3rd Party Research and Development
A large number of research project have been initiated around the world and we are concerned that they have not been as effective as they could be so far and that many of the researchers involved have not been honest with us or in what they have reported. For instance some researchers as Cambridge university claimed they have worked with us and that there was no information available from us in spite of the copious amounts of it on this web site. More recently another researcher from Imperial College London has been reported as claiming to invent our technologies. They have since apologised (See Newsletter 88). Others again have published using the name of our managing director John Harrison without his permission. This sort of behaviour is not acceptable. For a summary see Comments on Research Papers and Progress
We warn the research community that our patent claims, which have now been allowed in many countries, are very wide and we have tested just about every combination of cements and aggregates possible within the range of them. We ahve even tested pure MgO but found such mixes unpatentable. Given this there is not much new that could be tested and as guidance on how to generically formulate in all possible permutations has been on our web site for years we do not think that useful new ip is possible. You will therefore find it cheaper to treat with us when it comes to commercialisation. Besides we can teach you how to "do it right", direct you towards more useful research and save you a lot of money.
Civilisation is in a parlous state and given the urgency of solving the CO2 problem we had hoped that researchers would adopt a more honest approach and after obtaining funding with our assistance been more collaborative and less avaricious or conniving. Since we embarked on our mission of alerting the world that the only way the human race can survive in the long run was to learn to use man made carbonate [1] we have learned not to expect too much from the more opportunistic of the academics who have approached us, learned what they can from us and then ignored us - usually with disastrous results. When these same researchers attempt to commercialise they will have to talk to us anyway if their binders also contain hydraulic cements and reactive magnesia so we suggest a more co-operative approach will save them much anguish in the longer term. We warn those universities that do not take the time or make the effort to seek our advice to get it right that we will be forced to retaliate by pointing out issues with their work.
The statements, publications and early work of researchers have been woeful and many of the errors could have been avoided merely by consulting with us. Claims from these researchers that they have worked with us an found our systems do not work are nonsense. Cambridge for example are still, even recently claiming our blocks do not carbonate, yet they obviously do. See See Newsletter 91. Some have amateurishly claimed something new in order to influence funding and time and time again we find that their claims are baseless. We regret therefore that as of the 1st May 2008 we will not supply magnesia or sign off on future research grant applications without a written assurance that there will be genuine collaboration and consultation.
We are encouraged that researchers to whom we have shown our technology are at last starting to realise the importance and potential of carbonating magnesium cement systems. The downside of this heightened interest is that some of them apparently now want to take the credit for the invention of our carbonating and in an article dated 1 May 2008 published by CNPlus, the on line newsletter of Construction news in the UK, it was reported that a Dr Chris Cheeseman of Imperial College London claimed his univesity had just invented carbonating magnesium oxide cements which of course is not true. This same article then appeared as a feed in aggregateresearch.com and elsewehere . According to the report "while carrying out research on one such compound the Imperial team stumbled upon the fact that the resulting cement also absorbed further CO2 from the atmosphere as it hardened." TecEco have been doing this for years and it seems that the only thing the researchers at Imperial College have stumbled on is the truth as we demonstrated how to make Eco-Cement concretes[2] to them some years ago and pointed out that they harden whilst they set at a number of conference in the UK during 2003 and 2004[3]
Dr Cheeseman from Imperial college attended at least one of these conferences and was personally given samples of carbonating magnesium cements by Mr Harrison during this period. From all reports it appears as though he now thinks he can reinvent history and although we have received a telephone apology we are waiting on a suitable written retraction for publication. According to the publisher Alasdair Reisner of CNPlus who wrote the offending article, Dr Cheeseman definitely indicating he had discovered something. As Dr Cheeseman has not been collaborating with us we do not believe that he would have any idea as to whether what he claims is new or something we have already done years ago. Either way if it involves magnesium oxide in a hydraulic system we advise him that he will save himself and his backers much anguish when they wish to commercialise by collaborating with us. For third party confirmation of our discoveries see our media pages.
As a result of Dr Cheeseman's reported indiscretion we now believe there may be an agenda to discredit us to either remove a percieved threat to Portland cement, take control of our technology or both. We are concerned that this has been achieved using government funding and suggest that a system that forces academics to be so fiercely competitive in a commercial world they have little understanding of is bringing out the worst in them and not going to solve global warming which is the greatest crisis to have ever faced the human race.
If the files are protected you will need to contact our managing director John Harrison on 61 3 62713000 or by email and request a password.
Web Pages
Document: | Author: | Notes: | Date: |
Comments on the Paper "Ultra-green construction: reactive MgO masonry products" |
John Harrison | A Critical Review of a 2009 paper from Cambridge. | 30 Nov 2010 |
Acrobat Documents
Document: | Author: | Notes: | Date: | Size: | Protected: |
John Harrison | A document requiring acceptable behaviour that we will be requiring all researchers to sign before we agree to assist them. | 22 May 2008 |
52 Kb | No | |
The TecEco Technology Must be Good if Others are Trying to Take Credit for It |
John Harrison | Comments on the reported Announcement by Dr Cheeseman of Imperial College that he invented our Eco-Cement Concretes. This document also questions whether there has been a plot all along to discredit TecEco and thus take over the initiative. | 15 May Apr 2008 |
73 Kb | No |
Comments on "Ultra-green construction: reactive MgO masonry products" | John Harrison | A critical analysis of a more recent paper from (Martin Liska and Abir Al-Tabbaa (2009)) | 12 Jan 2011 |
Web | No |
Comments on Papers from Cambridge University and Imperial College London |
John Harrison | A critical analysis | 30 Apr 2008 |
493 Kb | No |
Comments on Research Papers and Progress | John Harrison | A blistering summary of research to date. | 30 Apr 2008 |
133 Kb | No |
Oxford Student Spiros Padopoulis | Spiros Padopoulis | Spiros's report edited and commented by John Harrison | 26 Apr 2004 |
109 Kb | No |
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[1] See our Economic Summary and Gaia Engineering
[2] Eco-Cements are our name for carbonating magnesium cements the same of similar to those Imperial College have been making under our guidance. See http://www.tececo.com/simple.eco-cement.php
[3] See conference papers 3, 4 and 10, 11 and 12 under Conference papers and presentation numbers 3, 4 and 10 and 11 under Conference presentations.