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Astrolab nanosatellites orbiting larger satellite

Start-ups in space: Six out-of-this-world business opportunities

  • min read
    • Does space present a business opportunity for the everyday entrepreneur? You might not be such a 'space cadet' if it's your dream to set up in space tech. Reaching for the stars is no longer the preserve of business giants with staggering budgets. Here are six areas where space tech entrepreneurs have seen a business, environmental or humanitarian opportunity, and set about filling the gap. 1.   Understanding the developing world needs accurate data Swedish start-up Ignitia uses satellite data to solve a problem that affects farmers in tropical countries such as Ghana, Nigeria and Mali. Weather forecasting techniques designed for northern latitudes don't work so well here because there are fewer ground observation stations, and tropical weather behaves differently. Ignitia runs simulations of tropical convective patterns on a cluster of supercomputers, using satellite data to pinpoint farmers' locations. They send each farmer a 48-hour forecast by SMS, accurate to within 3 km. A study found farmers who used Ignitia reported a 65 percent increase in yields. Climate Edge is a social enterprise with similar aims but different methods. They realized farmers in areas hard hit by climate change found it hard to adapt without digitized data. Climate Edge uses a small weather station to collect data about farm conditions, like soil temperature and humidity, and transmits it through the 2G cellular network. With the ability to log and monitor conditions that determine farms' yield and produce quality, NGOs could make the right investments to make a difference. 2.   Making tech because you can, then figuring out who needs it While Climate Edge and Ignitia were inspired to do something about environmental problems, successful businesses sometimes come out of developing technology without knowing who needs it. A group of ex-military and space program scientists, CyStellar first created a platform that combined satellite, airborne and ground sensor data. Later, they developed a series of products that applied the information in useful ways for industries from wine to shipping. One of their products, InsurTech, detects and monitors objects and geographic features over time, reporting even minor changes. It means insurance companies can more accurately determine risk, charge more appropriate rates and detect fraud. For customers, it means they can claim more quickly, as the system provides evidence and information the customer would otherwise need to collect. 3.   Revealing what's previously been hard to see Entopy is working to make the supply chain more efficient by using geolocation and GPS. They aim to give logistics managers full visibility of their supply chain, breaking down the silos of different companies involved, such as factory, shipping, warehouse and retailer – all without any party having to change their tracking system. Finland's ICEYE has an eye on shipping safety, among a range of other applications. They use small satellite synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) technology to give ship captains detailed information on the sea ahead, which may be hidden by fog or darkness. The technology also tracks icebergs and predicts their future movement. 4.   Helping cities reduce congestion and environmental impact As cities change and grow, so too must their infrastructure. Teralytics use mobile signal data to help make transport more reliable, efficient and sustainable. Aggregating (grouping individuals' data together with others) for privacy, they report on how people are moving around cities and the journeys they're taking. Organizations that supply public transport, build roads or provide for niche transport needs can buy the data to use in designing and redesigning their networks to reflect better where people go and when. https://vimeo.com/390004849 Teralytics explain how space data helps understand how people travel. Start-ups are trying to expand mobile, data and GPS coverage too. Swiss start-up Astrocast has designed, built and operates its own constellation of nanosatellites, aiming to bring stronger connectivity between regions and expand coverage. Smarter cities will need secure networks to enable internet of things (IoT) devices – for example, autonomous cars – to communicate so they can behave in better ways, like reducing congestion. Satellite data can also give cities insights into environmental concerns like air quality. London-based space start-up 4 Earth Intelligence provides data that helps cities plan to reduce pollution. 5.   Realizing what satellite owners need With so much crucial data coming from satellites, there's high demand for services that support, maintain and protect the satellite network. The Airbnb of space data, Japan's Infostellar lets satellite owners sell surplus capacity to others. It's costly and only makes more space junk to be a hazard to others. Leo Labs specializes in tracking low-earth orbit satellites. They map satellite paths and work out if space debris could collide with satellites. Satellite operators who buy access to the data can adjust their satellites' flight paths to avoid a damaging crash. 6.   Reducing the environmental impact and cost of getting satellites into space As demand increases and tech gets cheaper, we're building and launching more satellites. Someone has to get them into orbit, and start-ups are involved there too. Scottish engineering company Skyrora design rockets especially for launching smaller satellites. The booming satellite 'taxi' market involves companies like Nanoracks ("concierge to the stars") that gather small satellites from multiple customers to piggyback on a larger launch. Once dropped off from the main vehicle, the taxi takes each small satellite to its orbit slot. Space tech isn't just transforming industries the world over. Led by a new breed of innovators and entrepreneurs, it's an industrial revolution in the stars.
Professionally dressed man and woman standing in a field surrounded by greenery, solar panels and bees

