# Low-carbon cement

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2024-10-29

carbon-emissions, cement, climate-change, coal-mine, concrete, construction, dallas, energy, environment, innovation, low-carbon, portland-cement, salt-lake-city, sustainability, technology, us-department-of-energy, utah

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By some measurements, cement production alone is responsible for about 8% of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions every year. And so there is an imperative to find suitable low-carbon alternatives. Here is what is currently happening in the US ([via Grist](https://grist.org/energy/a-former-utah-coal-town-could-soon-become-a-hub-for-low-carbon-cement/)):

> _On Tuesday,_ [_Terra CO2 Technology_](https://terraco2.com/) _was picked to receive a $52.6 million federal grant to build a new manufacturing plant just west of Salt Lake City. The company_ [_has devised a method_](https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-industry/terra-co2-says-its-texas-factory-will-cut-carbon-and-cost-from-cement) _that turns common minerals into additives that can help replace Portland cement — a key component in concrete, and one of the most carbon-intensive materials in the world._

In addition to this new facility, the company is set to start construction on its first plant in the Dallas-Fort Worth area:

> _The project is expected to break ground in January 2025 and begin shipping out materials by late summer 2026, Yearsley said. The facility will be capable of producing up to 240,000 metric tons of SCM \[supplementary cementitious materials\] per year when completed, or enough to serve roughly half of the local metropolitan market._

And all of this is part of a broader initiative by the US Department of Energy:

> _The Utah facility is_ [_one of 14 projects_](https://www.energy.gov/mesc/advanced-energy-manufacturing-and-recycling-program-selections) _provisionally selected this week to receive $428 million in total awards from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains. The initiative, which is funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, aims to accelerate clean energy manufacturing in U.S. communities with decommissioned coal facilities. Officials said the projects are expected to create over 1,900 high-quality jobs across a dozen states._

For the rest of the article, [click here](https://grist.org/energy/a-former-utah-coal-town-could-soon-become-a-hub-for-low-carbon-cement/).

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/low-carbon-cement)*