A low-carbon cement material manufactured at MCi Carbon’s Myrtle demonstration plant in Newcastle has been successfully used in concrete field trials in New South Wales, marking a step in the company’s efforts to advance lower-emissions manufacturing for the construction sector.
According to MCi Carbon, the field trials were hosted by Boral at its Maldon Cement Works as part of a project led by the SmartCrete Cooperative Research Centre, with project partners Transport for NSW and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).
The project is investigating new supplementary cementitious materials for potential use in lower-carbon concrete for infrastructure applications.
The concrete used in the trials incorporated MCi Carbon’s synthetic pozzolan, known as “Pozzlock”, which was manufactured at the company’s Myrtle demonstration plant.
The facility, officially opened by Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen in June 2026, is designed to scale the company’s mineral carbonation technology from pilot research to industrial deployment.
MCi Carbon said its mineral carbonation process reacts carbon dioxide with mineral-rich feedstocks to form stable carbonates while producing a cementitious material that can partially replace emissions-intensive clinker in concrete.
The company said that, in addition to the carbon dioxide mineralised during production, each tonne of its cementitious material has the potential to avoid approximately 0.5 tonnes of CO2 when used in concrete, providing a pathway for further lifecycle emissions reductions as the technology scales.
The field trial used the MCi cementitious material at a 5 per cent cement replacement rate, with the project identifying a pathway to assess replacement levels of up to 10 per cent in future work.
MCi Carbon founder and chief executive Marcus Dawe said producing Pozzlock at demonstration scale represented an important milestone for the company.
“Producing Pozzlock at this scale is a critical step in our commercialisation journey,” Dawe said.
“What’s particularly significant about this project is how it brings together industry, research and government to demonstrate how innovation in concrete can be delivered in practice. It’s a strong example of how new low-carbon materials can be validated and integrated into existing construction processes, accelerating their pathway to adoption.”
Boral’s head of sustainability and innovation, Ali Nezhad, said the company was supporting the development of mineral carbonation technology as part of its broader decarbonisation efforts.
“Boral is proud to be supporting MCi Carbon in advancing their mineral carbonation carbon capture solution,” Nezhad said.
“Decarbonising our cement manufacturing operations is a key focus for Boral, and we are pleased to contribute to developing utilisation pathways for products generated as part of the mineral carbonation carbon capture process.”
He added that the work complemented Boral’s development of low-carbon supplementary cementitious materials, including calcined clay, to help reduce emissions from concrete manufacturing.
Testing followed a staged validation program beginning with mortar testing and laboratory concrete trials before progressing to larger-scale mixing trials. Early-stage testing at the UTS Tech Lab in Sydney assessed workability, slump retention and compressive strength development against a fly ash control mix.
The concrete was then evaluated using high-shear mixing equipment to replicate commercial batching conditions before the final field trial at Boral’s Maldon Cement Works.
The final stage involved two concrete truck loads produced back-to-back. One used conventional fly ash as the supplementary cementitious material, while the second incorporated MCi Carbon’s cementitious material. Each load produced around 3.5 cubic metres of concrete, which was pumped, placed and finished into a test slab.
According to MCi Carbon, fresh concrete properties, including slump retention, air content and density, were comparable between the mix containing its cementitious material and the fly ash control.
The company also reported that early-age compressive strength development and drying shrinkage were within the expected range.