Can tech help fight climate change? Five innovations making a difference today

  • min read
    • As we say goodbye to the last decade, we usher in a new and crucial one for our planet. According to research, Earth has warmed around 1c since the industrial revolution, which is wreaking havoc on the planet we call home. This is just the start, according to this fun, but terrifying sliding scale. Since the 2016 Paris Agreement – which aims to keep global temperature increases under 2c – climate change has become a critical conversation for all nations and industries. But, as the research of agricultural economist Ester Boserup shows, humankind has the potential to adapt using technology to overcome its problems. These five technologies are designed to help us combat the number one issue we face as a species: global warming. Vacuuming gas from the atmosphere https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63S0t4k_Glw Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere have risen 48 percent since the start of the industrial revolution. We need to start reducing it, with the help of direct air capture (DAC) technology. But what is it? Giant vacuum cleaners remove CO2 from the atmosphere, sequestering it underground and, in some cases, supplying it back to specific industries, like fertilizer for farmers or bubbles for drinks companies to carbonate their products. One of the companies already using Direct Air Capture tech is Climeworks. They're removing and sequestering thousands of tons of carbon from the atmosphere every year. The CO2 fighting resilient crop Arborea has developed the world's first BioSolar Leaf – which puts a whole new spin on natural photosynthesis. Using unique, photovoltaic-like panels, coined 'bionic leaves,' BioSolar Leaf uses sunlight to grow microscopic plants which can grow in high concentrations within arid and infertile ground. These tiny plants, in turn, produce healthy food ingredients while generating oxygen and sequestering high amounts of CO2. Bees glorious bees https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6HLWS86-Y8&feature=emb_title Bees. You'd be hard pushed to find someone who doesn't appreciate them. But you'd have an equally tricky time sitting down for a coffee with one (the bee, not the person). They are vital to a healthy environment, but unfortunately, their numbers are declining globally. It's time to save these winged wanderers. The World Bee Project and Oracle have teamed up to do just that. Their Hive Network uses cloud technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and smart sensors to collect information about honey bee decline to protect them better. The Hive Network allows researchers to 'listen' in on honey bee enclosures, analyzing data like wing movement, temperature and honey yield. By monitoring bee colonies at this level, conservationists and beekeepers can detect patterns and predict bee behaviors, giving them vital information to keep our (real-world) honeypots alive. Lab-grown cuisine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Iv0857U3UE Not a new technology by any stretch, but a new way of looking at a traditional industry. Meat has a much higher energy footprint than any other food type. It takes 75 times more energy to produce than corn and an area seven times the size of the European Union (EU) to produce enough food for the region's cattle and livestock to eat. In an attempt to curb our carnivorous habits and save our planet from total annihilation, start-ups like Impossible Foods are rearing fake meat – in labs. They've discovered that both animals and plants share a common protein – heme. In plants, this is leghemoglobin, whereas in animals, like cows, this would be hemoglobin. By taking heme from leghemoglobin and growing it in a lab, the product can be colored, shaped and even cooked like a piece of meat because they share the same properties. But there's more. Solar Foods are now turning water into different foods by taking bacteria from soil and multiplying it using hydrogen extracted from water – the result (in this case): flour. Although the flour isn't licensed for sale currently, it's been used to make an edible pancake. Not a bad start. Eventually, the flour will be used to replace fillers in thousands of food products. It can be modified to mimic milk and eggs, and can even be manipulated to create lab-grown fish with all those healthy omega-3 acids. The power of energy storage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmrwdTGZxGk&feature=emb_title Many countries around the world have committed to a 100 percent carbon-free future, but how exactly will it happen? With renewables, in the first instance. But we also need to manage better the energy we produce to power the right tech to help us, like electric cars. The stage is set for interconnectors. These power lines not only move energy across long distances between regional power grids but also store excess energy for later use using lithium-ion batteries – those used in mobile phones and electric cars. The use of these interconnectors is expected to grow tenfold by 2024. They help to store energy for longer to transport it to places where there's less produced – a win-win. Right now, current storage tech can handle four hours of storage. But, technology firms aim to improve that drastically like Energy Vault, a Swiss start-up. They use windy days and automated cranes to stack bricks, recapturing the kinetic energy generated when the bricks fall back to the ground. Watch the video to see it in action. Smart cities are the next port of call The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that climate change could increase deaths by air pollution by hundreds of thousands between 2030 and 2050. One of the big problems: congested cities. Now with advances in artificial intelligence, internet of things (IoT) and smart sensors, smart cities are being designed to help keep earth-defiling emissions down and citizens' lungs healthy. Hamburg is a case in point. A prominent port city in Germany, it's bustling with shipping containers, cruise ships and other sea vessels – but struggling to manage increasing air and noise pollution. Air pollution is due to ships burning marine fuels for on-board equipment while they're docked in the harbor. After Hamburg Port Authority teamed up with Siemens and adopted the Siharbour technology (a mobile-operated generator), Hamburg's ports can now hook incoming ships onto the mainland power supply, stopping them from burning unnecessary fuel and keeping emissions down. What happens next? The teams behind these innovations (and countless others) are working around the clock for a better chance of saving our planet. Which ones do you think will help make a difference? And what innovations could your business develop now that could help protect our world?
green tech improving business

