New CleanBoard Drywall is Made From Coal Power Plant Residue
Earlier this week, CleanBoard started talking publicly about what it calls “the most environmentally friendly drywall on earth.” That’s quite a claim, but there might be something to it: the drywall will be produced in a solar-powered factory and made from coal-fired power plant residue.
CleanBoard has developed a system that uses mirrors to collect the sun’s rays on a heat collector which heats a transfer fluid. The transfer fluid heats drywall ovens up to 200 degrees Celsius, and leftover fluid is stored in pressurized chambers to make drywall on cloudy days.
The Mojave Desert-based solar thermal plant will be up and running soon, but the company is currently doing limited manufacturing at another site and purchasing carbon offsets to counteract pollution.
And while all drywall uses gypsum, CleanBoard sources its product from coal-fired power plants and unused wall board from construction sites.
The company estimates that it will produce 2 million square feet of drywall in 2010, 10 million square feet in 2011, and 100 million square feet at top volume.
Photo Credit: CC licensed by Flickr user tjflex2
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January 18th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
What do they do with all of the carcinogens and radioactive material that is naturally in the coal ash? I hope that they remove it, but as it stands now, most coal ash is more radioactive than spend nuclear fuel. I suspect that they do nothing and now it is in our homes. Not for me thanks.
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:02 am
News flash… coal does not equal clean, no matter how many times they said it during the election. Didn’t a big coal fly ash accident just occur in TN? I imagine it will be pretty hard to sell this clean board in the south or anywhere for that matter.
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:09 am
No one is saying coal is clean – the CleanBoard Drywall is just recycling gypsum from coal-fired power plants which would otherwise go to waste.
February 17th, 2009 at 2:39 am
Unfortunately, it looks like the US will have to burn more coal if they want to continue their high energy consumption. Making something out of a byproduct is great but I don’t like the idea of the side effects…. might turn out to be far worse than asbestos….