EPISODE 162 FEATURES NEW LIGHT CO-FOUNDER, MARK HERREMA
Imagine turning greenhouse gases into a plastic alternative that biodegrades…
As Scientific American points out, "carbon is the giver of life - your skin and hair, blood and bone, muscle and sinews all depend on carbon. Bark, leaf, root and flower; fruit and nut; pollen and nectar; bee and butterfly; Doberman and dinosaur—all incorporate essential carbon. Every cell in your body—indeed, every part of every cell—relies on a sturdy backbone of carbon." Carbon isn't a monster, although it's sometimes painted that way,
Carbon dioxide, however, is obviously causing us serious problems. We can't keep pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Reducing emissions and switching to renewables are the obvious first ports of call. But might we also be able to rethink unwanted greenhouse gases as a feedstock - something useful that we could turn into a product?
That's what this week's guest is proposing. Meet Mark Herrema, co-founder and CEO of Newlight Technologies, the company behind Air Carbon. He’s hoping this bio-based material will revolutionise the plastics industry. And Nike agrees.
In 2021, Nike announced it’s exploring the use of AirCarbon, a biomaterial developed by Californian biotech Newlight, that captures more carbon than it emits.
“EVERY DAY, NATURE USES GREENHOUSE GAS TO MAKE VALUABLE MATERIALS. TREES PULL CARBON OUT OF THE ATMOSPHERE TO MAKE NEW LEAVES, AND CORAL REEF PULLS CARBON OUT OF OCEAN WATER TO GROW.” Newlight Technologies.
HUNTINGTON BEACH is a seaside city in Orange County, Southern California. Here’s how the city’s tourism website tell it: “Dean Torrence, from 1960s pop group Jan and Dean, who co-authored the famous Number 1 hit Surf City, said Huntington Beach embodies the song’s spirit of freedom and California fun. The city is also mentioned in the Beach Boys song Surfin’ Safari, and in Surfer Joe by the Surfaris. Ocean swells, endless sunshine and a fleet of bobbing longboards have played an instrumental role in earning the city its well-deserved ‘Surf City’ nickname … Boasting some of California’s widest, cleanest, safest beaches, the unofficial dress code has become a mix of wetsuits, bikinis and sandals.”
The saddened scientist Clare struggled to remember was JULIAN HILL - an American chemist who helped develop Nylon at DuPont. An avid twitcher, he was greatly dismayed in later life to see the damage plastic cause bird and marine life.
Mark is reading BARBARIAN DAYS - William Finnegan's surfing autobiography/memoir.
SHERWOOD ROLAND was the Nobel prize-winning chemist who sounded the alarm on the thinning of the Earth's OZONE LAYER in the 1970s.
UN PLASTICS TREATY In March 2022, in Nairobi, 175 nations endorsed a historic resolution at the UN Environment Assembly to End Plastic Pollution and forge an international legally binding agreement by 2024. The resolution addresses the full lifecycle of plastic, including its production, design and disposal.
COP26 copped a lot of criticism in 2021. From India & China pushing successfully to change "phasing out” to “phasing down” coal in the wording of the latest pact, to Greta dubbing COP26 "a global north greenwash festival". But also for being something of a corporate trade show, hijacked by commercial interests. What do you think? Read the full tale of woe here.
via www.newlight.com
AIR CARBON “Over 10 years of R&D, Newlight developed a biotechnological process to harness microorganisms found in the ocean to convert greenhouse gas into a meltable energy material found in all living things: a naturally-occurring, biocompatible material that can be used to make fibers and solid parts, and help reduce the flow of carbon and synthetic plastic into the environment.” Read more about the process here.
SUSTAINABILITY An independent evaluation by Carbon Trust to calculate and certify the cradle-to-gate product carbon footprint of AirCarbon found that “for every kilogram of AirCarbon produced in Newlight’s production process, 88 kilograms of CO2e (obtained from methane seeping from abandoned coal mines) are sequestered.”
CRADLE TO GATE What is cradle to gate analysis? The scope of different LCA studies can vary, but the manufacture of the construction product will always be included (cradle-to-gate). Cradle-to-grave is the full life cycle assessment from resource extraction (‘cradle’) to the use phase and disposal phase (‘grave’). Cradle-to-gate is an assessment of a partial product life cycle from resource extraction (cradle) to the factory gate (ie, before it is transported to the consumer).
METHANE is the second most abundant anthropogenic GHG after carbon dioxide (CO2), accounting for about 20 % of global emissions. Methane is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.
BP OIL SPILL Marine microbes did eat up some of the methane emissions from the spill, but then they stopped. Here’s what happened, via Guardian: Scientists believe “methane, which leaked from the 2010 oil-rig blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, persisted in the sea for months beyond a presumed cleanup of the gas by marine microbes. As much as half a million tonnes of natural gas, 80% of it methane, leaked into the deep sea as a result of the blowout on April 20, 2010, on BP's Deepwater Horizon rig. The leak triggered a surprising ‘bloom’ of marine bacteria that feasted on the gassy hydrocarbon plume.
“The bugs performed a valuable environmental service, helping to prevent gas from lingering in the sea – where it would contribute to ocean acidification – or from escaping to the air, where it would add to the greenhouse-gas problem. The bloom was so dramatic that, by the end of August, tests suggested all the gas had been mopped out by these natural little helpers. But in a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, US marine scientists said the bloom abruptly declined at the end of June, even as methane concentrations remained about 5,000 times above background levels. The bugs did indeed remove a significant amount of the gas, but their population crashed while the leak was still in progress, it said.”
ANAEROBIC DIGESTION occurs naturally, in the absence of oxygen, as bacteria break down organic materials and produce biogas. The process reduces the amount of material and produces biogas, which can be used as an energy source. Via EPA.
The CHASING ARROWS SYMBOL on plastics does not mean that it’s made from recycled plastic or that it’s recyclable. It is an unregulated symbol anyone can use.
Number 1 in the triangle represents PET – polyethelane terephthalate, which is very common, and quite easy to recycle or downcycle. It’s your plastic water bottles that get turned into pellets to make rPET – recycled polyester textiles.
Number 3 is PVC - feral stuff. Avoid where possible.
Number 6 is POLYSTYRENE. A tricky character, this one. According to National Geographic, most plastic utensils are made of polystyrene, which can release toxic chemicals when heated. And while technically you can recycle it, most city recycling facilities won’t accept plastic knives and forks because they are difficult shape for the sorting machines.
Number 2 denotes HDPE High-density polyethylene - think plastic milk cartons, laundry detergent bottles…
UNION CARBIDE is an American chemicals giant, with deep ties to the fossil fuel industry and a super shady history. You may remember them from such headline makers as the Bhopal explosion in 1984 - the world’s deadliest industrial disaster. They also helped make the first atomic bomb. We reckon Union Carbide is the worst of the worst. So can sustainable materials disruptors learn from their wins? Mark thinks so.
Covalent AirCarbon Sunglasses.
COVALENT is Newlight’s fashion arm. In a hyper-competitive space, will it work? According to WWD: “Move over, carbon neutrality — these accessories capture carbon from the air. Covalent is the latest in luxury bags and accessories that is essentially the physical manifestation of greenhouse gas.” They’re starting with bags, wallers and sunglasses frames. Shop here.
FILM The doco Clare mentions is called Carbon, An Unauthorised Biography.
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Love, Clare & the team.