Amazon.com and U.S. cement startup Brimstone have reported successful initial tests of Brimstone’s lower-carbon Ordinary Portland Cement, paving the way for expanded trials and a commercial supply agreement, the companies said on Tuesday.

Successful Performance Tests

The third-party tests, carried out with Amazon’s concrete consultants, found that Brimstone’s OPC met Advanced Standards Transforming Markets C150 requirements and performed comparably with conventional materials used in Amazon’s building projects.

The evaluation measured workability, compressive strength and other key properties using slab mix designs from Amazon’s building portfolio.

“These initial results are encouraging and demonstrate the potential for Brimstone’s innovative materials to scale across our buildings portfolio and reduce the carbon footprint of concrete,” said Asad Jafry, Amazon’s director of global energy, sustainability and automation.

Concrete is among the world’s most carbon-intensive building materials, with cement production responsible for an estimated 7 to 8 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, according to industry data. Companies, including Amazon, have been seeking lower-carbon alternatives as part of broader climate goals.

Next Phase of Trials

The companies plan to expand testing in 2025 and 2026 to assess durability, sulfate resistance and aggregate reactivity potential across a broader range of mix designs and applications.

The larger trials will use higher volumes of cement from Brimstone’s facility in Oakland, California, which is producing materials for pilot-scale projects.

The expanded testing program will also assess performance across different environmental conditions, aiming to determine whether Brimstone’s OPC can replace conventional cement in a wide range of structural and non-structural applications without changes to existing construction methods.

Brimstone chief executive Cody Finke said the company’s process for producing ASTM C150 OPC uses existing regulatory frameworks and testing standards, allowing for faster market entry.

“Because Brimstone makes the most widely used cement in the world at competitive prices, our path to commercialization is well-defined with existing regulation, know-how and material safety protocols,” he said.

Supply Agreement

On the back of the initial results, Amazon has signed a commercial agreement to reserve annual volumes of Brimstone’s OPC and supplementary cementitious materials from the company’s planned plant.

The supply arrangement will take effect after successful completion of expanded testing and once production is scaled to meet demand.

Neither company disclosed the financial terms of the deal or the specific annual supply volumes.

Amazon has set a goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement target, and has been investing in renewable energy, sustainable materials and low-carbon transportation.

Brimstone, founded in 2019, says its production process not only reduces carbon dioxide emissions by avoiding limestone calcination, a major source of cement-related emissions, but can also result in net carbon removal depending on feedstock and process configuration.

The companies said the collaboration could support the broader decarbonization of the construction sector if the expanded trials confirm the material’s performance and cost competitiveness at scale.

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