- In August 2024, a portfolio company of Launch Alaska installed its first long-duration energy storage pilot project in Anchorage. Cache Energy developed a technology that uses limestone-based pellets to store heat through a reversible chemical reaction. The system involves a reactor silo filled with calcium hydroxide (caustic lime), where during the “charge” process, pellets pass by heat exchange rods, releasing steam and transforming into calcium oxide (quicklime) pellets
- In June 2024, Calidra Group announced the commissioning of its new kiln at its La Laja plant in San Juan, Argentina. This kiln, the largest Maerz lime calcination kiln in the Southern Cone, has a production capacity of 600 tons of high-grade, high-reactivity calcium oxide per day, equivalent to approximately 219,000 tons annually
- In January 2024, Heirloom Carbon Technologies, based in Tracy, California, unveiled its inaugural commercial direct air capture (DAC) facility in November 2023. This state-of-the-art facility can capture up to 1,000 tons of CO2 annually. The process utilizes renewable energy to extract CO2 from limestone in a kiln, resulting in the production of calcium oxide
