Solidia Technologies®, a leading provider of decarbonization technologies and sustainable solutions to the construction and building materials industries, is expanding production capacity of its proprietary Supplementary Cementitious Material (SCM), a key component used in concrete, at its headquarters in San Antonio, Texas. Solidia’s high-performing, engineered SCM product improves the durability, workability, and overall properties of concrete while mineralizing captured CO2 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% to 40%. With significantly more production capacity and proximity to key customers, suppliers, and partners, the expansion continues the company’s move from research and development into commercialization.
Over the past year, the Solidia team has made tremendous strides optimizing the product to achieve the desired attributes, consistent quality, and high performance required for end-use applications. This enables Solidia SCM to be used at much greater cement replacement levels than fly ash and other existing alternatives in most concrete applications. With those improvements, Solidia has invested to increase capacity, with production beginning at the facility in mid-2023.
“Our achievements in R&D have enabled us to invest in expanding annual SCM production capacity to ~1,000 tonnes,” said Pradeep Ghosh, Solidia’s Senior Director of Strategy and Business Development. “This will allow us to supply key stakeholders, like ready-mix suppliers and government entities, with material for testing, trials, and projects.”
The expanded capability is also a first step toward addressing the supply chain challenges ready-mix producers are experiencing with cement and existing SCMs such as fly ash. Fly ash, a byproduct of coal-fired power plants, is the most common SCM, but with coal-fired plants continuing to be retired, concrete producers may face increasing shortages. Most importantly, the expansion helps advance Solidia’s cement and CO2 mineralization technologies that collectively lower concrete’s overall carbon footprint by up to 50%.
“Increased production capacity is a significant milestone for advancing Solidia’s SCM technology and combined with our commercial focus on carbon-mineralizing concrete products represents our strong commitment to reduce the construction industry’s carbon footprint,” said Russell Hill, Ph.D., Solidia’s CEO. “The expansion of our SCM production will allow us to provide a higher-performing, higher-quality, more consistent product to concrete producers and customers.”
