Three startups focused on reducing the carbon embedded in concrete are among the recipients of 14 federal grants totaling $428 million, the US Department of Energy announced Oct. 22.
Terra CO2, which plans to produce supplemental cementitious material it says can displace much of the Portland cement in concrete, will use its $52.6 million grant to build a plant in Magna, Utah, on the site of the Rio Tinto Group’s large Kennecott copper mine. southwest of Salt Lake City. Terra would use mine waste as feedstock for the plant to produce 240,000 tons of material a year for the local market.
The company works largely with non-metallic rocks in the silicate family, CEO Bill Yearsley says, noting that the scalability of its feedstock is what sets Terra CO2 apart. The material has less carbon incorporated than limestone (Terra says that every ton of Portland cement it replaces with additional cementitious material will reduce carbon dioxide by 70%), but it’s still widely available, like limestone. The company is also in the permitting process for its first plant in Texas,
“You have to be able to source your raw material locally in every market, and you have to be able to source in large volumes,” he says.
In Chicago, Furno Materials plans to use a $20 million Energy Department grant to build a facility that will produce 55,000 tons of cement a year primarily from recycled concrete. The new plant is located next to an existing Ozinga Bros. property. with which it collaborates.
Furno uses modular technology that fits primarily into a shipping container, says Kiersten Jakobsen, who heads operations, communications and marketing. The company created a proprietary kiln design that is not horizontal like traditional rotary kilns. It uses gaseous fuels instead of coal and coke, with a technology that reduces the amount of fuel needed while being able to pack more densely packed material into the kiln while still producing regular portland cement.
This would be Furno’s first commercial location, although it has already produced units at its headquarters in Mountain View, California. After finalizing details with the Energy Department, Jakobsen says construction could be done within nine months, and the company sees its plants as something that can be rolled out relatively easily to other markets in the future .
“Our philosophy has been to go with a modular approach, so we’re able to go where the demand is,” says Jakobsen.
Urban Mining Industries, which makes a ground glass pozzolan called Pozzotive, plans to build manufacturing plants in Baltimore and Indiantown, Fla., with a $37.1 million federal grant. Pozzotive, which is made from recycled glass, can replace up to 50 percent of the cement in concrete with only 6 percent of the carbon footprint of the cement it replaces, according to Energy Department officials.
The company already has a smaller plant in Connecticut, with the new facilities serving as models for expansion into other markets, the agency says.
Growing manufacturing
Funding for the Advanced Energy Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Program comes from the Jobs and Infrastructure Investment Act of 2021. The $750 million program targets small businesses moving to establish or expand facilities manufacturing or recycling facilities involved in clean energy, low-carbon materials or reduced greenhouse gas emissions as part of White House climate goals and job creation efforts in former coal mining communities.
“America’s transition to a clean energy future is being shaped by communities filled with the valuable talent and experience that comes from driving our country forward for decades,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement .
The largest award in the funding round is $87 million to Mainspring Energy for its project to build a plant in Coraopolis, Pa., northwest of Pittsburgh. The company is working with Cincinnati-based contractor Al. Neyer LLC at the facility, which would produce 1,000 linear generators annually, enough to power 250,000 homes, according to the company.
“By increasing the production of linear generators in Pennsylvania, Mainspring can contribute a key role in the nation’s energy transition with a proven and versatile technology for distributable energy,” CEO Shannon Miller said in a statement.
Mainspring’s linear generators are fueled by low-temperature, non-combustion reactions, so they produce almost zero nitrogen oxide emissions, and can also switch between different fuels such as biogas, natural gas, hydrogen or propane The generators are scalable from 250 kW to more than 100 MW.
Other projects officials selected for grantmaking would produce items such as components for electric vehicle batteries, insulation made from recycled cardboard, and electrical equipment.
