Coal byproduct to be used to make bricks in Caledonia: Journal Times

By Michael Burke
Journal Times

CALEDONIA — A coal by-product from the Oak Creek Power Plant will be used to make bricks when a Silicon Valley company starts its first fly ash-to-bricks manufacturing plant here.

CalStar Cement plans to start turning out zero-emission bricks late this year, using We Energies fly ash, inside part of the former Young Radiator building at 2825 4 Mile Road. Set-up should start in May and finish in October, said CalStar Director of Product Development Julie Rapoport.

She said the bricks will break new construction-industry ground as the first high-percentage fly ash bricks commercialized in this country.

The project, with We Energies supplying the fly ash, has the Caledonia Planning Commission’s blessing and goes to the Village Board Thursday for final OK.

CalStar Vice President of Business Development Luke Pustejovsky said the bricks are as strong or stronger than conventional bricks, competitively priced and far easier on the environment than their clay counterparts.

“It’s not a concrete brick, and it’s not a clay brick,” Rapoport said. Except for a small percentage of fly ash in some existing bricks, she said, “It’s a third type so far unknown in the U.S.”

The plant will create about 12-15 jobs by next year and perhaps 25-30 by 2012, Pustejovsky said.

Because the fly ash source is here and the market is the Chicago area, he said, “We can’t move these jobs.”

We Energies spokesman Barry McNulty said that Wispark, the real-estate development subsidiary of Wisconsin Energy Corp., hopes to buy the building on 4 Mile Road and lease part of it to CalStar.

He said the project is part of We Energies’ Power the Future commitment to invest and create jobs in the communities affected by the Oak Creek Power Plant expansion.

We Energies will not be part-owner of CalStar but has committed to providing 100,000 tons of fly ash per year at specified prices for 10 years.

Rapoport said CalStar, which incorporated in January 2007, had been working to develop sustainable construction materials. The fly-ash bricks will both require less energy to manufacture than clay bricks and create no emissions.

A clay brick is dried, then fired in a kiln, for one to three days at 1,200 to 2,000 degrees, Pustejovsky said. The process consumes 8,500 British Thermal Units of fossil fuels and emits 1.3 pounds of carbon-dioxide for every brick.

This plant will reduce those numbers by about 90 percent, he said. The only emission from the curing process will be steam.

Pustejovsky said some bricks are now made with low fly ash content of about 6 percent.

But he said CalStar bricks have been made in the laboratory with 35-99 percent fly ash. The final mix here, which will likely contain some sand, is yet to be determined.

Fast start-up

Pustejovsky credited Rapoport with devising a modular factory concept that will allow CalStar to begin manufacturing much more quickly than other brick manufacturers. And by using an existing building, production can begin soon.

A typical clay manufacturing plant can take five to seven years — mostly because of local opposition to the emissions, Pustejovsky said.

CalStar will also start with a much lower cost than most companies. An Indiana brick manufacturer spent about $55 million on capital expenditures to get started, Pustejovsky said. CalStar’s total will be less than $8 million — but produce about one-third the Indiana plant’s brick volume.

“Unlike the incumbents, their economies of scale are quite large,” Rapoport said. “Ours are quite small.”

The local plant will produce up to 40 million bricks a year, Pustejovsky said. It is to sell into about five Midwest states through a network of 20-25 distributors.

Rapoport said all manufacturing and materials storage will happen indoors, and CalStar hopes the finished bricks will be rapidly shipped out to buyers.

The bricks, Pustejovsky said, will have a natural buff color similar to the Cream City bricks of this area. But tinted bricks will come in eight to 10 colors.

The CalStar executives said research is ongoing and also could result in future fly ash products.