KLAW Industries - Pantheon™

KLAW Industries processes waste glass that is sent to the landfill into a partial replacement for cement in concrete called Pantheon™.

What is it?

KLAW Industries processes waste glass that recycling facilities send to the landfill into a partial replacement for cement, called Pantheon™. Pantheon™ replaces up to 50% of cement, lowing the embodied carbon of concrete.

What does it do?

Patheon™ increases the compressive strength of concrete by 11%, decreases the embodied carbon by 30% and lowers the material cost of concrete by 25% for concrete mix directors.

Pantheon™ prevents carbon by replacing cement in the concrete mix. Cement produces 1 ton of CO2 for every 1 ton produced. In July 2021, the New York State Pollution Prevention Insititute (NYSP2I) completed a Greenhouse Gas Impact Assessment that showed Pantheon™ reduces the embodied carbon of concrete by 60 kgCO2e/yd3.

KLAW Industries has demonstrated the technical and environmental benefits of Pantheon™ at 17 pilot projects and two commercial projects; a bike path at Clarkson University and a residential sidewalk on La Grange Street in Binghamton, NY. 

What processes and technology does it use?

KLAW Industries has developed a patent-pending process to remove contamination from waste glass and create Pantheon™. In June 2021, KLAW Industries purchased a 6000 sq. ft., run-down production facility in our community to scale Pantheon™ and improve our hometown.

Pantheon™ solves two problems; landfill overcrowding and low-quality, high-carbon concrete. 

Glass:

The EPA estimates that operations directors at recycling facilities send 8.3 million tons of glass to landfills annually in the US. In New York, 445,000 tons of glass are sent to landfills each year. As valuable material takes up space, the landfill begins to encroach on the rural homeowners in the surrounding region. Within Broome County, 1279 people live within 3 miles of the landfill. 

Cement:

Cement is the binding ingredient in concrete and accounts for 8% of global CO2 emissions. Mix directors at ready mix concrete plants have used fly ash from coal power plants and slag from steel foundries to lower cement content since the 1950s. As these industries disappear across the US, mix directors face massive shortages and price increases of 16% each year. 

Now, members of our community use low-quality, high-carbon concrete due to the inability to afford access to any other option. 

As the US reinvests $1.2 trillion in infrastructure, census block groups 36007.600.1-3, the 5,800 community members of the East Side of Binghamton will be priced out of quality building materials, leaving them to fix decaying infrastructure and lowering their property value.  

Solution:

Pantheon™ solves these problems by diverting waste glass from the Broome County Landfill to create an inexpensive, high-performing cement replacement. Pantheon™ ensures that our community is not left with decrepit properties as high-income areas decarbonize. We work with mix directors that service the East Side of Binghamton to deploy Pantheon™.

Target Population:

KLAW Industries is working to impact young adults ages 20-30 who make $31,000 per year or less on the East Side of Binghamton. 49.3% of people on the East Side live below the poverty line. KLAW Industries will change that. 

Due to its rich manufacturing roots, KLAW Industries located its headquarters and production facility on the East Side. Growing up here allowed the founders to see the negative impact a lack of clean energy jobs has had. The East Side provides an untapped talent pool for high-paying jobs to advance our area's sustainable building materials market.

In what ways are they currently underserved?

Unlike universities and high-income areas that can afford high-performance, low-carbon materials, the East Side of Binghamton lacks financial access to these materials. This lack of access leaves us stuck fixing decaying infrastructure like sidewalks, bridges, and parks, decreasing our property value. 

How will the solution address their needs?

Implementing Pantheon™ utilizes our local waste stream to lower the price of high-performance, low-carbon building materials. By keeping material out of the Broome County Landfill, KLAW Industries will increase our area's recycling rate and create a sustainable infrastructure system for the first time in our community. 

KLAW Industries is now applying for federal and state funding to help fund our first three employees. Hiring from our local area will provide an opportunity to community members who cannot access other jobs in the clean energy sector because of a lack of proximity and affordable transportation.

Research with potential users:

During interviews with community members from the East Side of Binghamton, we have identified that crumbling infrastructure creates a transportation barrier that limits high-growth opportunities. We found that the long-term implications of low-quality, high-carbon materials are often overlooked, even though this creates visual obstacles in our community. 

We also discovered that, unlike a car, you cannot see the negative environmental impact of landfilling glass or low-quality concrete materials until it is too late.

Volunteering with existing organizations:

KLAW Industries has presented with the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) on the negative impact of landfilling glass and potential end markets to accelerate sustainable waste practices. In early 2021, KLAW Industries joined Building Products Ecosystem, a trade organization with other companies involved in sustainable building materials. Recently, KLAW Industries has become a member of the Carbon Leadership Forum, a community centered around bringing pilot projects across the country to help clean energy technology scale. 

