With its foundational pieces already in place, the Department of Energy has awarded聽X-MAT庐 an additional $2.2 million to continue its work building a house completely of coal. Over the past year, X-MAT has developed bricks, blocks, facades, panels, and roof tiles that comprise all the components needed to build a building.
X-MAT庐聽has been awarded the follow-on contract from the DOE鈥檚 National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to continue the research and development of its聽high-strength, lightweight building materials made using domestic coal waste.聽With the DOE鈥檚 support and additional funding, the company will continue the process of creating a building made entirely from coal-based materials 鈥� from the structural columns to walls to roof tiles.
These coal-derived building materials are fire resistant, non-toxic, lightweight and durable, making them not only safer than their traditional counterparts, but easier to use and eco-friendly.聽聽鈥淭his is coal reimagined,鈥� said Bill Easter, founder of X-MAT庐. 鈥淲e鈥檙e honored to receive this funding from the DOE to continue the revolutionary work of repurposing coal and coal waste to bring these innovative, green building products to the marketplace.鈥�
X-MAT CCC, the coal-derived building materials leader with a manufacturing pilot line in Bluefield, West Virginia, will continue to build a prototype structure to test their coal-derived building materials including聽roof tiles, siding panels, bricks, and blocks.聽The company hopes to have a partial coal house constructed by 2023.
In total, the NETL has awarded X-MAT庐 and their partner, Semplastics over $10 million in grants and contracts. In addition to this most recent contract, the team received聽a $1.4 million contract to create new uses for coal waste, a $1.5 million grant for X-TILES™ and a nearly $1 million contract to help fund the research for turning coal into battery materials.
In addition to building materials the company鈥檚 battery division, X-BATT庐, has combined coal with its proprietary, low-cost, resin-based technology to create full-cell batteries. Early tests in full coin cells show that the company鈥檚 batteries, utilizing this coal composite anode material, have reached over 400 cycles. X-BATT庐 has also scaled-up this technology, with the help of the Battery Innovation Center, into single layer pouch cells that have surpassed 100 cycles and are continuing to perform well.
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