Solutions for Energy Infrastructure

Concrete must be specified to mitigate the potential threats that can shut-down operations:

• Cracking and leakage: Heat generated by large mass-concrete placements, drying shrinkage, restraint, settlement and structural loading can produce cracks. Under reservoir pressure, even small cracks can become active leakage paths.
• Cavitation: High-velocity water passing over an irregular or damaged surface can create and collapse vapour bubbles. This generates intense localized forces that can rapidly pit and remove concrete.
• Abrasion and erosion: Sediment, sand, gravel, ice and debris carried by water progressively wear spillways, tunnels, stilling basins and intake structures. Surface loss can increase turbulence and accelerate cavitation.
• Reinforcement corrosion: Water and dissolved chlorides or other aggressive substances can penetrate permeable or cracked concrete. Corroding steel expands, causing delamination and spalling.
• Freeze–thaw and ice damage: Concrete around changing reservoir levels, spillways and exterior structures may repeatedly freeze while saturated, leading to scaling and internal cracking.
• Chemical deterioration: Sulfates, acidic water, alkali–silica reaction and leaching can weaken the cement paste or cause damaging expansion.
• Structural and foundation movement: Settlement, seismic activity, changing reservoir loads and thermal cycles can open joints or create cracks.

Hard-Cem®, Kryton’s integral abrasion resisting admixture:

• Reduces abrasion caused by turbulent flowing water that contains sediment and debris.
• Minimizes repair-related disruptions and infrastructure downtime.
• Reduces maintenance costs.
• Increases service-life by 100% or greater.

For publicly funded or regulated energy assets, durability directly supports reliability, lower lifecycle costs, and taxpayer value. Longer-lasting concrete means fewer outages, fewer emergency repairs, reduced maintenance budgets, and less operational disruption.

These admixtures also support sustainability by reducing repair materials, replacement concrete, demolition waste, transportation impacts, and lifetime embodied carbon.

By enhancing waterproofing and abrasion resistance at the specification stage, energy infrastructure can perform more reliably for 50 years or longer.