For immediate release, Monday 15 September 2025, Sydney: Boral Limited (“Boral”) has
successfully produced concrete made with recycled concrete aggregates that have been
recarbonated via carbon capture technology from its integrated cement manufacturing plant.
The trial, the first of its kind in Australia, saw recycled concrete aggregates from Boral’s Widemere
recycling facility used as feedstock to capture and permanently store CO2 from the flue gas diverted
from Berrima Cement Works’ operations into its recently commissioned recarbonation-based carbon
capture and storage (CCS) pilot plant. The recarbonated recycled aggregates resulting from this
process were then used to partially replace natural coarse aggregates in a low carbon concrete mix.
This milestone demonstrates a viable pathway for using products from recarbonation-based carbon
capture technology, which Boral is currently trialling at its Berrima cement plant.
One of the unique properties of concrete is that it absorbs carbon dioxide through its service, life and
end of life phases. This process – cement recarbonation – occurs over many years. At end of life,
when structures containing concrete are demolished, the concrete is crushed, commonly into
recycled concrete aggregates, and its exposed surface increases, accelerating the recarbonation
rate. The recarbonation process at Berrima CCS plant accelerates the natural carbonation of
recycled aggregates by exposing them to controlled process conditions.
Boral’s concrete field trial was conducted at its Maldon cement manufacturing facility. The trial and
CCS pilot plant’s construction were jointly funded by the Federal Government’s Carbon Capture, Use
and Storage (CCUS) Development Fund and Boral. The project involved replacing 50 per cent of the
natural coarse aggregates in Boral’s low-carbon Envisia® concrete with recarbonated recycled
aggregates.
The recarbonation CCS process offers a practical, low-cost solution for capturing and permanently
storing carbon dioxide from cement manufacturing. Carbon capture, utilisation and storage is a
critical decarbonisation lever for addressing process emissions, which account for approximately 65
per cent of carbon emissions in cement production.
Dr Ali Nezhad, Head of Sustainability and Innovation at Boral, says: “We’re proud to lead the
development of utilisation pathways for recarbonated concrete aggregates. Its successful use not
only enhances the viability of recarbonation-based carbon capture technology but also offers the
potential for a further reduction in the embodied carbon of concrete by replacing natural aggregates.
The success of our carbon capture pilot plant at Berrima further validates the potential of
recarbonation and underscores the importance of its broader recognition.”
Vik Bansal, CEO and Managing Director at Boral, says “At Boral, we are committed to a lower-carbon
future, and we believe recarbonation will play an important role in decarbonising the cement
and concrete industry. The successful accelerated recarbonation of recycled concrete aggregates at
our CCS pilot plant at Berrima and utilisation of these aggregates in concrete further reinforce the
potential of this technology.
“Alongside our significant investments in alternative fuels and alternative materials to decarbonise
our cement manufacturing operations in the short term, we remain committed to exploring
technologies like carbon capture and storage as part of our long-term journey towards our net zero
ambition by 2050.”
As recognised in the Sixth Assessment Report of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC), carbon emissions from concrete and cement manufacturing are partially
absorbed by concrete during the life cycle of concrete buildings and infrastructure. Studies estimate
that the CO2 uptake through recarbonation of concrete could range from 20 per cent to 55 per cent of
process CO2 emissions during cement manufacturing.
To learn more about recarbonation visit: boral.com.au/recarbonation
- ENDS –
For media enquiries, please contact:
Macrina Lim, FTI Consulting
0430 547 751
macrina.lim@fticonsulting.com
About Boral
Boral is the largest vertically-integrated construction materials company in Australia.
Our network includes prized quarry and cement infrastructure, bitumen, construction materials
recycling, asphalt and concrete batching operations.
We employ about 7,500 employees and contractors across our operations that span more than 360
sites nation-wide.
For more than 75 years we’ve been building something great in Australia - rarely a day goes by that
you wouldn’t pass one of our sites or trucks, enter a building, use a road, bridge, tunnel, footpath or
other critical infrastructure that our people and products have helped enable.
