The Impact Innovator | Issue 273
In this week's The Impact Innovator edition:
The U.S. Department of Energy on Friday announced that projects in Texas and Louisiana to remove more than 2 million metric tons of carbon emissions per year will get over $1 billion in federal grants, a key step in scaling up direct air capture (DAC) technology.?The Department of Energy (DOE) selected?Project Cypress ?in Louisiana, run by Battelle, Climeworks Corporation and Heirloom Carbon Technologies; and the?South Texas DAC Hub ?in Kleberg County, Texas, proposed by Occidental Petroleum's (Oxy)?(OXY.N) ?subsidiary 1PointFive and partners Carbon Engineering Ltd and Worley.?The agency also launched several new initiatives aimed at bringing the cost of the technology down to less than $100 per net metric ton of CO2-equivalent within this decade. That includes a $35 million government procurement program for carbon removal credits, and funding for 14 feasibility studies and five engineering and design studies for earlier-stage hub projects.
Worsening climate change and inadequate efforts to cut emissions have thrust carbon removal into the spotlight. U.N. scientists estimate billions of tons of carbon must be sucked out of the atmosphere annually to keep in line with a global goal to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius. DAC, when deployed at scale, can help the U.S. meet its goal of neutralizing greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, according to the DOE. But the young technology needs to become much cheaper quickly to roll out at the scale needed to affect the planet.?The grants, which will require some negotiations before disbursement, are the first made by the Energy Department, which got $3.5 billion from Congress to?invest in regional DAC ?hubs from the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Vicki Hollub, CEO of Oxy, told reporters that the project has the potential to remove up to 30 million tons of CO2 per year when fully operational and "validates our readiness, technical maturity, and our ability to use Oxy's expertise in large projects." DAC uses chemical reactions to remove CO2 from the air, which can then be stored underground or used in products such as concrete or aviation fuel.
Chicago is committing $15?million to help lower-income residents decarbonize their buildings, through grants for electric stoves, heat pumps and energy-efficiency measures.The city recently issued a?request for proposals ?from organizations that want to apply to carry out the initiative, part of larger efforts to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of buildings and curb the health and environmental justice impact of indoor gas pollution and escalating gas?bills.The project aims to create jobs and business opportunities for?BIPOC?workers and entrepreneurs while making electrification accessible to low- and moderate-income residents of one- to four-unit residential buildings. It is also meant to help the city meet its?2022?goal of?reducing citywide carbon emissions by?62% by?2040 .
The initiative is expected to fund upgrades for?200?to?350?households at no cost to them by?2025, with the funding coming from the Chicago Recovery Plan, bond funds created to address the Covid pandemic’s impacts. The work will be carried out by one or more third-party providers chosen through the request for proposals, and the initiative is overseen by the city’s Department of Housing.?The request for proposals notes that investment will be prioritized in South Side and West Side neighborhoods where residents bear the heaviest energy burden, according to an analysis by the organization Greenlink. Those neighborhoods are also disproportionately populated by people of color and face the highest levels of housing insecurity, exacerbated by the pandemic, the request notes.
Blackstone closed its latest energy transition fund, Blackstone Green Private Credit Fund III, at its $7.1 billion hard cap, which invests in a broad range of sectors including residential solar, decarbonized transportation and energy infrastructure, a spokeswoman said in an email.
It is the largest energy transition private credit fund ever raised, Blackstone said in a news release.
The fund will invest in anything that is able to capitalize on the shift toward renewable energy, the spokeswoman said. Investors in the fund include $248.5 billion?New York State Common Retirement Fund, Albany; $126.8 billion Wisconsin Retirement System, Madison; $61.5 billion?Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System, Nashville; and $5 billion Houston Firefighters' Relief and Retirement Fund.
