Spotlight on Lectrolystby Keitaro Hanzawa | 27-07-2020 04:16 |
|---|
|
As environmental circumstances are increasingly deteriorating, it's important to be aware of possible solutions on a global scale. A large contributor of carbon emissions are produced in the industry and energy sectors, where burning fossil fuels contributed to 48.9% of greenhouse gas emissions in the USA(with similar numbers globally). This number is a grave reminder that humanity needs to start addressing issues on a much grander scale before it is too late. One possible solution is DAC or direct air capture which is the name-sake process of capturing CO2 directly from the air. Generally some past applications were to permanently store the CO2 deep underground or converting CO2 in the air into useful products, much like how plants work when they photosynthesize. The newly-founded company "Lectrolyst" utilizes the idea of carbon capture to try to remediate the future potential output of carbon emissions. Founded by Greg Hutchings and Feng Jiao, their product essentially turns an undesirable by-product such as carbon dioxide and transforms it into useful chemicals that can be applied elsewhere. Examples of "useful chemicals" are "multi carbon chemicals" like fuels or even plastics. Though the idea of DAC products have been tried and tested, Lectrolyst is unique such that the process can be tailored to the specific industry. This means that the resultant product can be chosen by the operator as long as it contains "multi-carbon chemicals." The company dubs this innovative resultant as "Specialty Products." Additionally, the future applications are limitless as the product can be scaled to an even grander level within the private sector. The future is looking bright! but there is always a need for more innovations to come as DAC is only one piece of the puzzle that is the challenge of transitioning to clean and sustainable energy. Source: Lectrolyst, www.lectrolyst.com/home. |
