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A climate technology company developing low-carbon cement to reduce emissions from production by as much as 85 per cent is collaborating with AECON Group Inc. to test, validate and conduct a pilot comparing its product to conventionally produced Portland cement.

Developed by start-up CURA, the technology takes carbon out of limestone prior to going into a kiln, allowing producers to make the same general‑use Portland cement without the carbon emissions, says Erin Bobicki, chief executive officer of CURA.

CURA’s cement is produced at cost parity or below the price of conventional cement, she adds.

“We enable cement producers to make the same cement as they always have but with dramatically lower emissions using the infrastructure they already have,” she says, noting CURA is the only company developing a low-cost and sustainable solution from an early stage of production.

“It is a significant proof-point that Aecon wants to work with us.”

Cement production accounts for eight per cent of global CO2 emissions, making it the single largest industrial source of carbon pollution, she says.

In a world where researchers race to curb carbon emissions from cement, CURA’s technology stands out as “completely novel.”

And the company is moving quickly.

At its University of Calgary lab, the start-up expects to produce five kilograms per day by the end of March and by year’s end the pilot will have a capacity of 100 tonnes of production annually.

Aecon will conduct material validation and concrete failure testing and then build a prototype to test the cement, Bobicki says.

The construction giant will build a “flagship project,” deploying some of CURA’s cement in 2027-28 to show it meets the standards of ordinary Portland cement.

In the meantime, CURA is raising $8 million in seed money for the pilot and also for a demonstration plant with a capacity of 30,000 tonnes annually by 2028.

Electrochemically-produced, CURA’s cement reduces emissions by eliminating high-temperature limestone calcination. Essentially it electrifies limestone to split the rock at low temperatures, explains Bobicki.

The CO2 can be “directly compressed for storage or use and then we isolate the calcium for cement production.”

To make traditional cement, by comparison, limestone is heated to 1,450 C in a kiln, which burns the CO2 from the rock but retains the calcium oxide for cement.

Bobicki says because the product is the same as conventional cement there is no need to go through a certification process for a new product.

There has been a demand for low carbon cement in the construction industry but until now it has not been economical or available in large volume.

She says other research teams have taken different paths to eliminate carbon emissions. Research in the U.S. includes supplementary cementitious materials to reduce the amount of cement used in concrete but cement remains the binder “to hold it all together,” points out Bobicki.

Other efforts have looked at alternative chemistry or binders but results have been slow compared to CURA’s progress.

She says the company expects to complete ASTM testing in April — a major milestone that no other company has achieved to date.

The core electrochemical “pre‑calcination” approach CURA is commercializing was developed at the University of British Columbia in the lab of Prof. Curtis Berlinguette.

She says while others have tested different electrification processes, those efforts require a lot of energy to heat (compared to natural gas) in a kiln, she says.

“It ends up being a lot more costly than the conventional process.”

CURA is getting attention in Canada, Europe and elsewhere on its novel development, says Bobicki, who co-founded the company last year with Sabrina Scott, chief operating officer, and Phil De Luna, chief technology officer.