Rutgers start-up Queens Carbon will receive $14.5 million in government funding to advance its groundbreaking technology that aims to eliminate carbon emissions from the cement industry. The grant comes from U.S. Department of Energy’s SCALEUP program that funds the research, development and commercialization of new energy-efficient technologies. Queens Carbon, based in Pine Brook, N.J., was among four companies sharing $63.5 million in this year’s funding.
Queens Carbon will use the funding to pilot its novel low-temperature, zero-carbon-dioxide technology in collaboration with a commercial partner in the cement industry. The technology was developed by now-CEO Daniel Kopp when he was a doctoral student at Rutgers while working with Distinguished Professor Richard Riman in his lab at the School of Engineering. “The SCALEUP grant is a tremendous step forward on our path to commercialization,” Kopp said.
Manufacturing large-volume products, such as cement, results in billions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, according to the company’s website. Carbonation, the forming of carbonate materials, helps solve this problem by capturing carbon dioxide in minerals such as limestone. The problem with carbonation is that it requires substantial amounts of heat and energy to release the carbon in these materials. To read the full story.