Staff Writer
Photo by Joselyn King
Building blocks made of CFOAM, a coal byproduct, are displayed at the Touchstone campus in Triadelphia.
TRIADELPHIA Buildings in the future may someday be constructed from a West Virginia coal byproduct, with locally made CFOAM blocks replacing concrete blocks.
The problem with using CFOAM in mass quantities always has been that it takes a while to produce, and can be costly, explained Rudy Olson, general manager of CFOAM LTD. on the Touchstone campus in Triadelphia.
But CFOAM LTD received in late December a $2.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to further its research into mass producing CFOAM blocks and making them more affordable for high levels of use.