“NRMCA is supportive of all innovative technologies that can help us meet our carbon-neutrality goals,” adds Lemay. "This is all very exciting,” says Lionel Lemay, executive vice president of the National Ready-Mixed Concrete Association. To scale up availability in different regions, Prometheus is developing a licensing model under which it provides producers of the building products with the bio-material, which Burnett says is lightweight and easily shipped. "It is not ready for specification yet," Coletta says. SOM plans to design pavilions using bio-blocks, as soon as it is tested and approved. He is even more impressed that the products have as their building block an edible microorganism, akin to spirulina, which is used in healthful drinks. "This rose up in our minds as something sustainable, accessible and usable," says Coletta. SOM has for years sought to invest in green projects and products, says Brant Coletta, an SOM partner. The Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, architect-engineer Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), GAF and the Autodesk Foundation are participants. The financing deal was led by Sofinnova Partners, a European life sciences venture capital firm with offices in Paris, London and Milan. The company also expects to produce a ready-mixed bio-composite-a decarbonized alternative to traditional portland cement-based ready-mixed concrete. These include precast bio-composite elements-a decarbonized alternative to traditional precast portland cement-based roofing tiles, wall panels, sound barriers and other concrete elements. Over the next two years, Prometheus also will use its funding to commercialize other net-zero-carbon building products. Burnett expects the bio-block to be a net-sequesterer of carbon, eventually. To further reduce the EC of the product, Prometheus will purchase renewable power for the plant and install solar PV. “We will have a better idea of a cost profile in the fourth quarter of this year when we are in production,” he says. The product, with 2,000-psi compressive strength, will be marketed as an affordable, strong and durable near-zero-carbon alternative to portland cement-based concrete masonry units, says Prometheus.īurnett says there are no pricing details yet. The deal is allowing it to commercialize the bio-cement block at its plant in Longmont, Colo. On June 6, Prometheus announced it had closed its $8-million Series A financing round. The co-inventors, in addition to Srubar, are Mija Hubler, Sherri M. The product is the brainchild of the four principal investigators of the research at the university, all of whom also are co-founders of Prometheus. ![]() The biocement is a hydrogel-based living building material containing bacteria capable of microbially induced calcium-carbonate precipitation. But it will take about two years to get through the certification process, he adds. “We will absolutely be involved in structural concrete as well,” perhaps with fibrous support instead of reinforcing steel, says Burnett. ![]() Tselebidis says much still needs to be tested to determine the structural and mechanical properties and the performance characteristics of the material, especially over time and under different weather conditions.
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