Decarbonizing Construction: Advanced & Alternative Materials Discovery
Welcome to Breega Watch 👀 — Your Monthly Insider’s Guide to Top Tech Verticals. Why is this sector grabbing our attention ? Why now? What investment opportunities do we see arising ? This month, we’re exploring Alternative and Advanced Materials in Construction. Let’s dive in.
Crafted with 🧠& 💚 by Paul Mussillon & Maximilien Bacot.
Why it Matters
In the age of climate change, one of the most daunting challenges we face is the carbon footprint of our cities. From the buildings we live and work in to the infrastructure that connects us, our modern world is built on materials that come at a high environmental cost. Traditional building materials like cement and steel, though foundational, now stand as key culprits in global CO2 emissions, while also depleting finite natural resources.
This is where Technology comes in.
The emergence of LLMs and AI-driven innovations paved a way for new materials discovery that are not only eco-friendly but also stronger, lighter, and more cost-efficient. By processing vast datasets, predicting material properties, and optimizing experimental designs, AI enables researchers to quickly develop new materials with desirable characteristics.
In this note, we will focus on alternatives to cement, and advanced materials discovery.
Cement’s Carbon Challenge
The Backbone of Construction, but at What Cost?
Cement alone accounts for a staggering 7% of global CO2 emissions each year. It plays a crucial role in the infrastructure around us, from skyscrapers to the roads we travel on, but it’s also one of the most carbon-intense materials we rely on today and its production is not decreasing over time, even in the Net-Zero scenario aimed at by the EU.
Additionally, processing raw materials to produce cement is very energy-intensive, which means even greater CO2 emissions.
Clinker: The Core Issue
At the heart of cement’s carbon intensity is clinker, the key ingredient of cement. To produce clinker, limestone and clay must be heated in a kiln at very high temperatures, until they form small, hard lumps called “clinker.”
These lumps are then ground into a fine powder and mixed with gypsum to create cement. The clinker is what gives cement its strength when mixed with water and hardens into concrete.
For that reason, one of the challenges industry players are trying to solve is to reduce the amount of clinker in cement.
Steel: The Silent Giant of Emissions
Three Times the CO2 of Aviation
If cement is bad, steel is no better. Steelmaking emits nearly three times more CO2 than the aviation industry, and as the world continues to industrialize, demand for steel is only growing. The energy required to produce steel, along with the heavy use of raw materials, creates a dangerous dependency on fossil fuels, making it vulnerable to rising energy prices : in 2021, energy constitutes 20% to 40% of the price of steel.
But like for cement, steel production is not decreasing.
Our challenges are to rethink how we make steel and find alternative materials to achieve two goals : reduce CO2 emissions & make construction less-energy intensive and more cost-effective.
Why Now? How Regulation and AI are Reshaping the Construction Industry
The Push from Policy
In recent years, regulatory changes have begun to push industries toward more sustainable practices, setting targets in both emissions and raw materials:
The European Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is one such policy, which started in 2023 with reporting obligations for all CO2-intensive industries. The policy forces cement importers to report CO2 emissions and encourages construction firms to embrace low-carbon alternatives.
Incumbents working on sustainable construction materials will benefit from competitive advantages and some firms have already started investing in low-carbon processes and materials, or even new manufactures (Heidelberg Materials is building a carbon neutral cement plant).
But regulation alone won’t solve the problem. Enter AI — the pivotal partner in construction’s green revolution.
AI: Unlocking New Material Frontiers
LLMs are transforming the way Research & Development is done.
R&D in construction materials requires researchers to sift through vast amounts of scientific papers, patents, and experimental data. LLMs can now process and analyze this enormous volume of information at a scale and speed far beyond human capability. These models can:
- Identify patterns and relationships between materials, processes, and performance outcomes.
- Summarize and mix studies, giving researchers quicker access to state-of-the-art developments.
- Uncover hidden insights or overlooked opportunities in material compositions or processes.
In 2023, Google announced that their AI Platform GNoME unlocked the discovery of 380k stable materials that could be used in various industries, including construction.
This leap forward demonstrates how LLMs can accelerate R&D by rapidly processing scientific databases and iterating hypotheses, as well as predict material properties and identify good candidates for manufacturing processes.
Just as Machine Learning has transformed how drug discovery is performed, it is now changing the way we think about material discovery, cutting down R&D costs and time, and unlocking new possibilities for sustainable construction materials.
Decarbonizing Construction: Three Main Approaches
1. AI-Driven Material Discovery
The first wave of innovation comes from AI, enabling the discovery of new components and materials to replace or enhance cement, clinker and steel:
We invested in Entalpic to improve conventional materials and processes, focusing first on chemical reactions. They have developed a generative AI platform that helps discover new catalysts to optimize chemical reactions, all while factoring in physicochemical and manufacturing constraints. In addition to the outstanding experience and complementarity of Entalpic’s founding team, the advantage of their approach lies in its scalability (software) and versatility (possibility to work on several materials or processes).
Companies in this space are working to develop innovative material formulations or “recipes” that can be licensed to construction firms and manufacturers. While the European market is becoming increasingly competitive, no clear leader has emerged yet, as startups require time and data to find the right angle and refine their models, bringing them to scale.
2. Alternative Materials: The Race for the Next Big Thing
These companies typically focus on developing a single alternative to cement. They are highly R&D-intensive in their early years, and often face significant scalability challenges due to high capital expenditure (CAPEX).
Some examples :
a) Enhanced concrete: concrete as a CO2-sink combining CCUS technologies and innovative recipes, concrete filled with air for a lower density, low-clinker cement…
b) Alternative materials to replace concrete: Ashcrete (made of fly ash) Hempcrete (made of hemp fibers), Ferrock (recycled steel dust)…
c) Some startups, like Cemvision, try to stay close to the industry’s traditional approach to be able to integrate their solution as much as they can to large factories.
3. Low-Carbon Processes: Optimizing Green Construction
Finally, some companies are taking a more holistic view, optimizing the entire construction process. By redesigning how we build, firms like our portfolio company 011h are creating carbon-neutral buildings from the ground up, proving that sustainable construction is already happening.
Our Perspective
At Breega, we firmly believe that technology will reshape the way we build our world, and we are bullish on three key approaches leading this transformation.
First, we invested in Entalpic, as we see them as the very best team to develop an AI-driven platform that will enable manufacturers — whether in chemicals, construction, or other heavy industries — to reduce emissions by discovering new or enhanced materials and processes. Specifically, we believe that their expertise in AI and chemistry will allow them to become leaders in new catalysts discovery.
Second, we recognize the need to rethink construction on a larger scale, from the materials we use to the processes we rely on. That’s why we backed 011h, a Spain-based company at the forefront of designing and constructing carbon-neutral buildings, accelerating the transition to a more sustainable built environment.
Lastly, we would also love to identify companies building an alternative to CO2-intensive materials. Our focus is on businesses that not only innovate with CO2-reducing solutions but also demonstrate strong distribution capabilities and seamless integration into existing manufacturing infrastructure.
Working or building something in the space ?
Reach out to Paul-Adrien Marie or send us your deck here.