Six ways green tech can benefit your business

  • min read
    • Two-thirds of customers place importance on a brand's sustainable or eco-friendly image. Buoyed by this growing consumer awareness, business investment in becoming more sustainable is at record highs. Staff are concerned too – 97 percent of executives say their company has been negatively affected by climate change. IT and enterprise leaders must get involved in this new age of corporate social responsibility (CSR.) But these new environmentally conscious ways of doing business can benefit your company in other ways. Here are six ways green tech is improving business while reducing its environmental footprint. 1.   Saving on energy bills Oxford Economics says data-driven tools like smart meters, smart plugs and self-regulating energy systems can cut energy costs by up to 5 percent. It may not sound like much, but will add up to billions by 2030, with the biggest savings likely in small-to-medium businesses. These smart solutions are an easy way for businesses to predict better, optimize and conserve energy, meaning cost savings while reducing climate impacts of energy production, which across the world, is still mostly done by burning fossil fuels. 2.   Gaining more organizational insight These smart devices don't just help save energy and resources. They give businesses improved insight into process efficiencies. There's been huge uptake of 'internet of things' (IoT) devices in industry and manufacturing, largely driven by their ability to predict maintenance needs, maximize productivity and reduce factory downtime. Over 55 billion devices will be connected and talking to one another by 2025, according to market researcher IDC. One example is modular house-building factories –robots are better than humans at arranging patterns to get the most cuts from a piece of wood. 3.   Improving employees' working lives According to international consulting firm McKinsey, remote, digital, and hybrid technologies will define the future of work. Many employers are using online tools to book on-demand flexible office space, vehicles and virtual desktops, cutting resource consumption and travel-related greenhouse gas emissions. Employees relish more opportunity to work flexibly, widespread since the pandemic – whether working from home or across hours that better suit family life. Commuting is no small contributor to climate change. In the US, 75 percent use driving as their main means of getting to work. 4.   Saving on carbon costs With many countries operating internal carbon markets, reducing carbon emissions can, on its own, reduce operating expenses. These schemes require companies to buy carbon credits for emissions they produce, while those that create carbon sinks, like forestry, can make money by selling credits. Renewable energy microgrids are one way to cut carbon emissions. Other companies are replacing fossil fuel-powered vehicle fleets with electric and hybrid vehicles. These can also have health benefits for staff through reduced air pollution, vibration and noise. 5.   Reducing eWaste Our growing mountains of electronic waste are not easy or cheap to recycle, but practice is improving. Green tech can also help here, like using cloud-based file storage and backups, where multiple businesses share the same IT infrastructure. (This, in turn, makes strong, automated cloud security indispensable.) Virtual desktops also mean you needn't constantly equip and re-equip staff with dedicated laptops and PCs, meaning less waste to landfill. Choose your data center wisely for minimum environmental impact – they can use much electricity and water, and create a lot of heat. Doing your research will reveal the most low-impact options, like using data centers in countries where most electricity is generated renewably. 6.   Increasing productivity One UCLA study found employees at companies that voluntarily adopt high environmental standards were 16 percent more productive than peers at less eco-friendly organizations. Reasons might include distance learning, telecommuting and real-time collaboration tech. Artificially-intelligent software personalities and automated helpers may also help employees work without needing to travel while taking over repetitive tasks that reduce focus. Green tech for business will mean many operational benefits alongside all-important protection for our resources, climate and atmosphere. Companies should aim to stay ahead of customers' expectations and move more quickly than regulation requires. The coming years will only bring more environmental scrutiny and awareness, so it will pay to invest in greener tech today.
Climate change threatens IT infrastructure disruption

