaches. We're trying
to change a huge global industry as very costly and
(07:00):
very slow, and all of them, all of the other
alternatives require significant capital infrastructure changes, significant investments in it.
Our technology is different because we actually remove or significantly
reduce the need for processing of raw materials and we
turn the raw materials into cement using our activator, which
(07:22):
is an additive that we're basically blend with those raw,
low cost, low carbon materials and turn them into cement
without the need for this bulky, costly and carbon intensive infrastructure.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Okay, So in terms of the raw materials you're talking
about there, what are you actually using Because the core
ingredient in cement, what is it? Typically we talk about
Portland cement, I think, which is one of the main
types of cement that is used in construction around the world.
What's that actually made from? What's the core ingredient there?
(07:57):
And what are you using as an alternative?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Yes, ament is typically made of limestone, clay and a
little bit of gypsum. So limestone chemical formula is calcium
SOO three, so it is heated and that furnaces to
extreme temperatures and that's when c R two gets released
and we get calcium oxide that is used for clinker production.
(08:21):
So we don't use limestone. So we can actually use
limestone as a filler as well, but we basically use
volcanic ash, and this is the material. They're called natural
pozzlans and the name comes from Italy where the Romans
discovered amazing binding properties of those materials and then they
(08:44):
turn them. They use them before cement was invented. That's
what was used previously in concrete and that's what we
mainly used. We can activate it further with our technology
and turn that volcanic ash into a better alternative for cement.
We can also work with activate waste materials from other
(09:05):
carbon intensive industries like coal production for power plants. It's
called fly ash. There's waste and slag. But they have
been already used in constructions for some time outside of
New Zealand, mainly.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
So when you go to Herculaneum and Pompeii and Italy,
those beautiful buildings that have been unearthed from the volcanic ash,
those buildings were actually made from volcanic ash as well.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Absolutely, and you can see how durable they are and
how much longer they stay. And the biggest thing is
because that material being natural and not highly processed, it's
not in conflict with the environment. So modern cemine based
concrete is always in conflict with the environment. So things
(09:50):
like even sea or tow or seawater or any rainwater
eventually destroys the structure of concrete and then gets to
steel reinforcement and then it can really deteriorate. So pozzolanic concrete,
that's why we're big advocates of that, is actually in
harmony with the environment, and water can actually make it stronger.
(10:12):
So that is the big secret of durability of pozzolanic
or Roman concrete that we're definitely using for our modern technology.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
So you've got that aspect of it, the raw materials,
how you're processing it. Take us through that if you can.
What are you doing differently about the processing of it.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
So usually to turn the raw materials into something useful
for concrete or like turn it basically cement, it is
a glue that holds all the sand and aggregates together.
So to turn something into the glue, usually the raw
materials are heated to stream temperatures or ground to really
really fine powder, which we do we use chemistry, so
(10:50):
we produce our really small additive which is edited only
it's three percent of total semontitious material to the volume
of that material, and using chemistry, it actually turns the
raw material that's with low processing material that's only ground
to a certain particle size, not super fine particle size,
(11:13):
and turns that material into cemine because our particles are
with a very high surface charge that gets transferred to
all the whole volume of the semlititious material. So we
actually activate cement in simltitious materials like volcanic ash without
the need for heat.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
I guess the big advantage we have here is we
have a lot of volcanic ash.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Or is it that simple?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
I mean, are there lots of deposits of this that
are easily mineable and useful for the concrete industry.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Absolutely, they are easily available in New Zealand and around
the world, and they're already being mined and being used
for some low value materials like cat litter for example,
or VA filtering, so they're already being used. So it's
just really hard a specially New Zealand to make use
of them as an alternative to cement because they're not
(12:04):
highly reactive in New Zealand. Comparatively, they're not very old.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
You've got this chemical additive that you've developed, you know,
years ago, now that's readily available, You've got the raw materials,
you've got lots of experience now and actually making this concrete.
In terms of your tests, what is the sort of
the emission savings that you are seeing now? And you've
(12:29):
probably been through a few iterations of the technology since
I spoke to you last, but I think you were
talking at the time about maybe twenty percent saving and
emissions from concrete. Have you managed to improve on that?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Yes, absolutely, that's a very good memory. We can now
get to depending on the material, we can get to
fifty or sixty percent reduction in carbon and concrete and
we're not stopping there. We're on track to completely replace
cement and carbon emissions associated with concrete by twenty twenty seven.
