Sublime Systems Awarded Contract with U.S. Department of Energy for Next-Generation, Clean Cement Manufacturing Plant in Holyoke, Mass.
Cement technology innovator Sublime Systems has completed award negotiations with the U.S. Department of Energy for an up-to $87 million award for its next-generation, clean cement manufacturing plant in Holyoke, Mass. Sublime will now commence site engineering and design, site characterization, and permitting, and continue its engagement with the Holyoke community focused on training and workforce development for the good-paying job opportunities Sublime’s plant will provide.
Sublime's Holyoke plant was one of 33 projects selected to be awarded a collective $6 billion from OCED’s Industrial Demonstrations Program (IDP), which aims to provide American manufacturers a competitive advantage in the race to lead the world in next-generation, clean industrial manufacturing. Sublime's Holyoke factory will successfully demonstrate full-scale operations of its breakthrough, pollution-avoiding process for manufacturing cement. Due to an ancient production method that decomposes limestone feedstock in fossil-fueled kilns, today’s ordinary portland cement manufacturing (OPC) contributes to 8% of global CO2 emissions and further releases harmful pollutants spanning nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), mercury, and particulates. Sublime’s core electrochemical process fully avoids this pollution while producing cement that forms that same hardened concrete the world relies on.
Sublime Systems CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Leah Ellis stated, “Sublime is developing the clean cement manufacturing technology of the future. As we scale up our domestic production with the DOE’s support, we'll work simultaneously to export this innovation around the globe and continue America’s long tradition of inventing essential technologies for the world. This completed award negotiation follows an extensive diligence process that vetted the transformative nature of Sublime’s technology, product, and ability to scale globally.”
Sublime expects to create 70-90 jobs across all skill and education levels once its plant is operational in Holyoke, a former industrial town that was once known as the Paper City of the World. Through its scale-up, Sublime aspires to simultaneously provide quality economic opportunity to Americans of all education levels, while onshoring manufacturing of an essential good. The U.S. currently imports about 20% of the cement it consumes, and increased clean domestic production will be critical in strengthening American supply chains and boosting competitiveness.
The proliferation of affordable, clean energy enables a second Industrial Revolution that the United States is best positioned to lead through private-sector-led, public-sector-enabled innovation. Following the investment from OCED earlier this year, Sublime secured partnerships with global building materials leaders Holcim and CRH focused on development of future full-scale manufacturing plants that pair the cement majors’ infrastructure with Sublime’s breakthrough process. Sublime’s technology was invented at MIT, commercialized with the support of ARPA-E, and has since earned a DOE Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO) grant to accelerate its ability to ingest industrial wastes as cement feedstocks. To highlight the role of such catalytic capital in furthering new manufacturing innovations, Sublime CEO Dr. Leah Ellis is speaking at the DOE’s Deploy24 conference on December 4th with leaders from the agency and OCED.
Sublime Systems | sublime-systems.com