ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 2 -- United States Patent no. 12,643,824, issued on June 2.

"Building materials and components and methods of making the same" was invented by Gang Tan (Laramie, Wyo.), Tengyao Jiang (Laramie, Wyo.), Jennifer Tanner Eisenhauer (Laramie, Wyo.) and Richard Horner (Laramie, Wyo.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to methods and materials for fabricating building materials and other components from coal. More specifically, embodiments of the present disclosure relate to materials and other components, such as char clay plaster, char brick, and foam glass fabricated from coal, and to methods of forming such materials. In an e...