That's in the lab and by probably twenty thirteen in
(13:02):
real life building.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Well. So it's really advancing in terms of the technology
and at the efficacy of it. You've also had some
big wins in terms of sort of showcase buildings or
concrete structures that you've worked on. Tell us about some
of those you've been working with Cayanga Aura for instance.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yes, and that was one of the earlier projects we
had that was worth Kanga Aura and Concrete Tech and
it was a passive house for social housing in south
off in Auckland, South Auckland, and they used neocrete panels
pre cast panels and the cement production from memory was
(13:42):
around twenty five percent And that was a successful project
and at the time, twenty twenty five percent reduction in
cement was quite significant.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, and that's tax payer money ultimately that's going into
those developments. So if they can scale that up and
use that across their build program, that's not only emission
savings but cost savings as well.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Yeah. I believe kang Or is the largest developer in
New Zealand, so that would be great that or we
can achieve a bigger scale if that project gets rolled
out or used as an example for the other development.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Is there a particular type of construction that your product
is really suitable for? Is it really sort of buildings
or would this work for bridges and tunnels and highways.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
The good thing is a universal product. It can be
used for anything. We can actually achieve higher savings, carbon
savings and cost savings for higher grades of concrete, which
are usually typically used for infrastructure projects like tunnels and bridges.
The thing is that until we get to that point,
they're also associalated with high risk, so that's not where
(14:51):
the customers would want to trial a new product. So
before we get to that point, we would probably til
it or and we have already child it lower risk
project like foundations and slabs and roading, and that's what
we have been doing in the last few years in
New Zealand and overseas.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Now, yeah, I guess you know it's a valid concern.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
If you're building a highway like Transmission Galley down here
in Wellington, that's a multi billion dollar project. If you're
underlaying that with concrete, you want to make sure that
concrete is going to last forty or fifty years. So
building that confidence in the concrete industry that this alternative
is going to be as durable over the long term,
that's a big priority for you.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Absolutely, and we're actually not concerned with the durability for
the reasons that we discussed earlier. But he is convincing
the industry that it is safe to use concrete with
significantly less cement. That's a big change in perception. The
whole industry is actually built around the performance of cement.
My dad who is our head of R and D,
(15:54):
he is a scientist and an engineer. He loves cement
and then everything around it. I think it's really hard
to convince engineering community that actually there are better alternative
to semine.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
How are you doing convincing the industry that this is
a viable alternative. I think you've been working with the
cement companies here but also internationally. Now you've got partnerships
as well.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Yes, so we've won a few challenges, international challenges run
by Global Cement and Concrete Association, for example, where we
were selected as one of the four finalists amongst seventy
applicants around the world, and that was to decobnize the
industry using materials just like ours. And we are now
working with a consortium made of global cement manufacturers representing
(16:40):
around thirty percent of global cement market. They're sending us
there or they've already seen us all of their materials
around the world. Pozzolanic Materials mainly natural that are really
hard to activate, and we're doing testing for them to
activate it without technology.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
They obviously want a source of this poslanic material that's
close to them, so they need to make sure that
your additive and your process works on the raw materials
that they have easily accessible.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
And yeah, and the exciting finding out of that project
was that the activator that we developed using New Zealand's
volcanic ash was actually applicable to all other different sources
of volcanic ash around the world. So we use the
same exact activator across a multiple materials from around the
(17:27):
world that are otherwise really hard to activate.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Excellent.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
So it sounds like you're on the cusp really of
you know what they call the scale up by guests,
going from startup to having revenue coming in from cement
makers and that, but actually getting your product out there
and widely used around the world.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
How far into your startup journey are you now?
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Well, we're officially no longer pre revenue. So we have
first customer in South East Asia that is a ready
mixed company that runs six ready mix plants, and we're
just seen our second shipment earlier this week. A second
shipping container overseas, and they have been successfully trialing our
(18:12):
product with their waste material because they have a lot
of fly ash. They have a big oil refinery that
is powered by a coal power plant, right, and so
they have a lot of that ungraded, low quality, very
cheap fly ash that otherwise gets dumped by the sea,
and so they really are keen to get rid of it.
(18:33):
And without our technology they managed to only replace around
five percent of cement with their flyash. With the neocrete activator,
they are now replacing forty three percent of cement with
three percent activator and forty percent flyish. So not only
we're managing to save se or two from cement, we're
also recycling the waste product that otherwise it's really hard
(18:57):
to recycle. And we're also saving them some costs because
that material is very cheap and it's abundant.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
That's incredible.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Yeah, And look, it is unfortunately abundant in industrial facilities
around the world. In China, which is responsible for i
think fifty percent of cement production, that there's a lot
of fly ash sort of there. So to be able
to apply your additive to that as a huge advantage.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
It would be a great advantage. We also don't want
to focus too much on recycling the materials. I think
it's a medium term strategy to get rid of that waste.
