McMinnville Oregon Group Solid Carbon Pours OurCarbon® Enhanced Concrete
Oregonian innovators in politics, buildings, and concrete have come together to pour a 5,000 square foot winery floor that sequesters over five tons of CO2e within it through the use of OurCarbon®.
Remy Drabkin, mayor of McMinnville and owner of Remy Wines, was rehabilitating a barn on site with the goal of incorporating as many sustainable practices as possible. When Contractor John Mead and concrete Supplier Michael Bernert came to the conversation with biochar enhanced concrete, Remy became very excited.
Through rigorous testing by the group in collaborative supply from Bioforcetech of OurCarbon, a formulation incorporating 100 lbs of OurCarbon per cubic yard was successfully created and dubbed the ‘Drabkin Mead Formulation’ in honor of those involved. Not only does this formulation incorporate OurCarbon… it also utilizes supplementary cementitious materials and novel cements to reduce its overall carbon footprint.
Before incorporating OurCarbon, the Drabkin Mead formulation is already around 150 lbs CO2e per cubic yard in Global Warming Potential (GWP), roughly half of the US average. Adding in the 100 lbs of OurCarbon at just over -1 lb CO2e/lb material brings this mix below 50 lbs CO2e per cubic yard… an ultra low carbon formulation.
At the ribbon cutting today, the factory floor was utilized for food, wine, and celebration. But from this day on it will have forklifts, barrels of wine, harsh cleaning chemicals, and more. This will allow the formulation to be trialled in commercial conditions to understand how well the mix can hold up over time.
With this project as a catalyst, John Mead and Michael Bernert, now founders of Solid Carbon Inc, will continue to store carbon in the built environment through OurCarbon and other materials.
“Standing on top of a slab of concrete with OurCarbon® infused into it at commercial scale is a huge milestone. We look forward to seeing this circular approach to municipalities and the built environment continue to grow” - Dario Presezzi, CEO Bioforcetech