Californian company Bioforcetech (BFT) has created a technology that converts sewage sludge into carbon-negative concrete ingredients while also successfully tackling “forever chemicals,” or PFAS, in the process.
This solution creates a new pathway for handling the management problem of millions of tons of sewage sludge, whose disposal puts pressure on U.S. wastewater treatment plants faced with high landfilling costs and PFAS regulations that increasingly restrict spreading it on farm fields.
Bioforcetech announced that its innovative approach has now secured a $310,000 Bridge Carbontech grant from Columbia University’s Carbontech Development Initiative (CDI)—a program backed by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
With this grant, Bioforcetech will be able to build the final, key element of its technology—a dosing system through which existing concrete batch plants can automatically inject the novel material, called OurCarbon, into their mixes.
Currently, Bioforcetech is already pouring concrete in the U.S. at a commercial pilot scale, but integrating into concrete plants for long-term offtake is the company’s next big challenge that will complete the supply chain.
Bioforcetech installs its solution at wastewater treatment facilities, where it processes biosolids through two stages, called BFT BioDryer and BFT SigmaOne.
The BFT BioDryer phase removes moisture, while BFT SigmaOne puts the biosolids through a high-temperature pyrolysis process that heats the material in a low-oxygen environment, transforming it into a stable carbon biochar product called OurCarbon.
“Bioforcetech has made its name building technologies that enable circularity. We are excited to take everything we’ve learned processing wastewater solids and apply it to closing a carbon loop into concrete for durable long-term storage.” – Dario Presezzi, CEO of Bioforcetech
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In 2019, BFT participated in testing that examined the ability of pyrolysis to destroy “forever chemicals,” with the EPA studying the company’s site in 2020. Recent third-party assessments showed that Bioforcetech’s flagship California installation, conducted by engineering firm Brown and Caldwell, has a PFAS removal efficiency of 99.98%.
The company has identified the city of New York as an ideal location for the deployment of OurCarbon, where the solution tackles PFAS amid tightening regulations and offers a new generation of building materials as both the state and the city mandate lower embodied carbon in construction.
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