Geopolymer is a cementitious material that uses a mixture of lye, waterglass, and fly ash as its binding agent rather than cement paste. It has potential to reduce carbon emissions dramatically compared to ordinary portland cement.
For a graduate class project, I worked with my lab mate Dat Ha to explore how the ratio of strength to embodied Carbon compared between geopolymer and normal concrete.
We had difficulty in finding resources for geopolymer mix design. It took several trial to produce a batch that could be poured and maintain strength.
Cylinders of a final mixture were tested for strength and stiffness.
Our mix was found to be much weaker than concrete, but also emitted only 11% of the Carbon. Thus, the ratio of strength to embodied Carbon was much higher for Geopolymer, which suggests it could be a viable alternative construction material.
Further research into proper mix design would be very interesting to properly understand this exciting material.