"Already a key supplier of high-tech ceramic materials to the global automotive, semiconductor, defense and energy industries, CoorsTek is jumping into hydrogen at a time when engineering and technological improvements are making it more attractive as a carbon-free fuel to electrify heavy-duty trucks, trains, ships, aircraft and other vehicles too large or heavy for battery packs."
Using Artificial Intelligence To Combat Wildfire Risk
Renny Vandewege writes in Forbes about artificial intelligence combatting wildfires. “The promising results of innovation, computing power, and AI may give us the advanced warning and accurate predictions needed to take preventive measures well before the spark ignites.” Read the full article here.
JB Straubel Has a Fix for the Battery Problem
"Straubel’s day job has attracted a lot of attention: he’s trying to head off a looming shortage of materials that the world needs to transition away from fossil fuels. Institutional investors last year signed over $775 million for his new venture, Redwood Materials, and in April the U.S. Senate called Straubel to give expert testimony on resources needed for the energy transition."
Soil carbon platform Perennial raises $18m from Temasek, Bloomberg, Microsoft
Jennifer Marston of Ag Funder News reports that Perennial has raised $18 million from Temasek, Bloomberg, and Microsoft. “Perennial’s MRV platform handles both carbon insetting and offsetting. Companies within the agrifood value chain can access the platform to measure and reduce their agricultural-based emissions. Outside the food supply chain, companies developing soil carbon offset projects...
Cat Litter Could Be Antidote for Climate Change, Researchers Say
"The Energy Department gave the researchers $2 million to design devices with the compound that can be attached to vents at coal mines and dairy barns, which are big methane emitters. The idea is to alter the chemistry of emissions before they hit the open air, like a catalytic converter on a car."
Bridgestone’s tires are going circular
"LanzaTech’s innovation is in converting waste materials to ethanol, which is typically sourced from fresh fossil fuels-related carbon. It has turned steel mill emissions into Zara dresses and laundry detergent. With Bridgestone, LanzaTech will be turning tires into ethanol, which can then be turned into tires again."
Burning waste to make energy: How Amazon, American Airlines and Subaru are trying to get out of landfills
"In Covanta’s energy recovery facility, waste is burned at temperatures around 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. There are 21 miles of pipes around the combustor, where the intense heat converts water into steam that turns a turbine, which powers a generator."
Behold: The internet of plants
"San Francisco-based company InnerPlant connects its plants at the root, recoding each plant’s DNA with biosensors—not external IoT sensors—that change color depending on the health of the plant. The biosensors express when a plant may need more water, is under stress from heat, or under attack from pests and other invasive species."
The Race to Produce Sustainable Steel
"Perhaps the biggest roadblock is China, where about 90 percent of steel production is achieved using blast furnaces. In September 2020, President Xi Jinping announced that the country aims to become carbon neutral by 2060. In a bid to reduce pollution from domestic steel mills, which account for roughly 15 percent of the nation’s overall carbon emissions, Beijing has also pledged to achieve peak steel emissions by 2030. Even so, 18 new blast-furnace projects were announced in China just in the first six months of 2021, according to the Helsinki-based research group Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air."
Mammoth zero-emission mining truck makes its debut in South Africa, powered by First Mode
"After years of development, the world’s largest zero-emission vehicle was unveiled today at a South African platinum mine, with a hydrogen-fueled hybrid powerplant designed and built by Seattle-based First Mode."