Boulder County seed funding supports concrete projects aimed at sucking carbon from atmosphere

Annie Mehl, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.
·2 min read
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Mar. 9—A coalition of cities and counties in the western U.S. has awarded $389,000 to four projects aimed at fighting climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through the production of concrete.

The 4 Corners Carbon Coalition — a partnership between Boulder County, Flagstaff, Ariz.; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Santa Fe, N.M. — pools resources to provide grants to accelerate carbon dioxide removal, project deployment and business development in the Four Corners region, according to a news release from Boulder County.

Carbon dioxide removal is necessary because carbon dioxide reduction alone will not end the climate crisis, the release stated. Concrete production is responsible for more than 7% of the world's emissions, and is the second-most consumed product globally after potable water.

Through a competitive application process, the coalition received nearly $800,000 in funding requests before selecting four organizations for grants: CarbonBuilt, Citizens for Clean Energy Inc., Minus Materials, and Travertine Technologies.

"The 4 Corners Carbon Coalition is a shining example of how local governments are acting together to fight the climate crisis," said Susie Strife, director of Boulder County's Office of Sustainability, Climate Action and Resilience, in the news release.

"Pooling resources can amplify innovation and the creative deployment of the integration of carbon removal and concrete. These awardees will turn their breakthroughs into real world projects right here in the western United States, and we are thrilled to provide seed funding to catalyze this work."

The projects selected are:

—CarbonBuilt will work at a facility in Arizona on the world's first project using atmospheric carbon to produce ultra-low carbon concrete. The resulting concrete will have 70-100% percent less embodied carbon than traditional concrete.

—Citizens for Clean Energy Inc. will demonstrate hempcrete construction by building carbon negative wall panels for a two-story office warehouse in Durango. This construction will sequester carbon through a tip-up, hempcrete, structural panel system as well as through biochar used in the building's cementitious materials.

—Minus Materials will begin a regenerative quarry pilot project using algae to convert atmospheric carbon dioxide into organic biomass and biorenewable limestone.

—Travertine Technologies will generate carbon-negative precipitated calcium carbonate using waste feedstocks from the mining and fertilizer production industries. In this project, the team will produce and characterize a series of cubes of blended cement mortar that incorporate CNPCC to replace ordinary portland cement. The aim of the project is to demonstrate the beneficial use of Travertine's CNPCC in the production of low carbon intensity cement binder for permanent carbon dioxide removal and sequestration.