How to make IT infrastructure resilient against extreme weather

  • min read
    • Almost nothing in the world will be unaffected by climate change. From more storms and wildfires to rising sea levels, the impact of extreme weather events will only grow. Infrastructure, too, faces tough challenges from sudden and damaging floods, hurricanes and heatwaves. IT networks and systems, and the vital data they hold, may be most at risk. We've already seen what can happen. Wildfires can take out cell towers, preventing those affected from calling for help. Flooding has taken on a UK data center used by a mobile phone network. Businesses that plan to rely on driverless tech should be aware it's not yet working well in severe weather. For enterprises, preparing for the impacts of climate change is no substitute for doing all they can today to reduce emissions and sequester (store) carbon. But business and IT leaders can protect their vital IT infrastructure for more extreme times ahead. Why invest in infrastructure resilience? According to 2018 OECD policy paper, Climate Resilient Infrastructure, if we don't adapt infrastructure, climate change will increase extreme weather infrastructure damage in Europe ten-fold by the end of the century. Bryan Strawser, CEO of experts in crisis management and business continuity Bryghtpath, expects climate change and its associated risks will have a growing impact on IT resilience and business continuity in the coming years. "We'll see impacts from physical risks like flooding and a continued increase in extreme weather events. There will be changes in how we think about using power, water and other natural resources. It will impact large data centers and other technologies that use these resources," Strawser told me. What business leaders should consider When assessing risk from climate change, business leaders must consider a wide range of impacts. There are urgent short-term issues, like intense rainfall and cyclones, and chronic long-term problems like rising sea levels and temperature increases. But with the right partners and resilience plans, business can successfully manage the challenges climate disruption will bring. Dealing with each issue in isolation is unworkable because of the sheer number of events that could pose a threat. Strawser advises that instead, work out a comprehensive IT resilience program aligned with your business continuity plans. "It's critical your C-suite and board have good visibility of the overall resilience program. Align the program with the organization's sustainability strategy and goals to ensure unified effort across the organization," Strawser says. Raising the environmental standard of business While IT infrastructure's contribution to carbon emissions is comparatively small, there is a role for IT managers and leaders in establishing sustainability frameworks internally around things like IT procurement, choosing data centers and adopting other solutions that reduce emissions. Mike Davis, Executive Business Consultant at business and IT consultancy Waterstons, highlights the role of meeting international standards. "ICT managers should encourage and take part in organizational compliance with standards like ISO 14001, which covers practical tools to manage environmental responsibilities, and ISO 50001, for energy management." He adds, "[Companies should] consider supporting change to their organization's fundamental stakeholder value proposition by seeking B Corp membership or something similar." B Corporations are certified as meeting high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. IT climate risk is risk on a new scale No two organizations will take the same approach to securing their IT infrastructure, as the exact climate change resilience strategies are unique to an organization's own risks. For some enterprises, data centers will need extra protection or relocating, while others may need strengthened alternative communication lines to ensure backup is available in areas prone to weather disruption. Join forces with others One company may have a limited impact on the global climate, but efforts amplify when organizations work together to build up industry capabilities and technologies. Spending time and money researching new and improved ways to construct IT infrastructure can pay dividends by reducing risk long-term. Luis Neves, CEO of Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative (GeSI,) supporting IT firms to act sustainably, believes we must encourage a new wave of research and development "centered on climate-resilient innovation, aiming to generate energy-efficient gadgets and components fit for forecasted climate circumstances and to promote ICT user and sector adaptation." Neves also thinks, "This could spur new learning processes inside the industry and help it adapt to climate change by increasing flexibility and diversity." Getting fast responses right For businesses that don't set up a clear and comprehensive strategy to address IT resilience issues, unforeseen weather episodes can cause far more damage than for those who create a plan when climate change-driven events strike. Neves says Deutsche Telekom shows how an organization should respond to devastating damage to IT infrastructure. Extensive flooding in Germany in July 2021 destroyed or damaged much IT infrastructure, with around 250,000 people losing mobile network connection. Deutsche Telekom immediately set up a fast reaction team and four-phase plan. First, they created a single point of truth for customer help, then tackled technical and network disaster recovery. Finally, they set up a company-wide emergency team. With catastrophic weather events growing in frequency, business must adapt to a new normal where damage to IT infrastructure is common. Through comprehensive planning, they can be more competitive and ensure the availability of life-saving communication lines. "These effects are already felt and will only worsen," says Neves of GeSI. "Long-term plans that address national priorities for sustainable development and progress toward international commitments will be crucial."
data cooling center

