Buzzi Unicem USA

Through innovative thinking and collaboration, Buzzi’s Stockertown plant leveraged its surrounding meadows and green infrastructure to convert this biomass into a practical, cost-effective alternative fuel.

Generally considered too costly to process into an alternative fuel source, the plant’s surrounding switchgrass acreage was normally ignored except for mowing and maintenance. The solution: partner with the local agriculture industry and a green fuels vendor to harvest, bale, and convert this biomass into a renewable energy source for cement production.

The new approach reduced switchgrass processing costs by 82%. In turn, it boosted the total biomass rate in alternative fuels by 26%, significantly reducing the plant’s reliance on coal and petroleum coke. As an added benefit, the program helped lower the plant’s carbon footprint, allowing it to beat the company’s internal CO2 roadmap target of 12 kg of CO2 per ton of cement product.

What started as an impractical idea — using site‑grown switchgrass as fuel — became a viable solution through fresh thinking and local collaboration.