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Bechtel and Calera Announce Alliance

  • 10 December 2009
    RESTON, Virginia
  • Environmental Sustainability, Press Release, Technology, Technology Licensing and Consulting Services

Bechtel and Calera Announce Alliance

Calera Corporation and Bechtel Power Corporation today announced a strategic alliance to develop and construct facilities using carbon capture technology to reduce emissions and fight global warming.

Calera’s innovative process captures carbon dioxide emitted by coal or gas-fired power plants and converts it into calcium and magnesium carbonates for use in manufacturing carbon negative products such as sand, aggregate, supplementary cementitious materials, and cement, as well as fresh water. The company’s business plan calls for construction of multiple demonstration plants to validate the commercial viability of its technology.

“Calera is very enthusiastic about its alliance with Bechtel, a world leader in power plant and emissions technologies engineering, procurement and construction,” said Brent Constantz, CEO of Calera. “Bechtel key personnel have been working closely with Calera in equipment design and optimization, and increasingly large-scale plant deployment engineering and design. We are very confident that our approach is the most technically viable, rapidly deployable, cost-effective and industrially scalable solution for large point-source emitters of CO2."

Bechtel and Calera have teamed up to deploy Calera’s technology worldwide and to establish Calera’s distinctive position within the growing carbon capture market. “We look forward to working with Calera to help deploy a technology that is both innovative and important as the world seeks ways to reduce greenhouse emissions,” said Ian Copeland, president of Bechtel Renewable Power. “The fundamental chemistry and physics of the Calera process are based on sound scientific principles and its core technology and equipment can be integrated with base power plants very effectively.”

Copeland added that Bechtel has designed, built and installed similar technologies extensively. “While there are challenges to bringing the Calera process to commercial scale, they are not as great as those facing other carbon sequestration approaches,” he said.

Calera captures CO2 from raw flue gas in natural water, converting it to calcium and magnesium carbonates, which are formulated into carbon negative building materials, resulting in the production of fresh water. Calera's processes and technologies are described for cement production, CO2 capture and conversion, water purification, and electrochemistry in numerous issued patents and published patent applications.

Bechtel has worked extensively with the Calera team at its headquarters, pilot plant, and on the engineering and design of several projects and government grant applications. Bechtel has been a leader in the emerging technology and renewable energy markets for more than 30 years, with experience in carbon capture, solar thermal, photovoltaic, wind, geothermal, integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC), energy-from-waste, and biomass projects.

 

About Calera

Calera Corporation converts carbon dioxide (CO2) from the burning of fossil fuel into carbon-negative building materials, enabling the production of clean power, cement, fresh water and other products to promote sustainable growth. The company was founded in 2007 by CEO Dr. Brent Constantz, and currently resides in over 40,000 square feet of lab space in Los Gatos and over 20 acres of land at the pilot facility in Moss Landing, California. To learn more about Calera visit http://www.calera.com.

Calera media contact:
Nickole Powe        
Corporate Communications   
Calera Corporation
(408) 340-4674      
[email protected]

Key Contact

About Bechtel

Bechtel is a trusted engineering, construction and project management partner to industry and government. Differentiated by the quality of our people and our relentless drive to deliver the most successful outcomes, we align our capabilities to our customers’ objectives to create a lasting positive impact. Since 1898, we have helped customers complete more than 25,000 projects in 160 countries on all seven continents that have created jobs, grown economies, improved the resiliency of the world's infrastructure, increased access to energy, resources, and vital services, and made the world a safer, cleaner place.  

Bechtel serves the Energy; Infrastructure; Manufacturing & Technology; Mining & Metals; and Nuclear, Security & Environmental markets. Our services span from initial planning and investment, through start-up and operations. www.bechtel.com

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