Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Elementic (Rebuilding our world with new carbon elements that turn buildings into carbon storage structures)
Berichtszeitraum: 2025-05-01 bis 2025-12-31
The construction sector is a central obstacle to Europe’s climate ambitions. Responsible for up to 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, it remains one of the hardest sectors to decarbonize, largely due to the embodied emissions of construction materials. Despite regulatory pressure under the European Green Deal and the Paris Agreement, the EU is currently off track to meet its 2030 and 2050 climate targets. At the same time, Europe faces growing demand for housing and infrastructure, making the continued use of carbon-intensive materials such as cement and clay bricks increasingly unsustainable. In parallel, Europe generates vast quantities of forest and agricultural side streams, particularly lignin from pulp and bioethanol production. These carbon-rich resources are largely underutilized and typically incinerated for low-value energy, releasing billions of tones of CO2 annually. Existing technologies have failed to transform these side streams into high-value, durable and scalable products, resulting in lost economic and climate mitigation potential.
The Elementic project addresses this structural gap by developing a carbon-negative construction material that directly substitutes conventional masonry products. Elementic converts lignin-rich biomass residues into durable construction products, such as bricks, panels, and façade elements that store approximately 5 kg of atmospheric CO2 per kilogram of material, effectively transforming buildings into long-term carbon storage structures rather than emission sources. Unlike most low-carbon alternatives, Elementic is a mono-material, fully recyclable, mechanically competitive, fire-safe, and designed for compatibility with existing construction practices.
The project’s core objective is to advance Elementic from TRL 5 to TRL 9, completing industrial piloting, certification, real-world demonstration, and market entry. Deployment focuses on multiple application, from façade applications, to interior panels - where climate impact is immediate and adoption barriers are low. Replacing a conventional façade with Elementic can fully negate the embedded CO2 footprint of an average residential building, delivering a net-negative lifecycle outcome. At scale, Elementic offers system-level impact: reducing construction emissions, unlocking high-value uses for biomass side streams, strengthening European industrial autonomy, and supporting circular-economy-driven regulation. In doing so, Elementic provides a credible pathway for reconciling Europe’s need to build with its obligation to decarbonize, turning cities into carbon sinks rather than sources.
The Elementic project addresses this structural gap by developing a carbon-negative construction material that directly substitutes conventional masonry products. Elementic converts lignin-rich biomass residues into durable construction products, such as bricks, panels, and façade elements that store approximately 5 kg of atmospheric CO2 per kilogram of material, effectively transforming buildings into long-term carbon storage structures rather than emission sources. Unlike most low-carbon alternatives, Elementic is a mono-material, fully recyclable, mechanically competitive, fire-safe, and designed for compatibility with existing construction practices.
The project’s core objective is to advance Elementic from TRL 5 to TRL 9, completing industrial piloting, certification, real-world demonstration, and market entry. Deployment focuses on multiple application, from façade applications, to interior panels - where climate impact is immediate and adoption barriers are low. Replacing a conventional façade with Elementic can fully negate the embedded CO2 footprint of an average residential building, delivering a net-negative lifecycle outcome. At scale, Elementic offers system-level impact: reducing construction emissions, unlocking high-value uses for biomass side streams, strengthening European industrial autonomy, and supporting circular-economy-driven regulation. In doing so, Elementic provides a credible pathway for reconciling Europe’s need to build with its obligation to decarbonize, turning cities into carbon sinks rather than sources.
During the first eight months of the project, activities focused on consolidating the Elementic technology from laboratory validation toward pilot-scale readiness in line with the Work Plan. The team prepared, refined and verified Elementic material production specifications, covering raw material selection, pre-processing steps, recipe formulation, pyrolytic reaction parameters and post-processing routes, ensuring repeatability and compatibility with pilot-scale equipment. In parallel, the necessary technical infrastructure and hardware installations were implemented to enable testing of the first Elementic pilot production line, including reactors, mixing and forming equipment, measurement devices and safety systems, allowing initial continuous production trials under controlled conditions. The proprietary ValimoOS software was updated to support pilot production needs, including improved tracking of recipes, batches, process parameters and quality metrics, forming the digital backbone for data-driven optimisation. On the scientific and technological protection side, two new patent applications were issued and structured IP strategy work was initiated to strengthen coverage of both the core production process and construction material applications.
The Elementic project is expected to deliver a market-ready, certified carbon-negative construction material that enables the direct substitution of conventional clay bricks and façade elements with a solution that stores more carbon than it emits over its lifecycle.
The potential impacts are significant at multiple levels. At building scale, Elementic façades, for example, can eliminate the embodied emissions of residential and commercial buildings. At sector scale, widespread adoption in the European brick market could offset a meaningful share of construction-related emissions while reducing reliance on fossil fuels and mined minerals. At system level, the project unlocks high-value material pathways for forestry and agricultural side streams, increasing the economic yield of the European bioindustry while avoiding emissions from incineration.
The potential impacts are significant at multiple levels. At building scale, Elementic façades, for example, can eliminate the embodied emissions of residential and commercial buildings. At sector scale, widespread adoption in the European brick market could offset a meaningful share of construction-related emissions while reducing reliance on fossil fuels and mined minerals. At system level, the project unlocks high-value material pathways for forestry and agricultural side streams, increasing the economic yield of the European bioindustry while avoiding emissions from incineration.