Graphene derived from discarded tyres used to strengthen concrete

According to Rice chemist James Tour, there are clear environmental benefits of adding graphene to concrete.

"Concrete is the most-produced material in the world, and simply making it produces as much as nine per cent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions," he said in a statement. "If we can use less concrete in our roads, buildings and bridges, we can eliminate some of the emissions at the very start."

Flash graphene process turns ‘trash into treasure’

Recycled tyre waste is already used as a component of Portland cement, but graphene has been proven to strengthen cementitious materials, concrete among them, at the molecular level.

Most of the 800 million tyres discarded annually are burned for fuel or ground up for other applications, but 16 per cent still wind up in landfills.

"Reclaiming even a fraction of those as graphene will keep millions of tyres from reaching landfills," Tour said.

The ‘flash’ process introduced by Tour and his colleagues in 2020 has been used to convert food waste, plastic and other carbon sources by exposing them to a jolt of electricity that removes everything but carbon atoms from the sample.