As long as, like while all those common intensive industries
transition to cleaner ways of generating power or producing steel, I.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Think that's the way to go. We've got to mitigate
these emissions. And you know, the whole carbon capture and
story seeing has been so slow to get moving, it's
very difficult to scale it up. So I think you're
on the exact right track in terms of your capital
journey and that you've raised some money. Are you where
you at in your sort of fundraising cycle.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Yes, so we are about to start series A raise
and my co founder Matt is going to be leading that.
And yeah, we raised four million US plus some non
deluged funding with from government and other organizations for the
means of grants. So that was set round two years
(20:26):
ago now, almost two years ago now, and yeah, so
we're about to start serious a round and that round
last time was very successful where we were oversubscribed. We
try to fit in like the investors in New Zealand,
but it was led by a big investor from overseas,
wave Maker from Singapore.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
That's great to have that international interest. It seems like
the capital market for startups is actually pretty healthy. We've
seen three companies It was track Suit, Halter and there
was another one, Project Works in Wellington. Between them raised
like a couple of hundred million dollars. That was mainly
down to halt Her. They had a huge raise. But
we're seeing a lot of international vcs partnering with the
(21:10):
likes of ice House and at who may have been
in on previous rounds. So it seems like the appetite
is there, and particularly in the clean tech space. That
is an area sort of coming out of deep tech,
which can take longer and is a bit riskier. But
we definitely seem to have a growing scene here in
New Zealand that's attracting capital and interest from overseas.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Yes, but also we still believe that the VC climate
is not perfect toy it. It's not as healthy as
it used to be maybe five six years ago. Also
with the new US administration, there is a focus away
from clean technology and we definitely noticed that. But I
think it's actually to an extent beneficial for companies like
(21:57):
neo creed because maybe obviously all this US competition and
clean technology almost had unlimited amount of funds in terms
of grants. It will be hundreds of millions of dollars
that was giving them a non dilute of funding. And
some of that technology I believe will never work because
it doesn't make sense scientifically. There's a lot of hype
(22:19):
around it. So I think with the reduction in total
volume of available investments, the investments are going to be
more into the technologies that are not that capital intensive
but can bring revenue and return much faster, So people
will be more probably thorough in choosing clean technologies to
(22:40):
invest in.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
You talked there.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
About non dilute of funding, so essentially that's government grants
and there have been under the Biden administration as part
of his stimulus package post COVID put a lot of
money into clean text, literally billions of dollars in non
dilute of meaning that you don't have to give away
party your shareholding in the company to get that money.
(23:03):
And Wellington recently the Big Clean Tech conference run by
Creative HQ. Some great startups were showcasing their work there
and there were complaints there about we don't have access
in New Zealand too much in the way of non
dilute of funding, especially with the demise of Callahan Innovation.
I guess that's a concern for yourself and people coming
(23:23):
up behind you in clean tech as well.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Absolutely, And we definitely made the most of those grants
when they were available, and some of the grants are
still available like Oro here for example. We managed to
get that and so we're very grateful that happened, and
it actually happened in critical time for the company to
be able to prove our technology and before the VCS
(23:47):
would even look at us. So I hope there'll be
some alternatives that will still help startups and that non
dilute of funding as much as possible. I don't think
we'll ever be able to compete with the US and
you're in terms of you know, government grants, but what
it means it will teach our businesses to probably be
more efficient with the funding that we do get, and
(24:10):
that will be our competitive advantage because we actually don't
have that unlimited the unlimited resources.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
That's a good point, Max Oorshowsky said last week on
the episode featuring Zeno astronautics. He was basically saying, when
vcs look at New Zealand startups, they go, wow, these
are incredibly lean companies capital efficient. So to some extent,
you know, that is an advantage. It shouldn't be the
case that our startups are funded to a lesser extent
(24:39):
or have to take less for their shareholding. But it's
definitely a string to our bow.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Yeah, and maybe it's just a first step really in
the journey. And as you said, than being more efficient
with the funds, then you can survive a few like turmoils,
you know, if anything happens. So I think it teaches
us a valuable lesson that. Yeah, the politics changing and
the move or shift away in some countries from clean
(25:06):
technology and commitments to decarbonizing the industries. The thing is
that our technology is not just clean and green, it
actually is better and more efficient and less costly. So
then we can survive all of those different political ways.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I think it's a phase we're going through, but we'll
get back on track.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
We'll have to get back on track.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Look at you know, the summer, the northern hemisphere summer,
the heat waves are increasing in frequency and intensity. It's
becoming evident now to so many people that we need
to do something about CO two emissions. And here we
have eight percent coming from the production of concrete. And
there are solutions actually and more easy to apply than
(25:48):
in some other industries where it's quite tricky. You know,
aviation fuel, replacing that in a sustainable way is a
tricky one. But concrete is bigger than the entire aviation
industry in terms of its carbon footprints, so it's a
no brainer.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
And yeah, and I actually believe that decarbonizing industries can
absolutely start with a cement and concrete manufacturing because as
you said, at least it's one product, you know, and
once we replace some me you know, it's going to
be such a massive for a billion tons of cement
get produced every year, so if we replace that, it's
(26:21):
going to be a massive, massive wind for us. All
some countries are mother shifting away. Some countries are not,
like Europe. That's why you're off is our next big market.
