Food waste, wastewater, and the UK’s troubled battery industry • TechCrunch

[ad_1]

Welcome Climate Technology readers! Just like last week, we’ve got a full paper on everything from food waste to wastewater and more. Let’s dive in.

Food is thrown into the food waste bin.

Image Credits: mill industries

After selling Nest to Google for $3.2 billion, Matt Rogers is no stranger to scaling quickly. But unlike in the past, Rodgers isn’t interested in selling quickly. “This is the next 20 years of my life. This is not the case, build the company in four or five years and sell it to Google. This is a big long journey,” he told TechCrunch.

Rogers is working to end food waste, which accounts for 6% to 8% of greenhouse gas emissions, and his tool to do so is the humble kitchen trash can. Grinding Industries BIN is a smooth, technologically advanced process that dehydrates and grinds food to resemble dry coffee grounds. Then, when it’s full, it immediately requires a box to be sent to a mill facility where it turns the dried food scraps into chicken feed. How does it get there? That part really surprised Rogers.


Full TechCrunch+ articles are available to members only.
Use discount code TCP PLUS ROUNDUP Save 20% on a one- or two-year subscription.


Heavy metal band Pantera performed on stage during Knotfest Colombia 2022.

Image Credits: Guillermo Legaria Schweizer/Getty Images

Industrial facilities, from semiconductor factories to automotive plants, use a surprising amount of water. What comes out at the other end can be challenging to treat and even more challenging to reuse. That’s why Membrio developed a ceramic coating that filters out heavy metals like lead, arsenic, and lithium. The startup hopes to bring in another $3 million in a $7 million Series B round.

A man in a British volt vest watches the construction site.

Image Credits: British Vault (Opens in a new window)

British Volt was always a bit of a long shot, but the battery manufacturing startup seems to have missed the target entirely. This week, he announced that he was filing for bankruptcy in accordance with his plans to liquidate the $4.7 billion Gigafactory.

The company’s failure echoes the situation here in the United States a decade ago when A123 Systems stumbled and went bankrupt. But the British version of the story may not have a happy ending. At A123, the US had time to cover. As global battery supply chains continue to consolidate, the UK’s domestic battery industry may never catch up.

The MOXIE instrument was installed on NASA's Perseverance rover.

Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Space programs pride themselves on developing far-reaching technologies that prove their worth here on Earth. Apollo aided the Catapult computer, and the spacecraft produced breakthroughs in avionics and materials science. Now it’s the Mars rover’s turn to persevere.

The MOXIE experiment was designed to prove that carbon dioxide can be converted to oxygen on Mars. Chris Graves, who worked on the device, started Noon Energy, thinking it would help the Earth use up carbon dioxide. The company’s carbon-oxygen battery promises to store electricity at low cost for long periods of time. The startup announced a $28 million Series A this week.

HVAC technician installing a large modern heat pump

Image Credits: Getty Images

Heat pumps and home energy upgrades have been getting a lot of attention because of the incentives included in the Inflation Act. This makes it a good time to print. The company predicts how much energy it will save and changes the upfront installation costs, charging homeowners based on the savings.

For a company that relies heavily on data, Sealed’s acquisition of Burlington, Vermont-based InfiSense makes good sense. Neither company disclosed the terms of the deal. Bundled plans offer InfiSense sensors for customers to monitor both energy use and indoor air quality, even if they don’t need it.

[ad_2]

Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *