Calera Corporation

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Calera Corporation is a company headquartered in Los Gatos, California. On its website the company states that its focus is on "capturing CO2 from stationary emitters- including power plants and cement plants- and permanently converting it to mineral forms. The ultimate goal is to develop valuable products, such as cementitious materials, out of the captured carbon dioxide."

Peabody buys in

In March 2010 Peabody invested $15 million into Calera Corporation. The company says it has developed technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and other industrial facilities. With the addition of waste water or brine, the company used carbon dioxide to produce cement and other building materials. Peabody claimed that "every ton of Calera building material is expected to store as much as a half-ton of CO2 ... Because Calera's process removes minerals and other constituents from water, it also acts as a freshening system to produce fresh water, which can benefit areas of the world that need clean water." In announcing it's investment in the company, Peabody sought to bolster its credentials as a "clean coal" pioneer. However, critics do not believe Calera's technology will actually decrease carbon dioxide. Ken Caldiera PhD, a professor at the Carnegie Institution Department of Global Ecology, studies carbon sequestration and stated that from the publicly available info about Calera’s technology, it seems to go "in the wrong direction and will tend to increase and not decrease atmospheric CO2 content."

Affiliations

• Member, Ash Development Association of Australia, a lobby group promoting the use of coal-fired power station waste in building and other materials.

Contact details

14600 Winchester Blvd.
Los Gatos, CA 95032
tel 408-340-4600
fax 408-340-4650
Website: http://www.calera.com

Articles and resources

Related GEM.wiki articles

• Australia and coal
• Fly ash management and use in Australia
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• ECOBA
• The Fly Ash Resource Centre - http://www.rmajko.com/flyash.html
• University of Wisconsin Milwaukee - Center for Byproducts Utilization
• University of Kentucky - Center for Applied Energy Research
• Worldwide Coal Combustion Products Network