Sonocrete GmbH from Cottbus won the 2023 Concrete Components Supplier Industry Innovation Award. The prize was awarded on May 14, 2024 as part of the opening of the 68th BetonTage in Ulm. The company received the award for its ultrasonic premixer, which makes concrete harden faster. This can reduce CO2 emissions during concrete production by up to 30 %.
CO2-reduced concrete
Cement is an indispensable component of concrete. But it also has the largest CO2 footprint. Although there are already more climate-friendly cements such as CEM II and CEM III with a lower clinker content, they have the disadvantage that they generally make the concrete harden more slowly. This affects the production cycles in precast concrete plants and thus their profitability.
This is where Sonocrete’s innovation comes in. The premixing plant uses high-performance ultrasound to accelerate the reaction of the cement and thus the hydration of the concrete. All this is done without the use of heat or chemical activators. The system enables a significant reduction in the cement or clinker content in the concrete mix, while maintaining the same early strength and quality. CO2 emissions from concrete production can thus be reduced by up to 30 %.
Here’s how it works: part of the cement and part of the water in the concrete mix is premixed in the plant and treated with ultrasound. This creates cavitation in the cement suspension, which leads to locally extreme conditions. On the one hand, this contributes to better dispersion of the cement and, on the other, to faster formation of strength-giving C-S-H phases. After a maturing period, this activated suspension is added to the concrete mixer with the remaining ingredients at the start of mixing and the mixing process is started as usual. The actual production of the concrete and the components is not changed.
Sonocrete technology has already been tested in practice and can be used in almost any precast concrete plant. It functions as a bypass system and can be seamlessly integrated into existing production processes without significantly changing the usual concrete production. The first system has already been installed in a precast concrete plant in North Rhine-Westphalia, and two more are currently being completed.
The Innovation Award of the Supplier Industry for Concrete Components is awarded annually by FBF Betondienst GmbH, organizer of BetonTage, and the trade journal BFT INTERNATIONAL Betonwerk + Fertigteil-Technik. Prizes are awarded for exemplary innovative products, processes and services from the machinery, software and supplier industry in the precast concrete industry. The main selection criteria for the award are the degree of innovation and originality of the proposal, the relevance for the precast concrete industry, the market and application potential and the consideration of technological standards.
