TecEco

TecEco were a small Australian research and development company with technologies that are important for the survival of the planet that was founded in 1999 by John Harrison with a mission to develop and deploy sustainable technologies. The concepts, science, economics, social significance and future of technologies on the TecEco web site have been John's brain child since late 1998. As Thomas A Edison is reputed to have said, the project has been “1% percent inspiration and 99% perspiration.”

John is a qualified scientist, economist and accountant and since late 1998 has devoted a great deal of his resources to the development of sustainable technologies. What started off as “bucket chemistry” has turned into arguably one of the most important new materials sciences in the world with real sustainable economic potential. In the hundreds of papers I have recently perused new uses for TecEco Cements emerge and new realizations come to mind regularly in what is a most exciting field of scientific endeavor.

Mark Twain said "Everybody is talking about the weather but nobody does anything about it." TecEco are trying to do something by developing technologies that abate or sequester carbon in the built environment and/or convert wastes to resources. John's interest has now extended to all wastes including CO2 and means for recycling those wastes and the state of the planet generally

More recently TecEco have been involved in developing a number of new technologies recently added to this website under the headings Syncarb, Carbonsafe and Gaia Engineering including TecEco’s kiln technology for emission free calcination and the production of concrete using our cements, carbon dioxide scrubbing technology, heat capture and transfer technologies, CO2 to organic chemicals and desalination technologies that can profitably deliver massive waste utilisation and sequestration as well as produce fresh water, gypsum, sodium bicarbonate and various other saleable salts. Gaia Engineering is now being promoted internationally and the level of interest is rising rapidly.

TecEco developed TecEco cements in which reactive magnesia[1] is substituted for Portland Cement (PC), which hydrates to brucite the hydroxide of magnesium and in Eco-Cement used to make permeable materials, carbonates to magnesite. Various cement formulations were developed based on this fundamental concept including Tec-Cements, Eco-Cements and Enviro-Cements. These days they are referred to as rMgO or Reactive Magnesia cements. The original promise of these new materials has been lost in hundreds of papers.

1. Before our inventions magnesium was not allowed by standards in Portland cement hydraulic cements. We demonstrated that this was not good science and that if calcined separately at low temperatures to be more more reactive they should be allowed.

2. We made it understood that to make any cement the reacting components had to do so in the same rate order.

3. We demonstrated the benefits of blending magnesia with other hydraulic cements to improve properties including rate of strength gain, durability, shrinkage and rheology and ability to incorporate other wastes.

We divided our formulations into three main types of cement.

Eco-Cements in permeable or semi permeable materials such as curb and gutter, bricks, blocks and pacers, paths, slabs, mortars renders and permecocrete pervious pavement not only absorb significant quantities of CO2; they can utilise a wide range of waste materials that add physical or chemical properties. If made without release of CO2 using Tec-Kiln technology significant sequestration results.

Tec-Cement for very durable high strength durable non shrinking cements for use in demanding construction applications. Enviro-Cements for locking up toxic and hazardous materials.

Recognizing that urban construction must be sustainable if we are to survive the future, leading scientists and science organizations around the world have endorsed the need to research, develop and deploy TecEco cement technology and there are now many hundreds of papers on them.

TecEco also managed to gain considerable leverage for the research, development and deployment of its new technologies with third party funded research projects. These have been conducted at very credible institutions including Cambridge University, Imperial College London and Brighton University. Funding for many others projects has been applied for through other organisations and at any one time there were students around the world working on our technologies and methodologies.

With the increased interest in the carbonation of brines for sequestration there is new interest in the cements we invented. TecEco have gone a lot further and are now presenting free to the world a number of new technologies including Syncarb for recycling all emissions.

To operate with funds we are morphing to become a tax deductible not for profit company with tax deductibility.

 

 

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