Building Solutions For A Green India

Cement production is an energy-guzzling industry; globally, it is the second largest emitter of carbon dioxide at 6%.

With global warming wreaking havoc, concerns are growing over traditional processes and hopes are pinned on new finds. Reinforced concrete has emerged as a solution with increased toughness and tensile strength as against earlier brittle nature and less resistance to cracks.

Apart from cement, energy saving and smart technologies are key to sustainable and smart homes and buildings. Exactly, seeking niche in thi segment is Hyderabad startup Nanospan India Pvt Ltd, a R&D firm in graphene and nanocomposites. According to Ravi Nuguru, CEO and co- founder, core products are smart home products and dry electrodes.

"By infusing eco-friendly graphene and other nano additives with other materials to form nanocomposites, optimised with improved strength and better performance. At present, it is working on products for two different verticals — smart homes and energy storage," says Ravi.

Spanocrete functions as superplasticiser and accelerator providing high workability, twice the strength-to-weight ratio when compared with PCE based superplasticisers. This translates to reduced cement and water consumption, shorter curing cycle and thinner wall sections. Nanospan superplasticizer is an ideal choice for RMC, pre-cast constructions.

Spanocrete will also bring down the consumption of cement in a big way while adding powerful properties to construction and also a proportional decrease in the carbon footprint. For instance, talk of rooftop swimming pools ,Spanocrete affords lighter weight, water repellency and earthquake resistance by default.

The startup is developing a dry electrode manufacturing process which offers about 25% saving in manufacturing cost and helps reduce CO2 pollution by 60 kg CO2-eq/kWh in the battery electrode manufacturing process.

These products avoid toxic solvents and reduce energy and water and also the products are cost effective, adds Ravi. Nanospan's energy storage products claim to provide high performance energy storage solutions for EVs, flexible electronics and wearables and power grids.