Government backs plan to scale production of carbon-negative plasterboard

Plasterboard is one of the most heavily used construction materials after cement and steel, so efforts to reduce its carbon impact are a key route to cleaning up the sector.

The maker of the world’s first carbon-negative plasterboard, which can absorb more carbon than it ​​produces, has received a £1 million Innovate UK grant to optimise the cost and scalability of the product with a view to setting up a manufacturing facility.

The two-year project will see Bristol-based Adaptavate collaborate with technology research organisation the Biorenewables Development Centre (BDC), a subsidiary of the University of York, to develop a carbon-storing feedstock for the boards, ideally using hard to treat construction waste, also making key innovations to the industrial process.

Jeff Ive, chief technology officer at Adaptavate, said: 'The aim of the project is to scope a commercially viable pathway to deliver this innovation at scale … it will innovate on the feedstock for the process to see if we can use waste construction materials, to make the product considerably cheaper, as well as more circular.'

Adaptavate’s current carbon-negative Breathaboard product, announced in the summer and also developed with Innovate UK funding, incorporates char produced through the thermal treatment of waste dry plant matter. This locks CO₂ sequestered by plants into the boards in a stable state, preventing it from being released through decay.

The board was assessed using an industry-verified carbon calculation tool to the latest EN 15804+A2 standard. Full life cycle assessment of a concept version of the product found that every m² of plasterboard removed over 0.5kg of CO₂ from the atmosphere, effectively absorbing and storing more carbon than it produces.

The new round of research will aim to refine the process, exploring the use of hard to treat post-consumer and industrial wastes as alternative carbon storing aggregates to incorporate into the product.

'If you characterise the bio-aggregate that we used before, the composition of cellulose and lignin is not too dissimilar to what one sees in a regular laminated panel board. Therefore, going back to first principles, these alternative aggregates could also work,' said Ive.

Hard-to-treat waste, such as that from construction, often has a cost for disposal, so Adaptavate is eyeing the possibility of harnessing it as a revenue stream rather than having to buy the feedstock. 'That means we will really want to put as much of it in as possible, which might tip the balance, enabling even a cost improvement on standard plasterboard,' said Ive.

Researchers will also explore innovations to Adaptavate’s industrial process and ways to streamline manufacturability and cost-competitiveness, including the development of a cost model and specifications for a production facility.

In an effort to ensure full life circularity of the plasterboard, the team will also assess end-of-life benefits, including using construction and demolition waste both as a soil additive and taking it back into the production process.