Limburg green brick technology for new soccer temple in Saudi Arabia
“This technology was already used by the ancient Romans…. That’s why 2,000 years later their buildings are still standing straight.” By the 2034 World Cup, Saudi Arabia’s $1 billion Aramco stadium must be standing straight. For the more than 1 million CO2-negative building blocks, the Saudis apprenticed themselves to Limburg entrepreneurs. But how can a building block be CO2-negative? And why does Saudi Arabia suddenly want to know more about it? Professor Koert Debeuf, Middle East expert: “We would be hypocritical to point the finger.”
Chances are slim that we realize it, but world history has been made in Limburg for some time. The companies Orbix and Masterbloc in Genk and Maasmechelen worked silently for years on sustainable building blocks that are CO2-negative. Literally: not a gram of cement is used as a “binding agent” anymore, but CO2. Nowhere else in the world is this being done on that scale.
Bjorn Gubbels of Carbstone in Maasmechelen
Back in 2022, authorized minister Zuhal Demir (N-VA) came to see the project of Orbix and Masterbloc, who renamed the collaboration “Carbstone,” but gradually they are waking up outside of Limburg. “The demand has exploded. From the Netherlands and Germany they are pulling on our sleeve so we are going to triple the production of CO2-negative bricks. Today some 3 million quick-build bricks roll off our belt here in Maasmechelen. Next year that should become ten million and then block manufacturer Prefer from Liege will follow along under the ‘Carbstone’ family to meet the demand.”
Do those Saudis see us as the Elon Musk of the construction industry? They mostly see us as those innovation smart guys from Belgium
CO2 negative means that you effectively pump CO2 into the stone which takes care of the curing process. “Basically we make limestone from metal slag. You filter those metal slag until you are left with the consistency that you use to make the mass of your stone and the CO2 replaces the cement. Bridges built sixty years ago get concrete rot after a while. When you use CO2, the material actually just gets harder. The Romans used this technology as well. It’s no coincidence that Roman buildings last 2,000 years.”
“Metal waste is tucked away in the ground worldwide, in Limburg it was done for decades at the REMO landfill in Houthalen. And at the same time we plundered stone and gravel quarries worldwide for decades, but that will no longer be necessary. Thanks to our technology, steel waste suddenly becomes the raw material. We no longer use an ounce of cement. I don’t know if you realize what that means on a large scale?”
So the bar set by Europe by 2030 has long been met by the Limburgers, and they have also woken up in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia now signed an agreement with “Carbstone” to start developing the innovative technology in the country itself.
“We patented the technology, and Aramco, the world’s largest oil refiner rolling out one construction project after another in Saudi Arabia, is going to build a huge stadium that will be used in 2034 during the World Cup. A $1 billion stadium, with millions of building blocks that will be made after the Limburg model.”
Saudi Arabia wants the 2034 World Cup to show hundreds of thousands of people how sustainable the Aramco stadium is, thanks in part to Limburg’s know-how.
Why do the stinking rich Saudis absolutely want to cooperate with the Limburgers? “Because there is literally no one else who has mastered our green technology AND because the country is indeed working on sustainability. Of course they pump billions of liters of polluting oil that keeps the world economy running, but those countries are more modern and progressive than we think. It’s the same with China, there are conversations going on with that as well. China, of course, grew fast in the 1980s and 1990s thanks to cheap coal plants, but they also woke up there. They are now building the largest water power plant in the world. They now also see the economic strengths of the green and sustainable story there.”
Bjorn Gubbels (right at screen) addresses dozens of engineers and architects in Saudi Arabia, eager to work with Carbstone.
A mass of landfills containing steel slag, like the one pictured, can now serve as “quarries” of raw materials for the recycled building blocks.
Whether the Saudis then order millions of building blocks in Limburg and transport them to the Middle East via polluting diesel ships? “Certainly not, because that would be hypocritical. And the country is very nationalistic, everything there has to be ‘Made in Saudi’. The CO2-negative bricks will roll off the assembly line locally, but we as Limburgers will literally explain to them, show them how ánd coordinate. We will put in place ‘our’ ecosystem of CO2-negative bricks. They also have steel companies, heaps of metal waste and existing block manufacturers. We are going to link those companies together, convert them with the necessary CO2 chambers, and there you are.”
The Saudi crown prince’s personal builder was already literally at the table with the Limburgers, and these people are praising. To be allowed to use the technology and licenses, a financial deal was made, and that can count. Whether that makes it the financial deal of a lifetime?
“Gee. It’s mostly the deal of our lives in terms of innovation. Since 2004, Orbix has worked on the formula, and I on the production process. That we are now making the leap to the world market with Saudi Arabia as a big step is incredible. On the other hand: what is worth one million euros here, they laugh at in that country. If you can pay 200 million dollars for Cristiano Ronaldo, of course we also want value for money.”
The license alone will give Carbstone financial breathing room. The intention is that they will continue to help roll out the technology worldwide, from the Middle East to China, and finally everywhere. “It has to become the new normal someday. The earth is filling up with steel slag after decades of dumping, resources up for grabs, AND you’re putting in CO2. This is the solution, there is not even an economic alternative.”
However, the Saudis not only make the news with their megalomaniacal projects such as The Line, a 170-kilometer-long skyscraper across the desert and 500 meters high, but also with the inhumane working conditions. According to a documentary by British channel ITV, 21,000 people have already died building The Line since 2017. Some witnesses told of 16-hour workdays, wage theft and human rights violations, and they claimed to feel like “captive slaves” and “beggars.” “Well, when that article was published, we were effectively on site, and we put that to Besix, the contractor doing that project. 21,000 injured in all those years might be possible, but dead? That’s a site of dozens of kilometers with thousands of workers, and effectively every scratch is recorded there. A registration culture that even we don’t know about.”
The Line is a giant housing project 170 kilometers long and hundreds of meters high, where a total of millions of people can live throughout the desert and coast. The project has been under construction since 2017, provided controversy.
So for those who will be glued to their screens in 2034 and hopefully watching a match of the Red Devils at the Aramco Stadium, they already know that the building blocks are going to be Belgian-made. “And by the way, every seat will have air conditioning, just because it can get up to 50 degrees there. That may not sound very green, but building a stadium that stores 2.7 million kilos of CO2 and contains a lot of steel slag waste is not bad, and they realize that too. Better to store CO2 in a sustainable functional building than to store it polluted in the earth. The stadium should become an example of eventually a green building culture that can be rolled out all over the world. But it all started in Limburg. Whether those Saudis see us as the Elon Musk of the construction industry? They mostly see us as those innovation smart guys from Belgium.”
Source: Het Laatste Nieuws, Jan. 25, 2025