Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Energy selected Sublime Systems for an up to $87 million award to accelerate construction of a low-carbon cement manufacturing plant in Holyoke, Massachusetts, the firm said in a press release Monday.
- Somerville, Massachusetts-headquartered Sublime’s first commercial facility will open in early 2026, per the release, and will produce up to 30,000 tons per year of low-carbon cement.
- The funding is part of $6 billion from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act earmarked for projects that shift energy-intensive industries toward net-zero emissions.
Dive Insight:
Sublime’s low-carbon cement was used in January in a mud mat under the foundation of a commercial construction project in Boston, said Sublime Systems’ spokesperson Erin Glabets in an email. New York City-based Turner Construction Co. is the general contractor on the project while Boston Sand and Gravel mixed the cement at their batching plant and Hudson, Massachusetts-headquartered S&F Concrete served as the concrete finisher.
Concrete is the foundation of modern building, but it’s also heavily polluting, contributing at least 8% of all human-caused carbon emissions, according to a University of Rochester study. The cement sector is the third-largest industrial source of pollution in the U.S., according to the Environmental Protection Agency, emitting more than 500,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide annually.
While not yet the norm on jobsites, the use of greener cement mixes is growing rapidly, spurred in part by the federal government. There are now a wide variety of low-carbon mixes and methods on the market that have a lower environmental impact than standard Portland cement.
Portland cement is made by thermally breaking down limestone, a rock that is nearly half carbon dioxide by weight, typically in fossil-fueled kilns that run up to 2,642 degrees Fahrenheit. Sublime instead uses an electrochemical process that bypasses the need for extreme heat and limestone, and instead extracts reactive calcium and silicates from non-carbonate rocks at ambient temperature.
Feds push for greener industry
The Holyoke factory is one of 33 projects across more than 20 states that the DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations picked Monday to accelerate commercial-scale decarbonization solutions with a total of $6 billion in funding. Other awardees include greener aluminum, iron, steel, glass chemical and other industrial projects.
Sublime Systems CEO and Co-Founder Leah Ellis said the DOE funds will allow it to more rapidly scale up production.
“Access to sufficient capital for industrial-scale demonstrations is the single biggest obstacle preventing breakthrough innovations from reaching the scale humanity needs to combat the climate crisis,” said Ellis in the release.
Grant applicants were required to submit community benefits plans showing how they will engage communities and labor, create quality jobs and prioritize economic and environmental justice for disadvantaged groups, according to the release.
Sublime expects to create hundreds of jobs during the construction phase of the project, per the release, and has pledged to negotiate project labor agreements with the region’s building trade unions. The company has raised more than $140 million in total from the DOE as well as climate tech investors and Bangkok, Thailand-based Siam Cement Group.