MAKING CEMENT IS VERY DAMAGING FOR THE CLIMATE.ONE SOLUTION IS OPENING IN CALIFORNIA

It’s a major contributor to climate change — the way buildings and roads are made with concrete. It’s also a problem that’s growing as more of the world develops.

So the race has been on to find solutions for a material that’s responsible for roughly 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

Now one California startup has developed a technology that reduces carbon dioxide in the making of cement and could have the potential to operate at large scale. Fortera intercepts carbon dioxide exhaust from the kilns where cement is made and routes it back in to make additional cement. In its first effort at commercial scale, the technology is being added to a CalPortland facility in Redding, California, one of the largest cement plants in the western U.S.

“Our target is about being a ubiquitous solution that can work really at any plant,” said Ryan Gilliam, Fortera CEO.

Initially Fortera will produce enough to mix with about one-fifth of CalPortland’s product in a blend that reduces carbon by about 10%. Gilliam said there is a strong demand for higher blends that reduce carbon by 40-50%, and for a pure product the company makes, which has 70% lower carbon.

The first large sacks are scheduled to move out the door of the Redding plant the first week of May.

Fortera evolved in part out of an earlier company called Calera that was among the first to convert carbon dioxide into cement starting in 2007. It poured some 100 tons of its lowcarbon cement into California office buildings and sidewalks but shuttered in 2014 due to financial challenges. Building on that knowledge, Gilliam founded Fortera in 2019 with several former Calera employees.