Phoenix Materials

Coal power plants are shutting down. While great for the climate, it means coal ash production has fallen. Today, coal ash replaces 30% of cement to make concrete.  As ash production continues to fall, cement consumption, and therefore cost and CO2 emissions, increases. Globally, by 2050 there will be an annual 0.9Bton shortage of coal ash, translating to a 0.7GtCO2 increase in emissions per year.

Phoenix Materials refines the 2.5B tons of ash stored in coal plant landfills across the country. There are 747 US landfills that store coal ash located near sites where coal was historically burned. These landfills are the biggest liability on utility balance sheets because ash seeps into ground water, or spills causing major catastrophes. We view ash landfills as an abundant resource of minerals that we plan to mine and beneficially use.

Phoenix transforms unprocessable landfilled coal ash into valuable products like ASTM grade fly-ash, and rare-earth elements, ensuring a sustainable solution to the ash shortage while securing a supply of critical minerals.

Team Members

Krish Mehta (MBA + MS, GSB + Doerr School, Knight-Hennessy); Jorge Osio-Norgaard (Postdoc, Chem-Eng); PI: Prof. Stefan Reichelstein (GSB)