The Impact Innovator | Issue 297
In this week's The Impact Innovator edition:
Last month, utilities in New York state submitted plans for?13?pilot projects?meant to replace fossil-gas pipelines with infrastructure that can power clean, carbon-free heat?pumps.?These underground thermal networks range from dense midtown Manhattan commercial centers to low-income housing, and from neighborhoods in the Hudson Valley to the upstate town of Ithaca.?But the projects, spurred by a?2022?state law that puts New York on the cutting edge of a?decarbonization strategy now being explored by a?growing number of states, share a?common goal: to cut fossil fuels and carbon emissions out of the gas utility business, while still carving out a?role for those utilities in the decades to?come.
That work will still involve digging trenches, laying pipelines and installing equipment — the same kind of capital investments that earn gas utilities long and stable rates of return today. But instead of flammable and planet-warming gas, those pipes will carry water or other liquids that transfer heat from underground — or from other buildings and sources in the network — that can be used by heat pumps to keep buildings warm. The?U.S. Department of Energy estimates?that ground-source heat pumps reduce energy consumption and emissions by up to?44?percent compared to air-source heat pumps and?72?percent compared to standard air-conditioning equipment. Capturing and sharing waste heat from thermal energy networks can increase efficiency even further. That, in turn, can cut the electricity bills of customers, which will rise as they switch from gas to electric heating.
Solar panels will be installed on the roof of the Pentagon as part of a push for clean energy at federal facilities, the US Department of Energy said Wednesday.?The Pentagon is slated for upgrades including "rooftop solar panels, a heat-recovery heat pump system, and solar thermal panels to reduce reliance on natural gas and fuel oil combustion systems," the Department of Energy said in a statement.?The changes are part of clean energy projects at 31 facilities belonging to departments including Commerce, Defense, Energy, Interior and Transportation, it said.
Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said in the statement that the Pentagon is working to make "our installations more resilient, better securing our critical infrastructure, and saving money -- a win for warfighters and taxpayers alike." Climate change poses various security challenges for the United States, with storms having already caused billions of dollars in damage to US bases, while more frequent disasters are increasing demands on troops and more extreme environmental conditions may require changes to training and equipment.
Toronto-based ArcTern Ventures said on Monday it has raised $335-million from TD Bank?TD-T?and other institutions for a climate technology fund aiming to back renewable energy, clean transport and other industries addressing climate change.?Other investors to back the fund – ArcTern’s third – alongside the Canadian lender include the Church Pension and Swiss lender Credit Suisse, now part of UBS, it added.?Climate tech, which includes companies creating new ways to reduce greenhouse gases, saw demand to invest fall 40 per cent in the 12 months to September, consultants PwC calculated, although this was better than the broader venture capital industry, which was down 50 per cent.
Despite the tough backdrop, ArcTern Managing Partner Murray McCaig said he expected large institutions with substantial cash on hand to move into climate tech over the next few years as public opinion on the need for climate action spikes. The new fund will focus on early-stage companies that can grow quickly and have an impact soon, he said, in light of the need to cut climate-damaging emissions within the next decade if the world is to meet its climate goals. ArcTern focuses on software and other industries that are relatively quick to scale and capital light, to avoid projects that would depend on major capital for success.?Other areas of focus for the firm include the circular economy, sustainable food, agriculture and industrial decarbonization, with a geographic focus on the United States and Europe.
ZymoChem, an American biomanufacturer, has successfully secured a US $ 21 million Series A funding round led by Breakout Ventures, with notable participation from Lululemon Athletica Inc., and Toyota Ventures. The funding also saw contributions from existing investors GS Futures, KdT Ventures, and Cavallo Ventures. Combined with revenues from commercial partnerships and support from the US Department of Energy, this financial backing positions ZymoChem to launch its first high-performance material and upscale its initial collaborative product for commercial viability. The primary objective is to tackle the climate crisis by introducing bio-based textiles and hygiene products.
