chemicals

“Breaking the Cycle: Aepnus’ Vision for a Sustainable Battery Industry”

Gettyimages 1570041390
Wastewater from these plants emerges laden with sodium sulfate, a byproduct of sulfuric acid and caustic soda, two chemicals used in battery manufacturing, copper refining and other industries. “We can totally create a circular economy around these reagent chemicals,” Bilen Akuzum, co-founder and CTO of Aepnus Technology, told TechCrunch. The two founded Aepnus to modernize the century-old chloralkali process, which splits salts like sodium sulfate back into the acids and bases that created them. “We don’t use any expensive catalysts in our electrolyzers,” Akuzum said. For customers, fully recycling sodium sulfate waste should reduce disposal and material costs.

Transforming Kombucha into Sustainable Thread: A Surprising Discovery

Biocel
It’s not everyday you come across kombucha playing a starring role in potential industrial disruption. They can also be treated to have different properties — such as elasticity or water resistance. Freixas had a selection of samples of knitted bio-filament on show, offering a glimpse of eco-friendly alternative to materials like cotton or plastic essentially being brewed into existence. Freixas is undertaking the project at the Barcelona School of Design and Engineering as part of the Elisava Research team. Unlike conventional fabric production the methods involved in producing Biocel are not labor intensive and do not require lots of energy or harsh chemicals, per Freixas.