Potential user engagement:

Utilizing glass from Broome County, including the East Side, KLAW Industries used Pantheon™ in a residential sidewalk on La Grange Street in Binghamton. This sidewalk will last longer, in better condition, increasing the long-term property value of this home. Pantheon™ prevented 210 kg of CO2 in this project, equivalent to planting ten trees.

Moving forward, KLAW Industries is working with concrete mix directors to deploy Pantheon™ in the East Side and other disenfranchised areas throughout Broome County.

Stage of development - Recycling:

KLAW Industries has taken waste glass from 4 recycling facilities and successfully processed this waste glass into Pantheon™. This demonstrated KLAW Industries' patent-pending process could purify waste glass that is up to 40% contaminated. On September 28th, 2021, we validated this side of our business model by receiving $35 per ton for the first delivery of 15 tons of waste glass. 

Stage of development - Concrete:

KLAW Industries has completed 17 pilot projects with concrete mix directors, including concrete slabs, curbs, and sidewalks. Following these successful projects, Pantheon™ has been used in two commercial projects; a residential sidewalk on La Grange Street in Binghamton and a bike path at Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY. 

At Clarkson University, using Pantheon™ in a low embodied carbon bike path prevented 420 kg of CO2 per concrete truck. 

Stage of development - Production:

In June 2021, KLAW Industries purchased a 6000 sq. ft. production facility to scale Pantheon™ on the East Side of Binghamton. We spent the summer improving the building, making the once eyesore one of the most advanced manufacturing facilities in the area. We are now scaling the Pantheon™ production process to meet the concrete industry's demand.

What is our technology?

KLAW Industries' core technology is the process to remove contamination from waste glass and turn the remaining glass into Pantheon™, a partial replacement for cement in concrete. This process purifies waste glass that is up to 40% contaminated with paper, plastic, metal, allowing KLAW Industries to access this 8.3 million ton waste stream that is sent to the landfill as a raw material. 

How is it used?

Waste glass is transported to KLAW Industries. Following delivery, this glass is processed into Pantheon™ at our production facility, and the remaining contamination is disposed of safely. Pantheon™ is delivered via a pneumatic trailer to concrete plants and mix directors batch Pantheon™ using existing infrastructure. 

Impact on our value proposition:

Aside from receiving payment for the waste glass, KLAW Industries has access to a supply chain that can keep pace with the intense material use of the concrete industry. KLAW Industries is not the first company to make a glass cement replacement. However, KLAW Industries's advantage is the patent-pending technology that allows us to use contaminated glass where our competitors can only use clean glass, which is much more expensive. Our competitors only advertised benefit is its environmental impact, but this is often not enough for the concrete mix director to pay a premium for an otherwise similar product. 

To protect this advantage, KLAW Industries has filed a non-provisional patent on this technology, in addition to keeping portions of the process a trade secret.

The current number of people Pantheon™ serves:

KLAW Industries sells Pantheon™ to mix directors at concrete plants. Mix directors then deliver concrete to our community members. Pantheon™ broadly impacts the East Side community as a whole since KLAW Industries receives waste glass from the recycling facilities that take glass from our community.

Pantheon™ has served 5 people within our community through the projects that we have completed. These community members have received low-carbon concrete that is inexpensive and will last longer, increasing their property value.

The number of people Pantheon™ will serve in 2022:

In 2022, KLAW Industries will begin regular sales of Pantheon™ to mix directors at concrete plants. This will connect Pantheon™ to regular projects throughout the East Side, including sidewalks, parks, and driveways. By locating on the East Side, KLAW Industries will continue to engage our local community to deploy Pantheon™ rapidly.

KLAW Industries' objective is to affect 118 East Side community members in 2022. These community members will be a combination of people who complete residential projects like driveways and multiple people who utilize public projects like park sidewalks and paths.

Pantheon™ drastically reduces the carbon impact of projects on the East Side by replacing up to 50% of cement by weight. As the US invests $1.2 trillion into infrastructure, the East Side will now qualify for projects that utilize low-carbon materials, drawing much-needed funding to our area.

1. Divert 1000 tons of glass from the Broome County Landfill.

KLAW Industries will divert 1000 tons of glass from the Broome County Landfill to validate our business model. Receiving this glass will demonstrate the scalability of Pantheon™ for other regions throughout New York and the US that face glass recycling problems. 

To achieve this impact goal, KLAW Industries has purchased a production facility. In September 2021, we received the first 15 tons of waste glass at our facility. KLAW Industries is currently negotiating preliminary agreements with recycling facilities to acquire waste glass throughout 2022. 

2. Hire KLAW Industries' first employee.

KLAW Industries' first hire will bring a clean energy manufacturing job to the East Side of Binghamton. This will take the first step in reducing the poverty rate in the East Side of Binghamton. 

We will draw on guidance from the Southern Tier Clean Energy Incubator to recruit this first hire. Additionally, we request mentorship from the MIT Solv[ED] community about onboarding our first employee.

