How Sewage Sludge Is Becoming Carbon-Negative Concrete
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📰 The quick summary: A California company has developed a process that turns sewage sludge into carbon-negative biochar concrete ingredients, locking away CO2 for centuries while also removing nearly all PFAS forever chemicals in the process.
📈 One key stat: Bioforcetech’s flagship California installation achieves a PFAS removal efficiency of 99.98%, a critical milestone as tightening regulations increasingly restrict the spreading of sewage sludge on farm fields.
💬 One key quote: “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,” said Dario Presezzi, CEO of Bioforcetech.
1️⃣ The big picture: Millions of tons of sewage sludge pile up at US wastewater treatment plants each year, creating costly disposal problems made worse by tightening PFAS regulations that ban spreading it on farmland. California-based Bioforcetech has developed a two-stage process that dries biosolids and then converts them through high-temperature pyrolysis into a stable carbon biochar product called OurCarbon, which can serve as a carbon-negative ingredient in concrete. With a $310,000 Bridge Carbontech grant from Columbia University’s Carbontech Development Initiative, the company can now build a dosing system that lets existing concrete batch plants automatically inject OurCarbon into their mixes. Third-party testing confirmed the process removes 99.98% of PFAS, addressing one of the most pressing contamination challenges facing the wastewater sector. Bioforcetech already pours concrete at commercial pilot scale in the US and is now focused on integrating into concrete plants for long-term supply.
2️⃣ Why is this good news: Turning a costly waste stream into a useful, carbon-negative building material tackles two major environmental problems at once, reducing both landfill pressure and atmospheric CO2. Locking carbon into concrete structures stores it for centuries, offering a genuinely durable form of carbon removal that goes far beyond temporary solutions. At the same time, destroying 99.98% of PFAS prevents these persistent chemicals from contaminating soil and waterways, protecting ecosystems and public health. As cities like New York adopt policies mandating lower embodied carbon in construction, materials like OurCarbon can help developers meet those targets without changing their existing workflows. Scaling this approach across the many thousands of wastewater treatment plants in the US could multiply its climate and environmental benefits enormously.
3️⃣ What’s next: Bioforcetech will use the $310,000 grant to build a dosing system that integrates OurCarbon directly into existing concrete batch plants. New York City is already in the company’s sights as a priority deployment location, given its tightening PFAS rules and low-embodied-carbon construction mandates. Completing that supply chain link is the key step needed before the technology can scale to long-term commercial offtake.
Read the full story here: Carbon Herald – Innovative Building Materials From Sewage Sludge Lock Away CO2 For Centuries
