Arogonne labs did some great work and licensed some in the US and are not active anymore as far as I can tell.....Grancrete whom I called a while ago and got no answer. I did talk to a builder that tried their MGO for shotcrete that said it dried fast and clogged the gunite. Premier below has got into the US MGO market making raw materials. China is the biggest raw material supplier to most mag boards and products. Premier offers a MOC (see below) they claim China does not...but they seem to be marketing to manufacturing and offer no applications like boards, SIPS, cements, etc...they make a cement additive that is hard to get my ready mix company to change to I told them. I also wrote them to try to develop some applications, design procedures, like Grancrete had. No answer, nor when I questioned what gun they proved their shotcrete mix in? They are the only raw US raw material supplier I know of? and are fairly new at it.
They'll send you small samples 5 mg and you need to locate a chloride or phosphate additive. I'm no chemist with a lab to develop applications I told them, they have stater mixes on their site. I suggested they make it easy for builders, and there is a big home building market out there if they can. They claim to be competitive in price to portland cement and China....I have some fly ash, can get some MGO, I just got no idea what to do with it lol! Yet anyway. I'm reading a book called "breathable walls" by George Swanson....He got one of the Argonne licenses....After I read the book I'm planning on heading down to TX to pay him a visit. I'd settle for mag board to start if it is cost competitive. Word on the street is be careful with import quality. MGO corp is another I just found out about, they boast about there certifications in several countries and US=ICC code compliance, Magnum another, both located in Florida next to shipping docks..I heard through Magnum supplier they are shipping in from China probably the same as MGO corp.
http://www.premiercpg.com/PREMag_MPC.html
Here is some of my research notes...
Dead burned magnesium oxide (MPC) : Temperatures used when calcining to produce refractory grade magnesia will range between 1500ºC - 2000ºC and the magnesium oxide is referred to as "dead-burned" since most, if not all, of the reactivity has been eliminated. Refractory grade MgO is used extensively in steel production to serve as both protective and replaceable linings for equipment used to handle molten steel.
Hard burned magnesium oxide : A second type of magnesium oxide produced from calcining at temperatures ranging from 1000ºC - 1500ºC is termed "hard-burned.” Due to it's narrow range of reactivity, this grade is typically used in applications where slow degradation or chemical reactivity is required such as with animal feeds and fertilizers.
Light burned magnesium oxide (MOC) : The third grade of MgO is produced by calcining at temperatures ranging from 700ºC - 1000ºC and is termed "light-burn" or "caustic" magnesia. Due to the material's wide reactivity range, industrial applications are quite varied and include plastics, rubber, paper and pulp processing, steel boiler additives, adhesives, and acid neutralization to name just a few.