3. Prevent 50 tons of CO2 emissions on the East Side. 

Utilizing Pantheon™ in concrete projects throughout the East Side will prevent high-carbon concrete from being sent to our area. 

To determine the areas within the East Side that are in dire need of repair, we will ask our community members about which parks and sidewalks receive the most use. We will partner with mix directors at concrete plants to fulfill these projects, drawing on federal and state funding for support.

1. Divert 1000 tons of glass from the Broome County Landfill.

Since we founded the company, KLAW Industries has diverted 22 tons of waste glass from landfills. KLAW Industries uses the weight of glass diverted from the landfill to track our landfill diversion rate. We will use the same metric to track how much waste glass we divert from the Broome County Landfill in 2022. 

2. Hire KLAW Industries' first employee.

KLAW Industries will measure progress towards our first hire by tracking the source of the applications we are receiving and employee contact throughout the hiring process. 

The application's source will allow KLAW Industries to focus on the specific channels producing high-quality candidates.

Employee contact will be measured by the number of interactions throughout the hiring process. This will allow KLAW Industries to limit onboarding time and effectively communicate the mission and vision of our company. 

3. Prevent 50 tons of CO2 emissions on the East Side. 

KLAW Industries will calculate emission prevention using the metrics and values prepared by the NYSP2I. We will track the emission prevention of each project separately, allowing us to keep track of progress towards our goal of preventing 50 tons of CO2. Completing small projects on the East Side will prove Pantheon™ is viable for large infrastructure projects in our community.

Over the next year, our technical goal is to scale KLAW Industries' proprietary process to remove contamination from waste glass. In December 2021, KLAW Industries received a $100,000 SBIR Phase I award from the EPA to assist in these efforts. 

The most significant market barrier to KLAW Industries' impact goal of preventing 50 tons of CO2 is market hesitation and slow adoption of Pantheon™. To minimize this risk, KLAW Industries has completed 17 pilot projects and two commercial projects to validate Pantheon™. KLAW Industries is working with Clarkson University and the NYSP2I to perform $50,000 of testing at Clarkson to show mix directors that Pantheon™ can be used in public-facing projects like a park.

KLAW Industries has raised $458,000 in non-dilutive funding to advance Pantheon™ to this point. However, due to Pantheon's™ material properties, specialty equipment is needed to transport Pantheon™ to mix directors for regular use. $78,000 is required to achieve our impact goals, and KLAW Industries is working to lower this number through a combination of state and federal funding.

Jacob Kumpon - Team Lead - COO of KLAW Industries: Jacob graduated from SUNY Broome with an A.S. in Engineering Science and an A.S. in Business Administration. While working at CMP Advanced Mechanical Solution's high-precision machine shop, another cherished manufacturing firm on the East Side, Jacob worked on Tesla, Mercedes Benz, and Amazon projects. 

In 2019, Jacob traveled to Haiti as a water system engineer with the Health for Haiti program, created to engage the rural Haitian population and transition clean water into every household. 

Jack Lamuraglia - CEO of KLAW Industries: Jack graduated from Clarkson University with Honors and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. He worked at the high-tech startup, L.C. Drives, helping the company bring its high-efficiency motors to market in rural Upstate NY. Later, Jack worked on aircraft control systems for BAE Systems before quitting to pursue KLAW Industries full time. 

Jack has completed over 250 hours of volunteer service at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. At an individual level, Jack participates in the Bandera Family & Community Alliance yearly Christmas Dinner Delivery by bringing food to members of the Binghamton community.

Tanner Wallis - CTO of KLAW Industries: Tanner holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University. Tanner has experience in advanced mechanical design and quality control at New York Air Brake and Lockheed Martin. He has applied these skills to the electronic recycling industry and leads KLAW Industries process development. 

Tanner has volunteered at St. Jude for two years. Throughout college, Tanner volunteered at the Potsdam Humane Society, connecting with local members of the Potsdam NY region. 

The founders of KLAW Industries each grew up in Binghamton. After these experiences and seeing our area's dire need for clean energy jobs, we purchased a run-down warehouse and fixed it to bring these jobs to Binghamton.

In 2019, KLAW Industries joined the Shipley Center for Innovation at Clarkson University. The Shipley Center mentors provided customer discovery guidance to KLAW Industries and then connected concrete mix directors when Pantheon™ was ready for field testing. The first pilot project in 2020 resulted from the Clarkson Shipley Center. 

In early 2020, KLAW Industries joined the Southern Tier Clean Energy Incubator (SCI). The SCI’s 35,000 sq. ft. facility enabled KLAW Industries to refine the initial versions of Pantheon™. The SCI mentors then connected KLAW Industries to non-dilutive funding sources and were instrumental in helping secure the EPA SBIR. 

KLAW Industries has cultivated relationships with three operations directors and four concrete mix directors. The founders are now transitioning these relationships into long-term partnerships to deploy Pantheon™ in our community.

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