Sublime Systems achieves ASTM C1157 performance designation

Sublime Systems™ receives ASTM C1157 performance designation for Its ultra-low carbon cement, clearing the Path to commercialising fossil-fuel-free cement at scale. 

This industry standard specifies performance requirements across parameters including strength development, durability, and low shrinkage and cracking, and is being increasingly adopted as the industry moves towards performance-based standards. Obtaining the ASTM C1157 designation enables Sublime Cement™ to be used compliantly under major US and international building codes, unlocking a path for it to replace OPC at scale and massively lower the carbon output of global construction infrastructure. 

Sublime Cement™ manufactures with a “true-zero” (as opposed to net-zero) approach — it does not require offsets or additional carbon capture and storage (CCS) infrastructure to reduce emissions. “Sublime was founded to have a swift, massive, and enduring impact on global CO2 emissions, and we’ve designed our process to avoid CO2 at every step, rather than polluting and cleaning up afterwards,” Sublime Co-Founder and CEO Leah Ellis, PhD said. 

“At the same time, we take our responsibility in manufacturing a next-generation product very seriously — we need to make a high-performing cement that is safe and easy to adopt. Data-driven performance-based standards, like ASTM C1157, allow us to solve the right problem: safety and carbon avoidance, rather than adherence to a legacy recipe. 

“Passing the ASTM C1157 standard is an important milestone in showing that Sublime’s low-carbon cement innovation integrates into the same quality concrete building material that the construction industry requires.” 

The ASTM C1157 specification is a performance-based standard, a category that is being widely adopted by a range of industries as they allow for novel materials that can be produced with minimal emissions while maintaining rigorous and data-driven standards for safety and performance. 

ASTM C1157 has more stringent strength requirements than older hydraulic cement standards, ASTM C150, for OPC, and ASTM C595, for blended cements, both of which contain prescriptive and performance requirements. 

Sublime is currently conducting additional tests measuring its cement’s performance in concrete through third-party ready mix concrete labs and in field use cases. Sublime’s operational pilot facility has a current design capacity of >100tpa of cement, and the company is commissioning its first commercial plant for 2025.