How Ireland is using waste heat from data centers to warm homes

  • min read
    • Home to the physical servers that keep the Cloud aloft, data centers have become vital pieces of global IT infrastructure. These centers now provide computing horsepower for billions of connected devices. But our digitized world needs a lot of energy to function. Data centers consume over 1 percent of the world's electricity. With thousands of servers to run and keep cool, large data centers can use as much electricity as a small city. Ireland's favorable geography and regulation have so far attracted over 70 data centers, powering global Cloud services for tech giants like Microsoft and TikTok. Managing the energy footprint of data centers is a challenge that will only grow. Ireland's energy regulator says data centers could use almost 30 percent of the country's electricity by 2027, endangering climate goals. Adding to the energy toll, over 75 percent of data center electricity becomes waste heat. Could the way data centers act like giant radiators help reduce some of their climate impact? Data centers make great heaters Ireland's weather is famously cold and wet at almost any time of year. Keeping homes and businesses warm, mostly using gas or oil boilers, makes up nearly a third of Ireland's carbon emissions. For John O'Shea, Energy Systems Analyst at Dublin energy agency Codema, the synergy between Ireland's heating needs and its data centers' waste heat is clear. "In winter, a data center can provide heating up to 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius) similar to a gas boiler, with better energy efficiency than a heat pump in a new house." O'Shea and his team are part of the Tallaght District Heating Scheme through the EU-funded Heat Net project. And it's on track to turn data center heat waste into a sustainable heat source for the Dublin suburb's homes and businesses. From 2022, water cooling servers in Tallaght's Amazon Web Services (AWS) data center will be upcycled through a new district heating network. A new way to approach an old solution As a way to heat buildings collectively in urban areas, district heating schemes are nothing new. In Scandinavia, the 1970s oil crisis made sustainable heating a priority for urban planners. In Copenhagen, almost 95 percent of heating comes from reused waste heat from factories and other heat emitters. Although data centers have been used to power existing district heating networks in Scandinavia, Tallaght might be first to build a new heating network around a data center. Using data center waste heat to provide low cost, sustainable heating is a rare win-win climate solution. O'Shea says, "From phase one, we'll save 1,500 tonnes of CO2 each year by using something that's otherwise vented into the atmosphere." He thinks the solution has global potential, pointing to a paper he co-authored showing unconventional heat sources like data centers could provide 10 percent of the EU's total heating and hot water. With efficient heating comes efficient cooling The district heating program also helps reduce another big environmental impact of data centers: Water use. Many data centers use evaporated water to cool servers. At peak times, one data center can use over a million liters of water a day. In return for transferring waste heat to the network, the center gets cooler water back, reducing or even removing the need for evaporation cooling. O'Shea says the system's benefits go even further. "Because our network is always monitoring heat output, we've got an extra set of eyes on the health of the data center cooling system." This extra monitoring could save money and hardware damage – a recent study of 41 data centers by leading digital infrastructure provider Vertiv found the average cost of a downtime event was over 506,000 US dollars. The most common cause was power or cooling failures. Beyond district heating Paul Deane, a researcher fellow at Ireland's MaREI Environment Research Institute, agrees the Tallaght heating solution has big potential but notes combining data centers with district heating "is not a magic bullet." Deane points out that in Ireland alone, data centers may contribute "around 1 million tonnes [of C02] each year by 2030." He thinks data center energy use demands a combined approach. "We need proactive solutions like district heating and other measures like greater renewable energy use and carbon offsetting." Some in the Irish parliament have described growing numbers of data centers when the government is reaffirming its commitment to a carbon-neutral future as "out of control," but Deane sees a silver lining. "You can look at data centers in two ways: As part of the problem or part of the solution. I like to look at them as a solution." He adds, "We need data centers, but we also need them to be cleaner." For Deane, proactive solutions like Tallaght's district heating system are a step in the right direction. With free heat from an industrial by-product and dramatically reduced CO2 emissions and water use, it's hard to argue with that.

