A Pittsburgh-area company, Universal Aggregates LLC, received a $7.2 million U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant to demonstrate a lightweight-aggregate production process. The funding supports a plant that will provide concrete-grade material for mid-Atlantic producers beginning in 2003. More significantly, the grant illustrates an example of DOE-supported public/private partnerships that concrete interests are pursuing as part of the industry's Strategic Development Council.

Universal is one of eight companies to receive funds earmarked for clean coal technologies within DOE's Power Plant Improvement Initiative. It will build a 3,500-sq.-ft. production line at the Birchwood Power Facility in King George, Va., processing 100,000-plus tons annually of coal combustion by-products (spray dryer ash). Universal's process can also utilize fly ash, flue gas desulfurization sludge and fluidized bed combustion residues. The company has developed equipment and methods wherein those waste materials — typically dispatched to landfills — are blended with proprietary binding agents into cubical aggregate of user-specified gradation. The ash bears calcium sulfate and calcium sulfite, although performance testing with National Concrete Masonry Association and independent laboratories shows that the aggregate suits block and certain commercial concrete mixes. Concrete block produced with the cubical rock has been used in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina. Producers testing Universal samples have included Florida Rock Industries and Rinker Materials Corp.

Universal Aggregates President David Kay notes that the process requires a multimillion dollar investment subject to capacity and power plant configuration. Birchwood output could be upwards of 200,000 tons per year, he adds, while operations of comparable capacity might be built in Florida, Kentucky and other states with coal-fired generating stations. Universal is a joint venture of Pittsburgh's Consol Energy Inc., a large coal and natural gas producer in the East; and SynAggs LLC, whose principals have extensive highway and building construction background.

The Power Plant Improvement Initiative operates in tandem with another DOE program, Industries of the Future (IOF), that cement and concrete interests will hopefully hear much more about over the next few years. DOE launched IOF in 1994 as a means of promoting energy conservation and waste reduction in manufacturing segments that consume major quantities of fossil fuels. After seven years and millions in grants to entities like Universal Aggregates, IOF has grown to encompass all target manufacturing segments except for concrete. That could change, thanks to the above-noted Strategic Development Council (SDC), which the American Concrete Institute's Concrete Education and Research Foundation organized in 1997 as a forum to advance technologies into the marketplace.

SDC comprises owners and executives from major cement and concrete companies, their equipment and material suppliers, plus engineering and construction interests. Mindful of budget constraints affecting DOE and other federal agencies, Council members await official designation of concrete as an IOF partner. SDC could then propose candidate research projects including, for example, ones to expand use of supplementary binding materials and improve concrete durability.

e-mail: dmarsh@primediabusiness.com