What do these two industries have in common? They both use steel, a material that contributes two tonnes of carbon emissions for every one tonne produced. So is there other alternatives?
Turns out there is. Carbon fibre is a material that is up to ten times stronger than steel, fives time lighter, and which not only contributes less to CO2 — but is also carbon negative.
What’s already being done with this problem?
Although we have been aware of how beneficial algae can be, researchers only recognized its potential in biofuel. There has been very little research on using it as a building material due to the previous struggles in making it sturdy. One scientist, Thomas Bruck has made significant breakthroughs in how to produce the super-material. The current barriers to market include several factors such as distribution, cost and scalability, that’s what makes us different, and we’ll get to that shortly.
There are also other methods to reducing the carbon offset of steel, and we recognize the inferences with such models. The most publicized and arguably innovative solution would be carbon capture, a machine that sucks in and essentially vanishes emissions! This is a reactive solution, and we propose a root cause solution, preventing carbon to even enter our environment. Carbon capture can be unsafe since the CO2 taken in typically goes into a deep ocean storage, however, natural calamities could disrupt this method as we haven’t tested it thoroughly.
Our solution:
Introducing Polya! Our mission is to completely replace steel and other common construction metals by distributing carbon fibres made out of algae. In the construction industry, steel represents 95% of all metals produced in construction. We realize that although steel is a sustainable material after production, during production, it generates 2 tonnes of CO2 emissions for each 1 tonne of steel produced.
To put this into perspective, just imagine a giant solid cube of CO2 spanning 30km on every side, with up to 38% of the cube solely coming from construction, and most of that 38% chunk coming from steel.
According to the Technical University of Munich (TUM), algae carbon fibre is stronger than steel and is lighter than aluminum, making algae carbon fibre a perfect alternative to these metals. Carbon fibres that are made from algae have no difference in comparison to conventional carbon fibres, which further supports our idea of completely replacing these metals with algae!
So how does it work?
During its growth, algae naturally absorbs carbon dioxide to grow, producing algae oil. We can then extract glycerin from the algae oil converting it first into acrylonitrile. Eventually, acrylonitrile is spun into polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibres. Finally, PAN fibres with the help of parabolic solar reflectors yield carbon fibres completing the conversion process.
When algae are used for carbon fibre the CO2 absorbed no longer contributes to the atmosphere making this entire process carbon negative.
Expansion and facility planning
In the long term, we plan on expanding our operations even further. Algae growth by itself is key to dealing with carbon emissions but our two-pronged approach of also reducing steel emissions helps drive even deeper impacts.
Our system is highly scalable for large areas, a farm the size of Algeria would offset all CO2 from air transport. By introducing technologies like vertical farming Acrlyon can be more competitive in space taken to manufacture our materials. We are continuing to innovate on making the most impact with little space, which is the overarching reason we chose the hyper-growing plant algae!
Conclusion
In conclusion, carbon fibres can replace steel as a stronger, and more eco-friendly alternative. In the transportation industry, carbon fibre can replace steel during car production, as well as every drive as a lighter -and thus a more fuel-efficient- alternative to steel. Furthermore, carbon fibre can reach dozens of other industries with each usage cutting down on total carbon emissions.
The way we currently approach climate change is unintuitive. With Polya we are able to create supply with a demand for an innovative carbon-negative product.
And reach a greener tomorrow.
