TecEco Adverts/News

In an article dated 1 May 2008 published by CNPlus, the on line newsletter of Construction news in the UK and that has also appeared in a feed to aggregateresearch.com and elsewhere, it was reported that a Dr Chris Cheeseman of Imperial College London claimed he had invented a new carbonating magnesium oxide cement. The offending articles are available at http://www.tececo.com/rdandd.thirdparty.php as links in the text on that page.

If Dr Cheeseman was correctly reported TecEco Pty. Ltd. (TecEco) utterly rejects the contents of the news story as being a total misrepresentation.

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 achieved the development of Eco-Cements (its name for the same cement) some years ago and have many exemplars around the world. There is even a building in the UK made with carbonating magnesium cements supplied by TecEco that "hardened" in the manner described. The offending articles are available at under Third Party RD & D on the TecEco web site as links in the text on that page.

It would seem from the report that the only thing the researchers at Imperial College have stumbled over is the truth. Eco-Cements are magnesium oxide hydraulic cement blends that in permeable substrates will harden by taking up CO2 and water from the air and John Harrison, the managing director of TecEco who invented them in 1999 lodged a PCT to cover them in 2001. These same cements are according to the report exactly what Dr Cheeseman is now claiming he has invented.

That John Harrison of TecEco invented these new carbonating magnesium cements has been widely reported by the media around the world, the first major story being by Fred Pierce who wrote "Green Foundations", published in New Scientist Magazine, vol. 175 issue 2351, p38 on the 13th July, 2002. Further media reports, documentaries and other media confirming Mr. Harrison's invention are available under Media on the TecEco web site. Mr Harrison has since prepared many papers and presentations given at many major conferences around the world recording the fact from the very first that in porous concretes cements containing magnesium oxide carbonate and these same cements are also documented in the Archives of the TecEco web site going back many years.

Dr Cheeseman telephoned Mr. Harrison on the 8th May 2008 and claimed that the report was incorrect and not his doing. This excuse was not confirmed by Mr. Alasdair Reisner the publisher of the original article. On the contrary, when contacted Mr. Reisner stated that Dr Cheeseman made it clear to him that his team had invented something new. Because of this and because the new Imperial College spin off company to develop the cements is called Novacem and Nova suggests "new" TecEco do not believe these later claims by Dr Cheeseman that he was not trying to claim credit for the invention of the cements invented by Mr. Harrison and that CNPlus had not reported him correctly.

As Dr Cheeseman has had little experience with TecEco cements and not collaborated with us and as our patents and formulation know how both have very wide relevance we do not believe anything new or that we have not anticipated has been invented by him or his team. As for some time authors from the BRE, Imperial College and Cambridge university have been doing their best to discredit Mr Harrison and the TecEco technology in the last few years we now believe the agenda all along was was first to discredit and then take control of this very important technology. This ugly scenario is further described on the TecEco web site. (See RD&D/ThirdPartyResearch)

TecEco surmise that Dr Cheeseman's misrepresenation appears to be a ploy to attract funding and we further therefore comment that systems that force academics to be fiercely competitive in a commercial world they have little understanding of is bringing out the worst in them and that if we are to solve the urgent problem of global warming a much more collaborative approach is required.

As the true inventor Mr Harrison is aggrieved by Dr Cheeseman reported claims, particularly so as he met Dr Cheeseman in 2003 and 2004 and described the TecEco innovation to him and at conferences he attended. Dr Cheeseman was further given samples of porous (and thus permeable) carbonating magnesium cements by Mr Harrison during this period. Indeed Dr Cheeseman, his students and and John Harrison our managing director have corresponded about the cements. Understandably John Harrison is now very angry that Dr Cheeseman is reported as claiming he has invented them.

TecEco demand an investigate and will be writing to the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills Technology Strategy Board who are funding Dr Cheeseman and the Rector of Imperial College regarding Dr Cheesman's misrepresentation as our board take Dr Cheeseman's reported gross misrepresentation very seriously.

TecEco warn Dr Cheeseman and others that they cannot reinvent history and Mr Harrison reserves his options to take further action if necessary in relation to the reported misrepresentation. As of the 9th May 2008 TecEco are waiting on complete written retraction that has been promised and when this arrives it will be published by us.