Sources: Office of Congressman Richard Neal, State House News Service (Michael P. Norton, 3/25/2024)
Sublime Systems, which promises a product that "replaces today's cement with no compromises," will receive $87 million in federal funds to build a plant in Holyoke.
Sublime Systems announced the award Monday from the Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. The money comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, and is earmarked for projects that move energy-intensive industries toward net-zero emissions. The U.S. Department of Energy made the award Monday under its industrial demonstrations program and expects the project to create 70 to 90 permanent jobs "in a community that once produced nearly all of the United States’ writing paper but has seen a decline in industry over the 20th century."
The energy department said Sublime Systems' new method to make ultra-low carbon cement "replaces carbon-intensive limestone with abundant calcium silicate-based feedstocks, resulting in industry-standard cement that is produced electrochemically instead of using high heat."
"By demonstrating this transformational process that was previously supported by ARPA-E, Sublime Systems would strengthen American supply chains for low-carbon products, increase transparency for product environmental impact and performance, and catalyze industry-wide change," the energy department said.
Somerville-based Sublime Systems and the United Steelworkers have signed an agreement supporting Sublime Systems' employees’ right to organize at the Holyoke factory, the department said, as well as a memorandum of understanding to negotiate project labor agreements with the region's building trade unions.
Sublime also plans to support the Holyoke K-12 education system "through curriculum enhancement and teacher support in partnership with the Smithsonian Science Education Center" and facilitate a long-term training pipeline for Holyoke and the Pioneer Valley.
Cooler process
Mixed with water, sand and gravel, cement is used to make concrete, one of the most widely used substances on the planet. 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 yearly of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide.
Ordinary Portland cement is made with a 200-year-old process that thermally decomposes limestone, a rock that is nearly half carbon dioxide by weight, in fossil-fueled kilns running at temperatures as high as 1450 C.
Sublime uses an electrochemical process that entirely bypasses the need for extreme heat and limestone in the traditional method of producing cement. The process extracts reactive calcium and silicates from non-carbonate rocks at ambient temperature.
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