I especially enjoy how this ties one of the most expensive products by weight (graphene) to one of the least (concrete). There is no greater tease for investors than suggesting that your knew tech might one day be an ingredient in concrete or steel.
According to the article, an 0.1% by-weight addition of concrete reduces the need for concrete by about 30%. (Extrapolating a little, based on the 30% strength increase, may not be exact.)
So each gram of graphene reduces about 300 grams of concrete.
Concrete looks like it costs about 5-10c per kilo.
Graphene costs around $200 per kilo.
So yeah, we're about an order of magnitude off, even if some of my numbers above aren't precise. It will either require a large price fall in graphene, or serious carbon taxes on concrete.
Reduces the need for structural concrete by about 30%. Graphene makes the concrete stronger. That is important but not the entire purpose of concrete. Lots is used as space filler, liquid rock to seal against wind/rain/snow. Concrete is also used because it is heavy. Making it stronger won't reduce its use as a heavy anchor point for a structure. A giant wind turbine needs more than a strong base, but a literally massive one to prevent tipping over in strong winds. Graphene infused or not, that base still needs to weight the same.
That's a very good point and it can go both ways. There may be some use cases that currently are not acceptable for concrete due to its bulk but if reduced by 30% it becomes viable. I haven't read the archive link yet but if this also extends the life of concrete and reduces maintenance costs, that's a win too.