Recycled plastic rocket fuel has lift-off in waste-free space

  • min read
    • The space rocket was once thought an achievement of human ingenuity so grand that the pollutants it generated were hardly considered. But now we're seeing several launches a month, their carbon dioxide (CO2) output is adding up. Scottish space company Skyrora thinks it's found an answer: A high-grade fuel manufactured from petrochemicals sourced from previously unrecyclable plastics. They believe Ecosene, a fuel similar to kerosene, could disrupt the fossil fuel economy. Recycling plastics isn't the solution many of us imagine as we dutifully rinse our milk and shampoo bottles. A paper published in Science Advances estimates we're recycling less than nine percent of plastic at the end of its life, and encouraging more recycling can't address the reasons for the low rate of plastic recycling. In 2015, a paper in the journal Science estimated that up to eight million tons of plastic enter the oceans each year. The Ocean Conservancy calculates seas will contain 250 million tons of plastic by 2030. A proven eco-fuel I spoke to Derek Harris, Business Operations Manager at Skyrora. "We need a way to extend the life cycle of plastics – one that doesn't include burying or burning them," Harris explains. "We developed the first batch of Ecosene at a small test facility in Slovakia, turning about a ton of unrecyclable plastic into about 600kg of high-performance fuel for rockets or commercial jet aircraft." That's enough for an efficient jet to fly over 24,000 passenger kilometers – further than London Heathrow to Auckland, New Zealand. Skyrora's engine test using its Ecosene fuel To further reduce aviation's footprint, Skyrora hopes to make a transportable system called a 'skid' that allows processing materials to make Ecosene at airports. Making the eco fuel at its site of use would cut another environmental cost of aviation: Transporting fuel from where it's made to where it's needed. Manufacturing innovation meets recycling breakthrough "We use plastics like polystyrene, polyester and polypropylene that are usually unrecyclable when clean," Harris clarifies. "Ecosene's production process means we can even use unclean waste plastics." Mixed plastics, some harder to recycle than others, and unclean plastics, are barriers to effective plastic disposal and recycling, which has motivated some countries to burn plastic waste, releasing pollutants into the air. Being able to use unclean plastics stands this eco-fuel apart as a recycling option. The fuel's developers have produced plans for marine vehicles that would collect plastic waste from oceans and perform the first step in the Ecosene manufacturing process onboard. The vessels would then transport the waste to nearby facilities for the next steps to convert the plastics to eco-fuel. Manufacturing petrochemical fuel can produce damaging waste, which Ecosene also addresses. "Processes similar to Ecosene production release harmful gases, but we use these for heating, recycling some of the waste within the manufacturing process." Ecosene also contains less sulfur than the form of kerosene rockets use (RP-1 kerosene.) As an atmospheric pollutant, sulfur causes respiratory disease, acid rain and tree and crop damage. Others have tried to recycle petrochemical plastics into usable fuels before, often failing because it's hard to extract excess the paraffin waxes manufacture generates. Skyrora's breakthrough was a low-temperature catalytic pyrolysis process that separates the paraffin waxes, leaving an effective eco-fuel. Too good to be true? Ecosene boasts more commercial competitiveness and environmental effectiveness than fuels from other energy companies. Having followed Ecosene's journey from inception to testing to launch, I had to ask Harris if it was all too good to be true. He told me, "Before I agreed to take over the Ecosene project from Skyrora, I wanted to see the process working and tested. 21 tests later, including an upper-stage rocket engine for low-earth orbital missions and support, we found Ecosene was one to three percent better than kerosene in energy characteristics. Their claims stood up to scrutiny, and there were signs we could further improve the formula." Harris continued, "That said, I wouldn't claim it's the ultimate solution to the plastic waste crisis. We must address the climate crisis at source, but in the meantime, we've found a strategy to address one of its many symptoms." With hydrogen and biofuels on the rise, Ecosene will see its share of competitors. While reliable and designed to address plastics mitigation at its core, Ecosene is still a CO2-producing fuel that can't contribute to carbon neutrality targets. But hydrogen fuels and engines struggle to produce the power needed for flight: Airbus says their commercial hydrogen jets would be ready to fly around 2035. In the meantime, in rockets and jets, Ecosene makes a compelling replacement for traditional kerosene.
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