Brimstone Energy

Brimstone is on a mission to decarbonize cement, which today accounts for 7.5% of global CO₂ emissions. The company has developed a breakthrough decarbonized process—the Rock Refinery—to co-produce the most-used industrial materials on the planet—Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), steel, and aluminum—with a negative green premium.

Unlike traditional cement production methods that use carbon-heavy limestone, which releases CO₂ during manufacturing, Brimstone’s process starts with a different rock—calcium silicate that contains no embedded CO₂. This globally-abundant feedstock contains the building blocks of the largest industrial material industries on the planet (calcium, silicon, iron, and aluminum), and the Rock Refinery produces drop-in replacements to these $100B+ commodity markets. Brimstone’s deeply decarbonized cement meets existing regulatory standards for OPC (ASTM C150) and can be used wherever conventional cement is used—paving the way to slash cement’s climate footprint. Their first generation plant will co-produce OPC, smelter-grade alumina (a critical mineral), and supplementary cementitious material (SCM) with higher plant profitability than conventional solutions at a fraction of the GHG emissions.

A new way to make the same old cement

Founded in 2019 by Cody Finke and Hugo Leandri, Brimstone is headquartered in West Oakland, California, where it is currently scaling up its process. The company’s solution has been recognized by the International Energy Agency, the Global Cleantech 100, and Norrsken’s Impact 100 list. Brimstone cement was named one of TIME’s Best Inventions, and Fast Company honored Brimstone as one of the Most Innovative Companies of 2023.