Carbon negative concrete 3D printing

Project Information

3Dgeocarbon

Grant agreement ID: 101188070

DOI

10.3030/101188070

EC signature date 11 December 2024

Start date 1 October 2024

End date 30 September 2026

Funded under

• The European Innovation Council (EIC)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 2 373 874,95

Coordinated by

HYPERION ROBOTICS OY
Finland

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - 3Dgeocarbon (Carbon negative concrete 3D printing)

Reporting period: 2024-10-01 to 2025-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Concrete accounts for 8% of global CO2 emissions. Industry players are under pressure to meet the net zero CO2 emission target by 2050 and seek all possibilities to reduce their CO2 emissions. In light that the industry is shifting towards prefabricated elements, that can be made by 3D concrete printing, however, 3D printing today has significant limitations. Hyperion offers a breakthrough technology that will revolutionize the concrete 3D printing industry. The solution solves all the bottlenecks of the industry by providing: a green, carbon negative 3D printable concrete that is code compliant, a robotic printing head that monitors the printing prices and a new design methodology that shortens design time and ensures printability. Overall, Hyperion’s technology can reduce the CO2 emissions of concrete element production by 100%, offering it at 50% of the today’s cost of 3D printable concretes (that are more carbon intensive than conventional concretes today).

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

WP 01: 3Dgeocarbon material recipe

Task 1.1: 3Dgeocarbon mix recipe final development (60%):
- Changes to initial plan: Switched mining tailing to crushed rock sand. Started using biochar as a filler (fine aggregate) first and part of precursor (binder) in October 2025. Using CEM-I at 5% to ensure nominal compliance with EN206 for simplified commercialisation.

- Biochar supply chain: Established requirements for biochar (carbon capture, price per ton, chemical composition, moisture, particle size). Contacted 47 potential suppliers in EU. Received 6 samples (3 sewage stock, 2 wood stock, Reed canary grass). Received 3 larger samples for print testing (digest biogas and wood stock). Finalised the list of potential suppliers: Puhi (Finland), Carbuna (Germany), both are wood feedstock and reed canary grass biochar with controlled pyrolysis at Puhi.

- Recipe development: Defined material performance requirements: General, Printability, Mechanical, Durability, Logistics, Curing. Developed gradation design. Designed 221 mixes in lab. 153 of them -> compressive testing in our lab. Developed 5 recipes in lab for print testing (4 different biochars).

Task 1.2: Material testing (40%):
- Mechanical and durability testing: Planned tests in accredited labs (Eurofins, Kymi labs, Sheffield University, VTT). Drying shrinkage strain (in our lab). Currently waiting to finalize the biochar and recipe so that can proceed to external testing.

WP 04: Micro-factory hardware and automation development
Task 4.1 Admixture pilot scale production
Tasks completed:
- Identity requirements
- Identify suppliers
- Contact suppliers
- Requirement refinement together with subcontractors
- Request for quotations from suppliers (3 nos.)

Task 4.2 3D printing head improvement
- Planned, procured, designed, and built working prototype of the system (partial installation due to space constraints)

WP 05 Software improvements
Task 5.1 Software improvements (35%)
- Detailed planning, design and procurement ongoing
- Experimenting with user facing applications: standalone and web-based

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Not applicable

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