News - December 23, 2020
Latest News from our Labelled Solutions - December
Written by Sarah Badoux 4 min read
As 2020 comes to a close, the labelled solutions have continued to push boundaries and innovate. From producing zero emission cement to the world’s first bottles from textile waste, wonderful progress is being made towards the adoption of clean technologies around the world.
Synhelion and CEMEX team up to produce the world’s first emissions-free cement
Global cement producer CEMEX partnered with solar start-up Synhelion SA to demonstrate the world’s first emissions-free cement production. Synhelion is a solar research spin-off from ETH that uses an advanced concentrated solar thermal (CST) technology to generate temperatures at up to 1,500C for thermochemistry and industrial heat. For the first time, the technology will be applied to cement production, replacing fossil energy and eliminating carbon dioxide emissions from cement manufacturing – which is responsible for about 8 percent of the world’s annual emissions of CO2.
Carbios has successfully produced the first bottles from 100% textile waste
Carbios, a French company pioneering new enzymatic solutions to reinvent the lifecycle of plastic and textile polymers, successfully converted plastic waste into textiles in 2019. Carbios has now managed to efficiently upcycle textile waste into bottles. With over 42 million tons of polyester textiles produced annually, this latest recycling milestone creates new value and circular economy applications to otherwise waste-destined materials, a much needed solution for the resource and energy intensive fashion and textile industries.
Gates and Bezos Funds Back Hydrogen-Powered Plane Startup ZeroAvia
The hydrogen-powered aviation startup ZeroAvia Inc. has raised $37.7 million from the U.K. government and a group of investors that includes funds founded by Bill Gates and Amazon.com Inc. ZeroAvia will use the funding to accelerate its groundbreaking technology that enables hydrogen-electric powertrain solutions to replace fuel-burning propulsion in zero-emission airplanes.
Enerkem to recycle residual waste into biofuel
Enerkem will soon open a plant in Varennes, Québec where 200,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste and wood waste will be converted into methanol and ethanol annually. Producing over 125 million litres of biofuels a year, the project will avoid landfill and the equivalent CO2 emissions of 50,000 cars annually. The CAD$ 875M project, backed by Shell, Suncor and Proman and the Canadian government, will create 100 permanent green jobs in the area.
H55 secures CHF 20M in funding for its electric propulsion system
H55 has been awarded a CHF 20M round of funding by US venture capital firm NanoDimension and Swiss government grants. H55 founder, André Borschberg, also co-founded the Solar Impulse project together with Betrand Piccard, which led to the first-ever round-the-world flight by a solar airplane. With H55, the team is developing and certifying clean, safe and quiet electric propulsion systems that can be incorporated into other planes.
Open Ocean Robotics to ensure offshore wind farms are sustainable and protect endangered species
Open Ocean Robotics was selected as one of three startups to participate in Greentown Labs’, the largest climate tech startup incubator in North America, and Vineyard Wind’s Offshore Wind Challenge. The Challenge will accelerate and support Open Ocean Robotics' development of marine mammal monitoring technology, where data will be collected to perform real-time transmission of the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. This will ensure the protection of the endangered species and the sustainable construction and operation of the offshore wind farm, from cradle to grave.
Read more
Written by Sarah Badoux on December 23, 2020
