Alabama Power partners with Eco Material Technologies to repurpose coal ash
Alabama Power announced Wednesday it is collaborating with Eco Material Technologies to harvest coal ash from Plant Barry, in Bucks, Ala.
Under the agreement, Eco Material will harvest millions of tons of the stored ash from the coal- and natural-gas fired electric generation plant, as much as an estimated 700,000 tons per year. The collaboration between sustainable cementitious material and near-zero cement products company Eco Materials, and Southern Company subsidiary Alabama Power will remove and re-use the ash in Green Cement. It is the third such harvesting project for the Southern Company.
“Southern Company and its subsidiaries are critical in Eco Material’s long-term strategy to invest in and upgrade sustainable sources of cementitious input materials to offset the high-intensive carbon emissions of the North American cement industry,” Grant Quasha, CEO of Eco Material Technologies, said. “This collaboration with Alabama Power is a paragon for both the environment and concrete builders, and we should expect more companies across the country to follow Southern Company’s lead in the beneficial reuse of their fly ash for products like Green Cement.”
The process at Plant Barry will be similar to the process used by Southern Company subsidiary Georgia Power at the Plant Branch harvesting plant, using Eco Material’s ES EcoSystem Efficient Carbon Offloading technology – a proprietary solution that uses a lower-cost and greener process to reduce high carbon content in landfilled and ponded coal ash, while bringing it up to required specification for use in concrete and other building materials.
The ash from Barry will be used in concrete blends to repair and construct bridges, roads and buildings in Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Louisiana.
“Alabama Power has a long history of recycling coal ash from its plants for beneficial use in products like concrete and other construction materials,” Brandon Dillard, Alabama Power senior vice president and senior production officer, West Production Group, said. “We’re very pleased that this collaboration with Eco Material will expand our ability to harvest coal ash at the plant and contribute to development of materials that impact the growth of our state.”