Headquartered between Lisbon and Seattle,?Membrion ?announced a €11.4 million Series B round from Indico, Samsung Ventures, Lam Capital, PureTerra, GiantLeap, Freeflow, and Safar Partners, among other investors.?Membrion develops electro-ceramic desalination technology to treat harsh water effluents from industrial facilities, such as electric batteries production, in a highly cost-effective and environmentally friendly manner.?Membrion’s new fundraising will fuel the company’s growth plans, preceding a future expansion to Europe, allowing them to serve a global market that anxiously awaits better sustainable solutions, for water savings and avoidance of ocean contamination around the world.Founded in 2016 as a spin-out startup from the University of Washington, Membrion created the world’s first desalination membrane made of ceramic materials to selectively remove dissolved salts, minerals and metals from harsh industrial water streams.
Persefoni, which makes software that helps companies track and manage their environmental footprints, just raised a $50 million Series C1 round of funding. Led by TPG Rise, Friday’s round brings the company’s total funding to more than $150 million. Alongside the funding news, Tempe, Arizona-based company also announced the launch of a new AI co-pilot, PersefoniGPT, to help users navigate their vast troves of carbon data.
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Bristol-based Matter, a microplastic technology and innovation company, announced on Wednesday, August 9, that it has raised $10M (approximately €9M) in a Series A round of funding.?The round was led by S2G Ventures, the direct investment team for Builders Vision, and SOUNDWaves, a sustainability-focused investment vehicle backed by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary.??As a part of the funding round, Kate Danaher of S2G Ventures and Katherine Keating of SOUNDWaves will join Matter’s Board of Directors.?
Katapult Ocean and Leonardo DiCaprio backed consumer ClimateTech fund Regeneration.VC also participated in the round.?Matter says the funding round will enable it to scale its microplastic filtration technology and accelerate its roadmap of solutions for commercial and industrial applications.??Microplastics, which are plastic particles measuring less than five millimetres, have become widespread due to their use in textiles and clothing. A single laundry cycle releases up to 700,000 microplastic fibres from washing machines into waterways.
The Government of Canada on Thursday released its proposed Clean Electricity Regulations, aimed at advancing the decarbonization of the country’s electricity grid, and supporting its net zero emission climate goals.?The release of the new regulations follows Canada’s commitment, made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the COP26 climate conference in 2021, to achieve a net zero electricity grid by 2035. Canada also joined a?G7 commitment in May 2022 ?to reach “predominantly decarbonized” electricity sectors by 2035.?Canada also joined a commitment last year with the U.S. to release clean energy regulations in 2023. Earlier this year, the?Biden administration released ?a set of proposals aimed at reducing U.S. power sector emissions, including putting in place CO2 emissions controls at fossil fuel-fired power plants starting in 2030.?Calling the release of the draft regulation “a giant step forward in the fight against climate change,” Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault added that the decarbonization of Canada’s power grid will also create opportunities from the growing demand for electricity from clean technologies, and ultimately lower energy costs and support the move away from volatile oil and gas prices.
According to government estimates, the regulations will result in emissions reductions from the electricity generation sector of over 340 million tonnes by 2050.?The regulations set stringent pollution standards for power generation, but does not prescribe specific energy technologies to be used. In a statement announcing the draft regulations, the government said that the “technology-neutral approach enables provincial, territorial, and municipal decision-makers to determine the most suitable path for transitioning to a clean grid in their circumstances.” The rules also permit fossil fuel-based power generation to remain in place for several years beyond the implementation of the regulations in 2035 in some circumstances, with requirements for emissions to remain under 30 tonnes of CO2 per GWh, mandating the use of carbon capture technology in most cases. The regulations also include exemptions for remote communities not connected to larger grids, with limited ability to replace fossil-based generation.
Recycling is complicated, and not just for consumers, but especially for recycling companies. But as with many other fields, artificial intelligence may be able to help.?Until now, determining what exactly is in the vast mess of garbage that arrives at recycling plants has been a dirty and difficult job. Humans can only see so much so fast, but it is necessary to differentiate a milk container from a beer can or a jug of detergent to recycle all of them properly.?Now, companies such as?AMP Robotics ,?Machinex ,?Recycleye ?and a California-based startup called?EverestLabs ?are using AI and robotics to do just that. They aim to simplify, expedite and improve the process.