ZymoChem is making significant contributions in the textile domain, shifting from traditional polyesters to performance apparel through its bio-based sourcing technique. The platform utilises renewable feedstocks, employing a proprietary fermentation process to convert them into high-performance, bio-based, and biodegradable polymers with nearly zero CO2 emissions. Throughout the process the company follows a carbon-efficient approach. Breakout Ventures’ managing partner, Lindy Fishburne, emphasised their investment in ZymoChem, citing the company’s technology that enables scaling of bio-based chemicals and materials while remaining cost-competitive with petroleum-derived alternatives.
Element Zero, a Perth, Australia-based green materials platform company, raised US$10M in Seed funding.?The round was led by Playground Global.?The company intends to use the funds to grow R&D, engineering, and project development teams and scale the development of a pilot iron plant.
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Led by Michael Masterman, Founder and CEO, Element Zero has created a low-temperature mineral processing platform that utilizes renewable energy to convert iron ore to iron. This non-aqueous electrochemical process allows it to process iron ores; this includes the core 95% of Australian and Brazilian global trade in iron ore. Currently, lower grade iron ore cannot be processed using hydrogen-fed direct iron reduction or other lower carbon processing technologies. The technology has been tested on iron ore, nickel, and other future facing metals. The lower temperature also allows Element Zero to run this process on intermittent renewables like wind, solar, and hydropower.
The U.S. Department of Energy announced $104 million of investments in net zero-focused energy conservation and clean energy projects at 31 Federal facilities, including initiatives to boost building electrification, add on-site solar, and install heat pumps.?The new investments form the first of three disbursements from a $250 million funding program launched last year by the Biden administration, aimed at helping federal agencies to implement and advance net zero building projects, through the Assisting Federal Facilities with Energy Conservation Technologies (AFFECT) program.?The launch of the program followed an?executive order signed by President Biden?in December 2021, outlining a series of goals and initiatives for the U.S. federal government to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Among the key goals outlined in the order were targets for the government to achieve a net zero building portfolio by 2045, with an interim goal of a 50% emissions reduction by 2032.
Buildings are a key source of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and also one of the hardest to replace, given their long-term nature. The U.S. federal government’s portfolio spans 300,000 buildings.Projects selected for the first round of disbursements under the program include the installation of rooftop solar panels, a heat-recovery heat pump system, and solar thermal panels in order to reduce reliance on natural gas and fuel oil combustion systems at the Pentagon, the replacement of diesel-powered boilers with electric boilers at a DOE facility in Richland, Washington, and the implementation of energy conservation measures, installation of on-site solar, and electrification of energy-consuming systems at the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia.?According to the DOE, in the first year of operation, the 31 projects are expected to result in more than $29 million in reduced energy and water costs, remove the equivalent amount of greenhouse gas emissions as taking over 23,000 cars off the road, and reduce energy usage by the amount used by nearly 30,000 homes’ annual electricity use.
A Northwestern University team has demonstrated a remarkable new way to generate electricity, with a paperback-sized device that nestles in soil and harvests power created as microbes break down dirt – for as long as there's carbon in the soil.?Microbial fuel cells, as they're called, have been around for more than 100 years. They work a little like a battery, with an anode, cathode and electrolyte – but rather than drawing electricity from chemical sources, they work with bacteria that naturally donate electrons to nearby conductors as they chow down on soil.?So, the team set about creating several new designs targeted at giving the cells continual access to oxygen and water – and found success with a design shaped like a cartridge sitting vertically on a horizontal disc. The disc-shaped carbon felt anode lies horizontally at the bottom of the device, buried deep in the soil where it can capture electrons as microbes digest dirt.?
As with other super-long term power generation sources, like?betavoltaic diamond batteries made using nuclear waste, the amount of power generated here isn't large enough to go and run a dirt-powered car or smartphone. It's more about powering small sensors that can run over the long term without needing regular battery changes.?Thus, sensors like these could be very handy to farmers looking to monitor various soil elements – moisture, nutrients, contaminants, etc – and apply a tech-driven precision agriculture approach. Pop a few dozen of these things around your property, and they should be good to generate data for years, possibly even decades to come.?Perhaps the neatest part here is that all components of this design, according to the research team, can be bought off the shelf at a hardware store. So there's no supply chain or materials issues standing between this research and widespread commercialization.
