Displaying items by tag: US

US: Georgia Power has awarded Eco Material Technologies a contract to start harvesting 600,000t/yr of pond ash from the site of its decommissioned Harllee Branch power plant in Milledgeville, Georgia. Eco Material Technologies will dry the ash and begin recycling it as replacement for cement in its concrete production from 2026. It expects to extract a total of 8Mt of pond ash from the site. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper reports that Georgia Power intends to invest US$7.8bn to disposal of its ash deposits across the country over the next 60 years to around the early 2080s.

Eco Material Technologies’ chief executive officer Grant Quasha said that he hopes for the company’s work at the Harllee Branch site to serve as a ‘model for the rest of the country’ for the efficient recycling of stored coal ash.

US: Cemex USA supplied water-permeable concrete from its Vertua range for the renovation of the Bryant-Denny American football stadium at the University of Alabama. The producer says that this will reduce the project’s CO₂ emissions by 40%, while also facilitating rainwater harvesting and preventing the stadium’s field from flooding.

Cemex USA president Jaime Muguiro said “These types of projects exemplify Cemex’s versatility. From housing to large-scale infrastructure, we are able to deliver tailor-made solutions that best suit our customers’ needs. Thanks to our extensive portfolio of high-quality building materials and solutions, we can participate in such iconic projects and support more sustainable construction.”

US: Cemex USA has poured 18,300m³ of Vertua reduced-CO₂ concrete in the construction of the Centennial Tower at Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas. Cemex USA says that it successfully completed the 20hr pour at the world’s largest medical complex without interrupting surrounding emergency services.

President Jaime Muguiro said “Cemex’s purpose of building a better future comes to life when we participate in projects that improve people’s quality of life, particularly in the area of health services, in the communities in which we serve. Not only are we providing expert logistics and resilient materials, but we are also providing an alternative to lower the carbon footprint of the project with our more sustainable solutions.”

US: Cemstone celebrated the opening of a new concrete plant in Owatonna, Minnesota on 5 October 2023, when it hosted an open house and ribbon cutting ceremony. Located in an out-of-town industrial park with good highway connections, the new plant has replaced an aging facility that stood much closer to downtown Owatonna, according to the Owatonna People's Press newspaper.

The plant can produce around 190m3/hr of concrete, compared to 84m3/yr at the old facility. General Manager Ken Kuhn said the loading chute at the new site can turn concrete trucks around in three minutes, as opposed to eight minutes before. The plant also features ramps that allow trucks to dump loads of aggregate directly into five large outdoor hoppers, each with a 35t. The previous facility had just one hopper and aggregate had to be transported from a stockpile across the street.

The new plant also features a water recycling system, which Kuhn said is a rarity in the concrete business. Cemstone trucks will return wash water from job sites to the plant, where it will pass through a series of bays to filter out debris and sediments. Once clarified, that water will be used to wash the truck, before being recycled again. The facility will also collect all the process water it produces and approximately half the rainwater from the site for reuse.

US: Holcim US has inaugurated a 1300 – 1500Mwh/yr solar power plant at its Fort Totten ready-mix concrete plant in Washington DC. Resources News has reported that the solar power plant consists of both silo rooftop modules and carport-mounted modules. Madison Energy Investments will operate the solar power plant, and solar power engineering companies Centennial Generating Company and Halo were also partners for the project. Holcim US is committed to powering 100% of its operations renewably by 2030. It expects to reach 40% by the end of 2023.

US: The Department of Energy has awarded cement-free concrete developer C-Crete Technologies US$950,000-worth of research funding. The company will put the funds towards developing its concrete using new feedstocks.

Resources News has reported that C-Crete Technologies’ president Rouzbeh Savary said "By enlarging our technology toolbox to utilise geographically versatile and abundant feedstocks, we can ensure that local materials can be converted to cementitious binders, eliminating the need for shipping such materials over long distances.”

US: Carbon Built’s proprietary technology for the production of reduced-CO₂ concrete blocks won awards across three categories at the Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards 2023. The product won the Circular Design, Materials and Sustainability prizes. Carbon Built’s technology enables existing concrete block plants to use common alternative raw materials to produce blocks with 70 – 100% lower CO₂ emissions than ordinary Portland cement-based blocks.

US: Block-Lite plans to install a system to cure concrete blocks using direct air capture (DAC)-sourced CO₂ at its Flagstaff, Arizona, concrete block plant. The upgrade will implement CarbonBuilt’s low-CO₂ concrete production technology and AirCapture’s modular DAC technology, across five or six capture units. Direct air capture will thus remove 500 – 600t/yr of CO₂ from the atmosphere, while process changes will reduce CO₂ emissions from the Flagstaff plant by over 2000t/yr. The project has attracted fundraising from the 4 Corners Carbon Coalition (4CCC), with a goal of US$50,000. The Arizon Daily Sun newspaper has reported that Block-Lite plans to supply its first shipment of low-CO₂ blocks to a 50-home development by Habitat for Humanity in Flagstaff.

US: Prometheus Materials' microalgae biocement-based bioconcrete has demonstrated 12 times greater sound absorption than concrete produced using ordinary Portland cement (OPC). Prometheus Materials' bioconcrete contains its biocement, which is produced at ambient temperature, without process CO₂ emissions.

US: Geopolymer cement and concrete producer Renca has supplied its geopolymer 3D printing mortar for the construction of a house in the Western US. The product contains no cement, lime or gypsum due to the non-hydraulic binding properties of the mortar. It contains industrial by-products and has a faster setting time than mortar produced with ordinary Portland cement (OPC), as well as 90% lower CO₂ emissions.

Renca said that its geopolymer mortar performed well despite the desert setting of the project, with dramatic changes in temperature. It added, "Even though geopolymer mortars require a specific approach towards the mixing procedure and, unlike cementitious-based products, need to be mixed in a batch mixing system, this milestone opens new horizons. Renca's current research and development seeks to develop a one-component geopolymer mortar for continuous mixers, as well as a 2K system where you can control the setting time right at the nozzle."