“Because of AI, because of the robotic arms, we have seen plants recover 10, 20, 30% more than what they have been doing previously,” said JD Ambati, CEO of EverestLabs. “They have been losing millions of dollars to the landfill, and because of AI, they were able to identify the value of the losses and deploy robotic arms to capture that.” EverestLabs puts 3D depth-sensing cameras on recycling conveyor lines. The cameras can identify up to 200 items in each frame. Within 12 milliseconds, the AI software can tell what those objects are and what types of packaging they contain. “We get data around brands, types of packaging, types of material and how much of that is getting recovered and reused, and how much of that material is being sent to the landfill,” said Ambati. That helps increase the potential recovery of recyclable items. Add to that robotic arms, which he says recover the packaging three to four times more effectively than humans. That means big cost savings for major recyclers such as?SMR .
The vivid blue color of morpho butterflies doesn’t come from pigment but from tiny nanostructures on their wings that bend and reflect light. In a recent study, scientists designed a thin film with a layer that mimics the wings to create the same color—and doubles as a way to help keep surfaces cool in extreme heat.?In the?study , researchers at China’s Shenzhen University tested the film on a car parked in the sun. Another patch of regular blue paint on the car heated up to 167 degrees Fahrenheit. But since the sample painted with the new coating reflected light away, it only reached 107 degrees. Because the car would stay more comfortable inside, it could use less air-conditioning. In an electric car, that would mean saving energy so the car could drive longer distances.
The film was made from a top layer of titanium, silicon, and oxygen; a middle layer of frosted glass designed with the nanostructure of a butterfly wing; and a bottom layer of silver. (All three together measure only a few micrometers thick.) The film can be made into different colors by slightly changing the design; the researchers also tested shades of red and green. White coatings are already common on buildings to help reduce the need for air-conditioning—and the newest?“whitest white” coatings ?will be able to reflect even more heat. Butterfly-inspired paint could eventually offer a similar function, but in color. The same structural color could also be used on clothing or other products to keep the wearer cool. And if you want a wilder-looking option, other researchers are studying iridescent coatings that could?make your future house look like a seashell ?and help you avoid air-conditioning altogether.
Scientists near Chicago say they may be getting closer to discovering the existence of a new force of nature.?They have found more evidence that sub-atomic particles, called muons, are not behaving in the way predicted by the current theory of sub-atomic physics.?Scientists believe that an unknown force could be acting on the muons.?More data will be needed to confirm these results, but if they are verified, it could mark the beginning of a revolution in physics.?All of the forces we experience every day can be reduced to just four categories: gravity, electromagnetism, the strong force and the weak force. These four fundamental forces govern how all the objects and particles in the Universe interact with each other.
The findings have been made at a US particle accelerator facility called Fermilab. They build on?results announced in 2021 ?in which the Fermilab team first suggested the possibility of a fifth force of nature. Since then, the research team has gathered more data and reduced the uncertainty of their measurements by a factor of two, according to Dr Brendan Casey, a senior scientist at Fermilab. "We're really probing new territory. We're determining the (measurements) at a better precision than it has ever been seen before." In an experiment with the catchy name 'g minus two (g-2)' the researchers accelerate the sub-atomic particles called muons around a 15m-diameter ring, where they are circulated about 1,000 times at nearly the speed of light. The researchers found that they might be behaving in a way that can't be explained by the current theory, which is called the Standard Model, because of the influence of a new force of nature.
Although the evidence is strong, the Fermilab team hasn't yet got conclusive proof. They had hoped to have it by now, but uncertainties in what the standard model says the amount of wobbling in muons should be, has increased, because of developments in theoretical physics. In essence, the goal posts have been moved for the experimental physicists.?The researchers believe that they will have the data they need, and that the theoretical uncertainty will have narrowed in two years' time sufficiently for them to get their goal. That said, a rival team at Europe's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are hoping to get there first.
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1 年Great article, Joshua!