That's where're targeting at co founders already there.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Right, you just won a prize from the Parnell Business Association.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
That's really cool.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
And actually, you know, there's a lot of startups clustered
and Parnell because Callahan is there and there's Outset Ventures
and that, so that's actually.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
A big deal.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
You know, there's some stiff competition in that part of town.
So you got some i think funding and some mentoring
from ice House Ventures as on offerers. Well, how are
you going to take advantage of that?
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Yeah? Absolutely, we're very happy to have won that award
from a Panel Business Association. We actually brought the whole
team into that final when it was the announcement, so
it was a big event for the whole team. So
we're very grateful to be recognized here in Pinel, in
our home. Every little counts for a startup, So the
(27:23):
free advice we're going to receive from ice House and
Outset is valuable, especially now when we are about to
start raising again. It's probably the best advice we can get.
We can get from the biggest we see in the country,
so that is amazing. And yeah, the whole team was
celebrating because we don't celebrate wins enough and that was
one of those days that. Yeah, we definitely made the
(27:45):
most of it.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Well, it sounds like you're on the right track. Good
luck with the fundraise series A. There's been some good
ones in New Zealand recently, so I hope that rubs
off a bit on neo crete as well.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
And good luck for particularly for.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Your spearhead into Europe, where I say there is a
heck of a lot of opportunities. So good luck and
thanks for coming on the business of tech.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Great, Thank you very much, Peter.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
So that's Serena from Neocrete on a very worthy mission
to cut emissions from cement and hopefully they're on the
cusp of raising the capital that will get them to
the next level. Now, a few weeks back I came
across another startup called Rock Extract. It's only been around
about six months. It's a spin out from what was
GNS Science, now known as Earth Sciences New Zealand, and
(28:36):
is founded by doctor Peter Rendall. Rock Extract was one
of the startups showcased in Creative HQ's Aurora Clean Tech Accelerator.
They all pitched their technology at an event in Wellington
I attended. Peter Rendall was there. He's an experimental hydro
thermal geochemist based in Taupo. He works on geothermal energy
(28:57):
stuff up there. He didn't go into much detail about
Rock extracts technology. But here's what he did have to say.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
My name is Peter Rendell. I'm a senior scientist at
Genet Science and the founder of rock Extruct. At Rock Extruct,
we develop a completely new type of cement. This is
not a petitive or a supplement, but a completely new material.
Our material have a similar performance, costs and scalability to
normal cement, and it also takes many other boxes which
(29:27):
the industry is looking into. But more importantly, our process
completely removes the need for calcination and by doing that
we can slash carbon emissions by more than ninety percent.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
So clearly a different approach to niocrik being employed by
doctor Rendall at Rock Extract, and its very early days.
The company isn't looking to raise capital at the moment,
but it has been selected as one of the startups
in the Global Cement and Concrete Associations in a Vandi
Open challenge where they'll gain access to the labs and
(30:04):
plants off the world's biggest concrete makers, so that's going
to be really useful for them. It's great to see
too promising Kiwi startups with differing approaches to the same
problem carbon intensive cement production. I wish to find us
all the greatest success. We really need them to make
a serious dent, literally in one of the hardest problems around.
(30:25):
That's all for this week's episode of the Business of Tech.
Head over to the podcast section at Businessdesk dot co
dot nz to find the show notes about these companies
and my weekly tech reading list as well.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Thanks so much for tuning in.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
If you enjoyed the episode, don't forget to subscribe in
your favorite podcast app or on iHeartRadio and join us
next week as we explore more tech driven solutions to
the world's toughest problems.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
I'll catch you then,
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