Startup Enables 100-Year Bridges With Corrosion-Resistant Steel
A pioneering innovation by Allium Engineering, a company founded by two MIT PhDs, is set to transform the longevity of bridges and various infrastructures. By employing a unique technology that applies stainless steel cladding to rebar, the company is tripling the lifespan of these structures while effectively averting corrosion. This advancement not only prolongs infrastructure lifetimes but also diminishes the frequency of required repairs and reduces carbon emissions.
Allium’s groundbreaking technology seamlessly integrates into existing steelmaking processes, aiming to fortify the resilience, affordability, and sustainability of America’s infrastructure over the ensuing century. The typical bridge deck across the U.S. averages a lifespan of about 30 years, yet with Allium’s innovation, 100-year lifetimes are now viable.
“Across the U.S., the typical bridge deck lasts about 30 years on average – we’re enabling 100-year lifetimes,” explains Allium co-founder and CEO, Steven Jepeal. There exists a substantial backlog of infrastructure necessitating replacement, much of which has prematurely aged due to inadequacies in the materials traditionally employed. Allium endeavors to leverage the momentum surrounding the rebuilding of America’s infrastructure, ensuring that such reconstructions endure the test of time.
The company employs a method of adding a thin protective layer of stainless steel atop traditional steel rebar, significantly enhancing its resistance to corrosion. Approximately 100,000 pounds of Allium’s stainless steel-clad rebar have already been utilized in construction projects throughout the U.S., evidencing the potential for rapid scaling alongside steel mills. “We integrate our system into mills so they don’t have to do anything differently,” Jepeal emphasizes. The goal is to enable any mill globally to produce non-corrosive material, a necessity for prolonging the lifespan of infrastructure worldwide.
Allium’s founding team set their sights on the challenge of depositing corrosion-resistant material without incurring excessive costs or disrupting prevailing processes. Traditional steelmaking involves passing large steel precursors through rollers at elevated temperatures, stretching the material extensively. Allium made the strategic decision to apply their cladding before the rolling process. Utilizing existing equipment in metal processing, such as welding, the company effectively adds its cladding to the steel.
“We go into the mills and take big chunks of steel that are going through the steelmaking process but aren’t the end-product,” Jepeal describes, “and we deposit stainless steel on the outside of their cheap carbon steel, typically recycled scrap from products like cars and fridges. The treated steel then goes through the mill’s conventional process for producing end products like rebar.”
Following the rolling process, each 40-foot section of thick precursor steel transforms into approximately a mile of rebar. This rebar, treated by Allium, consists of over 95 percent standard rebar, requiring no specialized post-processing or handling.
“What comes out of the mill looks like regular rebar,” Jepeal notes. “It is just as strong and can be bent, cut, and installed in all the same ways. But instead of being put into a bridge and lasting an average of 30 years, it will last 100 years or more.”
Currently, Allium’s inaugural facility boasts a production capacity of about 1,000 tons of its durable rebar annually. The company aspires to establish more facilities adjacent to its steel mill partners, ultimately integrating them into mill operations to better meet industry demands.
“Our mission of reducing emissions and improving infrastructure drives us to scale very quickly to meet the industry’s needs,” Jepeal affirms. “Everyone we talk to wants this to be bigger than it is today.”
Additionally, Allium is investigating other cladding materials and composites, with the potential to apply its technology beyond rebar to items such as train tracks, steel beams, and pipes. Nonetheless, the company’s immediate focus remains on revolutionizing rebar production, a task that promises to keep them engaged in the near future.
“Almost all of our infrastructure has this corrosion problem, so it’s the biggest problem we could imagine solving with our expertise,” Jepeal concludes. “Tunnels, bridges, roads, industrial buildings, power plants, chemical factories – all of them face this challenge.”
