OPUS series cementitious and supplementary cementitious materials developer Terra CO2 Technology confirms timely corporate, research & development and premier-plant construction activities concurrent with its inaugural participation in the IEEE-IAS/ACA Cement Conference, staged earlier this month in Florida.
Backed with commitments from a $137.6 million Series B funding round, closed in August 2025, plus a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation grant award of up to $52.6 million, Terra has broken ground on a 32,000-sq.-ft. headquarters, R&D center and materials testing lab in Golden, Colo. The Denver suburb is home to charter administrative and technical facilities and a 1-tpd capacity plant with a three-year record of OPUS material output. The new facility will enable further refinement of silicate-rich feedstock processing technology and integration of emerging low-carbon energy sources into the production model.
Along with the headquarters, R&D and lab investment, Terra has added cement plant equipment and concrete materials testing veterans to its leadership team. Senior Vice President of Engineering Dwayne Holland, P.E., is an 18-year veteran of KHD Humboldt Wedag, where he gained cement plant design and project delivery expertise and most recently led the North American business. Technical Director Stephen Herald has arrived with two-plus decades at Amrize Ltd. and predecessor Holcim (US) businesses, advancing from field testing to regional technical responsibilities with deep concrete performance and quality exposure.
They join executive and technical teams overseeing the development of a premier OPUS SCM production facility in Cleburn, Texas. Equipped for 240,000-tpy capacity, primarily for Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex concrete customers, the facility is on schedule, within budget and poised for a 2027 start-up. Milling, vitrification and reactor equipment will leverage technology Terra has proved and refined over the past five years, converting silicate feedstocks to OPUS series binders of partial to full portland cement replacement potential.
The flagship OPUS SCM product has been tested at rates up to 50% of binder in commercial concrete mix designs and will be the primary Cleburn output. The use of feedstocks gleaned from active quarries and lesser silicate material-bearing sources integrates with current cement production operations through drop-in processes on manageable footprints.
“The industry needs solutions that perform reliably and can be deployed within today’s systems,” said Terra CEO Bill Yearsley. “This combination of scalability, accessibility, and performance allows us to deliver cementitious materials that meet or exceed traditional standards – while dramatically reducing emissions. Progress over the past year reflects our commitment to this vision and our disciplined focus on execution.”
