Smart people taking climate action
Recycling, decarbonising, absorbing carbon: protecting the environment demands innovative approaches. A look at three startups from Germany.
cylib: making electrical mobility more sustainable
Electric-powered transport has great potential to reduce harmful carbon emissions from the sector. But even that faces environmental challenges, such as what happens to batteries used in vehicles? cylib is a spinoff from RWTH Aachen University and the startup has an answer to this question. They recycle batteries and manage to recover almost all the raw materials, achieving 90% recycling efficiency. cylib’s patented method consists of a water-based process which minimises the use of acids and other additives in the recovery of lithium and graphite, making the process particularly environmentally friendly.
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Open consent formshipzero: decarbonising transport
“Decarbonise your supply chain” is the slogan of the Hamburg startup shipzero. It’s right for an age in which businesses need to find the most environmentally friendly solutions for their economic activity. The company’s customers can now use a website which analyses and presents all the logistics data available to allow targeted decisions to improve sustainability. “By looking at the data we can predict which measures will have most leverage,” explains co-founder Mirko Schedlbauer in a business portrait. “It ranges from really small steps such as minimising the time lorries spend waiting to unload and reducing empty journeys, right up to recommendations on switching certain cargoes off the road and onto the rails.”
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Open consent formInPlanet: using agriculture to remove carbon
Can we fight climate change with gravel? The German-Brazilian startup InPlanet thinks it can reduce the harmful impact of carbon dioxide through its “Enhanced Rock Weathering” process. Rock weathering is a natural process which binds carbon dioxide to the stone, preventing it from escaping into the atmosphere. This also helps cool the planet. A system for grinding and spreading suitable stone significantly speeds up the natural process and boosts the effect on the climate. InPlanet is working on optimising how to prepare the stone powder and is working with farmers in tropical regions. The farmers’ fields have the potential to absorb large quantities of CO2, while the farmers benefit from the stone acting as a fertiliser.
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