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New ground is being broken at the Ash Grove cement plant on Lakeshore Road in Mississauga, Ont. in both a literal and figurative sense.

The plant will be the site of, what the proponents describe as, Canada’s “first-of-its-kind” commercial carbon capture and utilization facility.

Construction was officially launched on July 29 in a sod-turning ceremony attended by representatives of carbon and resource utilization leader Carbon Upcycling, Ash Grove and the federal government including Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon.

The federal government has awarded $10 million, through three different programs, for the development of the Carbon 1 Mississauga project.

Carbon Upcycling’s patented technology will be used to permanently sequester CO2 from the cement kiln and utilize it to transform locally produced industrial byproducts into high-quality, low-carbon supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs).

“We will replace carbon-intensive clinker in cement with industrial byproducts or natural minerals enhanced by our process,” says company spokesperson Dante Luu.

Asked for a basic description of that process, he explained once feedstock material falls apart, flue gas is introduced “as is” into the facility where the CO2 is selectively sequestered into the material.

“The result is a high-performance cementitious material that can be blended in cement to replace carbon-intensive materials.”

Once operational in 2026, the facility will have the capacity to produce up to 30,000 tonnes of SCMs annually, says Luu.

Construction is now well underway and will not interfere with the day-to-day operations of the cement plant, he says.

“There is lots of space.”

Carbon Upcycling is using the services of a local engineering firm and local construction firm, but it is not the company’s policy to name those firms or provide details of the construction phasing, says Luu.

However, the project will create more than 30 temporary jobs through design and construction and several permanent skilled jobs. The permanent positions will be the facility’s operating staff.

Established in 2014, the Calgary-based company invested a number of years in research and development and then opened two demonstration facilities in that city in 2021. But this will be its first commercial carbon capture and utilization facility. Planning began about two years ago, he says.

“Ash Grove is a premier North American cement manufacturer,” says Luu, when asked why Carbon Upcycling is partnering with a company in the opposite end of the country.

The cement manufacturer is also a subsidiary of CRH which invested in Carbon Upcycling through its venture arm CRH Ventures.