Concretene, the Manchester‑based DeepTech company developing graphene‑enhanced, low‑carbon concrete, has been named a winner in Ofwat’s sixth Water Breakthrough Challenge. The winning project, “Splitting Biogas, Multiplying Value,” is led by UK water utility United Utilities and aims to show how wastewater biogas can be converted into clean hydrogen and high‑value graphene, then used across construction, energy storage and transport applications.
Within this project, Concretene will use sustainably produced, UK‑sourced graphene derived from wastewater biogas in its concrete admixture technology, targeting significant reductions in cement content and embodied carbon while maintaining or improving performance. Concretene has been awarded £1 million out of a total £9.5 million funding package, which will support further product development, testing and early deployment of graphene‑enhanced concrete in real‑world infrastructure projects.
The consortium behind “Splitting Biogas, Multiplying Value” includes United Utilities, Levidian (graphene and hydrogen production), Tarmac (construction materials), ULEMco (hydrogen in transport) and Carbon Ion (energy storage). By connecting biogas‑to‑graphene production with downstream applications such as concrete and supercapacitors, the project is designed to extract maximum value from wastewater streams and accelerate the commercialization of graphene at scale.
As previously reported, United Utilities secured £9.5 million in Ofwat’s sixth Water Breakthrough Challenge to scale up its biogas‑to‑graphene technology, with Concretene selected as a key partner to turn wastewater‑derived graphene into lower‑carbon concrete admixtures.
Together, these developments underline how graphene is moving from pilot demonstrations into integrated value chains, where circular, low‑carbon production routes are directly linked to high‑impact applications in infrastructure and clean energy.
