CBS News
Cambridge, England – Scientists have long declared that the reduction of methane emissions is essential to treat climate change, but many large industries are not easily able to slow down their harmful greenhouse gas production. A British company says it has an answer: Transform methane into something else.
Methane is a threat. Climatologists say that invisible gas warms the earth’s atmosphere 84 times faster than carbon dioxide. It is released in the atmosphere by organic matter, such as food waste, rot on landfill sites, wastewater treatment installations and by cows’ digestive systems.
LEVIDIAN – A climate technology company in Cambridge, England – has decided to take up this challenge for climate change, giving a makeover to methane.
“The magic occurs here,” said the CEO of the company, John Hartley, at CBS News by directing our team during a guided tour of the patented loop system of Levidian – a machine with a giant balloon hopper .
Technology uses microwave energy and a special nozzle system to divide methane molecules into the components of gas – hydrogen and carbon – and captures.
Hydrogen is more and more sought after, as It can be used to feed factories, trucks, ships and other machines. Levidian said it was clean fuel because, when burned, he gives heat and energy, but the only emission is water vapor, no carbon dioxide.
The carbon of the Methane broken down, on the other hand, falls into the hopper as a solid called graphene, which has been known to science for about two decades and which is often presented as the strongest material in the world.
Dr. Ellie Galanis, Levidian commercial development manager, wanted to show a graphene harvest of the laboratory of the company’s laboratory.
“It’s a moment so exciting to be involved in graphene,” said the self -proclaimed “graphene geek”, shaking a cube filled with black powder material. “It’s great.”
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Galanis and his team were busy working on ways to use the graphene that Levidian produces to stimulate the sustainability of everyday products.
“When you put graphene in the tire tread, you can make it stronger. You can make it last longer and you can make it more thrifty in fuel, “she said about an application.
They also tried to add it to the concrete.
“Without graphene, it tends to collapse much more easily, but with graphene, it’s much stronger,” she said.
The super strong but flexible material can even be included in the manufacture of medical gloves.
“When the surgeons do the instant test ”, they try to check if it breaks, and that does not happen when you add graphene – it makes them much stronger and more resistant to perforation,” said -Ali said to CBS News.
Scientists say that graphene also helps to increase battery life in electric vehicles, and can be mixed in plastic to help manufacturers use fewer oil derived in their bottles.
The researchers discovered graphene that 20 years ago, at the University of Manchester, and Levidian sees years of upcoming growth for the product.
“When you get into your car, you will have improved graphene tires that last longer. The battery of this car, if it is electric, will lead you further because it will have more capacity to load more quickly, and the concrete you use in the building in which you are going to be more durable and will have a smaller carbon footprint ” , she predicted, adding that even “the clothes you wear can have graphene in them so that they are more durable”.
Levidian says that his loop system has now reached the United States, with Georgia Southwire cable manufacturer using it to reduce his carbon footprint.