Pilot production line broadens Solidia SCM lab testing, field trials  

Sources: Solidia Technologies, San Antonio, Texas; CP staff

Solidia Technologies is ramping up production of a proprietary supplementary cementitious material with the activation of a new pilot line at its expanded Texas headquarters. The equipment will increase the producer’s SCM capacity 25-fold, thereby allowing customers and prospects to test the engineered, performance binding agent in lab and field conditions. Solidia SCM mineralizes waste carbon dioxide and can replace 35 percent to 50 percent of portland cement in a mix design—equating to an 18 percent to 25 percent reduction in CO2 emissions associated with a finished concrete slab or structure. Along with lowering embodied carbon, the SCM improves concrete workability, strength development and durability. 

The pilot line is equipped for 1 ton per day of Solidia Supplementary Cementitious Material output.

“With the dramatic increase in production capacity that the new pilot line brings, we are now shipping significant quantities of Solidia SCM to ready-mix concrete producers, transportation agencies, and contractors to qualify and trial our material,” says Solidia Senior Director of Strategy and Business Development Pradeep Ghosh. “The lab testing and field trials these organizations conduct will help ensure our material meets the highest performance requirements for infrastructure applications as well as the individual sustainability needs of each department.”

“The commissioning of the pilot line is a critical milestone in the advancement and adoption of Solidia’s decarbonization technologies, allowing for critical field testing with some of the country’s biggest users of concrete,” adds CEO Russell Hill, Ph.D. “It’s one more important step toward full production—and toward tackling and remedying concrete’s enormous carbon footprint.”

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The SCM pilot production line dovetails an agreement where San Francisco global climate solutions specialist 3Degrees Group Inc. covers measurement, verification, and marketing of greenhouse gas emissions avoidance or reduction attributable to Solidia Technologies’ namesake cementitious materials and concrete. Credits from specifying the company’s portland cement substitute binders and carbon dioxide-based concrete curing method will be available to organizations seeking to reduce the (GHG Protocol-defined) scope 3 emissions they report from construction or other business supply chains.

“By partnering with 3Degrees to issue credits, we are providing a mechanism for the marketplace to invest in technologies that will accelerate global carbon emissions reduction,” says Hill. “Our collaboration ensures we issue the highest standard of carbon credits. Selling [them] will help product development, which will further enhance the value proposition for the future partners and manufacturers that leverage [our] technologies.”

Solidia Technologies extends a rigorously vetted carbon reduction or removal project portfolio, notes 3Degrees Director of Development Peter Weisberg. “We’re working to incorporate the carbon benefits of Solidia’s cement, SCM, and concrete production activities into an environmental commodity to rapidly scale their deployment in pursuit of global netzero emissions,” he adds. “This collaboration