Green360 eco-friendly cement replacement nails testing regime

Green360 Technologies’ eco-friendly partial cement replacement product known as “Eco-Clay” and made largely from kaolin waste streams has passed a series of verification tests with the University of Melbourne assessing that it meets Australian standards. Eco-Clay is a high-reactivity calcined kaolinite that uses waste drawn from the tailings and settlement pond residues generated from the refining of kaolin clays.

The company says its eco-friendly waste product can replace up to 40% of a typical bag of Portland cement and can, in time, be responsible for averting millions of tonnes of carbon  from the atmosphere that would otherwise have been generated from the manufacturing of cement.

Produced at commercial scale from the company’s settlement pond residues at its kaolin operations in Ballarat, Victoria, Eco-Clay offers a low-cost, low-carbon alternative to the once commonly-used but now dwindling fly ash and slag supplies.

The company says that University of Melbourne trials under AS 3582.4:2022 and ASTM C618 have now confirmed Eco-Clay as a Grade 1 pozzolan. 

Executive Chairman Aaron Banks commented: “Eco-Clay represents exactly what Green360 stands for – practical circular economy innovation that creates value from waste, reduces emissions, and delivers real commercial results in the building materials sector. Our Eco-Clay material meets the highest Australian and international standards, performs on par, or better, with the best metakaolins globally.”

In late 2019, the Australasian Pozzolan Association received approval from Standards Australia to develop a new Standard through the Committee BD-031 under the heading “Supplementary Cementitious Materials” (SCM). 

The new Standard for SCM - Part 4: Pozzolans – Manufactured, will be complimentary to the existing series of standard AS 3582 which embraces Part 1: fly ash, Part 2: slag - ground granulated blast-furnace and Part 3: amorphous silica.  The new standard uses a similar structure.

Standard ASTM C618 is a standard specification for coal fly ash and raw or calcined natural pozzolan to be used in concrete

Key metrics include 96% kaolinite conversion during furnace calcination at 750°C, an R3 reactivity index equal to or above leading international metakaolin, and compressive strength gains at 3, 7 and 28 days when 20% of Portland cement is replaced. 

Pozzolan is a siliceous or alumino-siliceous material that reacts with calcium hydroxide and water to form cementitious compounds. Pozzolans improve concrete durability, reduce permeability and reduce CO₂ by partially replacing clinker-rich Portland cement.

Metakaolin is a  highly reactive pozzolan created by calcining kaolin at between 600–800°C. It accelerates early strength, suppresses alkali-silica reaction and enhances sulphate resistance – factors which are critical for long-life infrastructure.

Green360’s Eco-Clay’s feedstock is a zero-cost by-product of the company’s primary kaolin refining, which delivers a production cost far below virgin metakaolin. 

The cost margin, combined with the resulting elimination of tailings liabilities, positions the company to capture premium margins in a tightening SCM market. Australia currently consumes over 10 million tonnes of cement annually, with SCMs valued at about ~A$3.5 billion. 

Another key driver of the initiative is that traditional fly ash and imported slag products face terminal supply constraints as coal plants retire and Scope 3 emissions bite. 

Green360’s Eco-Clay slots directly into this gap, being domestically sourced, ESG-compliant and fully scalable. Commercial quantities have already been dispatched to major pre-mix concrete producers for plant-scale trials. 

The company is now finalising a toll-treatment agreement to ramp-up near-term supply, targeting full deployment across precast, ready-mix and retail channels.

With cement responsible for around 8% of global emissions, Green360’s innovative product arrives with impeccable timing as regulators and builders scramble for viable clinker substitutes.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au