Bluefield, WV (March 22, 2022) – With its foundational pieces already in place, the Department of Energy has awarded X-MAT® 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® has been awarded the follow-on contract from the DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to continue the research and development of its high-strength, lightweight building materials made using domestic coal waste.
With the DOE’s support and additional funding, the company will continue the process of creating a building made entirely from coal-based materials – 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.
“This is coal reimagined,” said Bill Easter, founder of X-MAT®. “We’re 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.”
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 roof tiles, siding panels, bricks, and blocks.
The company hopes to have a partial coal house constructed by 2023.
In total, the NETL has awarded X-MAT® and their partner, Semplastics over $10 million in grants and contracts. In addition to this most recent contract, the team received 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’s battery division, X-BATT®, 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’s batteries, utilizing this coal composite anode material, have reached over 400 cycles. X-BATT® 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.
To learn more about X-MAT®, visit https://x-matccc.com.
About X-MAT CCC
Founded in 2020, X-MAT CCC is the result of the successful research and development of Coal-Derived Building Materials. We are changing the narrative on coal and from our manufacturing pilot line located in the Bluefield Commercialization Station we are excited to continue to grow this technology to greater scales of demonstration.
X-MAT® is a high-performance material that combines some of the best properties of metals (electrical conductivity), engineering plastics (lightweight) and ceramics (high operating temperature). X-MAT® technology has been utilized in partnership with NASA, Space Florida and the NETL. This game changing material has various current applications including fireproof roof tiles, lightweight space mirrors, battery electrodes and 3D printed ceramics. X-MAT® technology can be custom engineered to fit many specifications and has unlimited potential market applications. To learn more about X-MAT® capabilities and future projects, visit its website at www.x-materials.com or call (407)353-6885.