Imagine a world where polluted water not only gets cleansed efficiently but also contributes to on-demand hydrogen production. Let's break it down. Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researchers have taken a significant step towards this vision by developing a material that removes urea from water and has the potential to convert it into hydrogen gas.?The study, led by Xiaowei Teng, the James H. Manning professor of Chemical Engineering at WPI, unveils a promising solution to a longstanding challenge in urea electrolysis.
Urea is a common nitrogen-rich agricultural fertilizer and a byproduct of human metabolism and poses environmental challenges when present in excessive amounts in water. Agricultural runoff and wastewater discharge rich in urea contribute to harmful algal blooms and hypoxic dead zones, adversely affecting aquatic environments and human health.? The weakness in utilizing urea for hydrogen production has been the lack of low-cost and highly efficient electrocatalysts that selectively oxidize urea instead of water. Teng and his team at WPI addressed this challenge by creating electrocatalysts composed of synergistically interacted nickel and cobalt atoms with unique electronic structures, as detailed in their study.
The team's research focused on homogeneous nickel and cobalt oxides and hydroxides, discovering that tailoring unique electronic structures with dominant Ni2+ and Co3+ species was crucial for enhancing electrochemical activity and selectivity for urea oxidation.? Computational simulations conducted by Professor Aaron Deskins at WPI supported the experimental findings, showing that the homogeneous mixing of nickel and cobalt oxides and hydroxides facilitated electron redistribution, optimizing the catalysts for bonding with?urea and water molecules.?The applications of this breakthrough are vast. Urea is a major nitrogen fertilizer and feed additive that has been commercially produced for decades, with around 180 million metric tons produced in 2021 alone. The team's findings could revolutionize how urea is used, not only efficiently producing hydrogen fuel from waste streams but also contributing to the long-term sustainability of ecological systems.
Scientific investigations on the ISS’s latest resupply mission include advancements in 3D metal printing, semiconductor manufacturing, reentry thermal protection, robotic surgery, and cartilage tissue regeneration. These studies aim to enhance space mission sustainability and have significant implications for Earth-based technologies and health care.?Tests of a 3D metal printer, semiconductor manufacturing, and thermal protection systems for reentry to Earth’s atmosphere are among the scientific investigations that?NASA?and international partners are launching to the?International Space Station?on Northrop Grumman’s 20th commercial resupply services mission. The company’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft is scheduled to launch on a?SpaceX?Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida by late January.?An investigation from ESA (European Space Agency),?Metal 3D Printer?tests additive manufacturing or 3D printing of small metal parts in microgravity.?
Results could improve understanding of the functionality, performance, and operations of metal 3D printing in space, as well as the quality, strength, and characteristics of the printed parts. Resupply presents a challenge for future long-duration human missions. Crew members could use 3D printing to create parts for maintenance of equipment on future long-duration spaceflight and on the Moon or?Mars, reducing the need to pack spare parts or to predict every tool or object that might be needed, saving time and money at launch. Advances in metal 3D printing technology also could benefit potential applications on Earth, including manufacturing engines for the automotive, aeronautical, and maritime industries and creating shelters after natural disasters.?This technology could enable autonomous manufacturing to replace the many machines and processes currently used to make a wide range of?semiconductors, potentially leading to the development of more efficient and higher-performing electrical devices.
Manufacturing semiconductor devices in microgravity also may improve their quality and reduce the materials, equipment, and labor required. On future long-duration missions, this technology could provide the capability to produce components and devices in space, reducing the need for resupply missions from Earth. The technology also has applications for devices that harvest energy and provide power on Earth.?Scientists who conduct research on the space station often return their experiments to Earth for additional analysis and study. But the conditions that spacecraft experience during atmospheric reentry, including extreme heat, can have unintended effects on their contents. Thermal protection systems used to shield spacecraft and their contents are based on numerical models that often lack validation from actual flight, which can lead to significant overestimates in the size of system needed and take up valuable space and mass. Kentucky Re-entry Probe Experiment-2 (KREPE-2), part of an effort to improve thermal protection system technology, uses three capsules outfitted with different heat shield materials and a variety of sensors to obtain data on actual reentry conditions.
JD '25 | Space Law + Launch, Exports, Tax | Toronto, CA + Cleveland, US
1 年Great newsletter! Exciting to see the moves in space-based 3D-printing