C-Fix: cement methadone.

(laying down the C-Fix)

The front page of Technology Guardian today loves up UKM/Shell patented C-Fix - hydrocarbon concrete from the world of thermoplastics: a by-product of refining heavy crude oil.

They're saying it's a viable environmentally-friendly alternative to cement (saves 3.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide per ton) but another source is saying it'll creep if made into a tower block. Either way, we can pour it and it moulds to contours. So it's ok.

The stuff is currently only being used in Holland: Six house-sized blocks of carbon concrete are currently holding the North Sea at bay. Wow.

Pretty impressive for a year-old start up.

Other (pretty old news) in cement via worldchanging:
flexible concrete: an ECC (Engineered Cement Composites) - fiber-reinforced concrete. They make canoes out of this stuff. More wow.


(MIT's failed 2003 entry)

And before I forget - DETAIL have a whole issue dedicated to concrete that I've wanted for a while. It's in the Serpentine bookshop. P11-16 look most apt for today, entitled: the trouble with concrete.