After what has felt like a very long time, the end of 2020 has come at last! It’s been a year of trials and accomplishments. This week, we’re going to focus on the accomplishments by highlighting some environmental inventions created this year (which were also mentioned in Scientific American’s top ten innovations of 2020).
- Solar Chemical Energy – Scientists have come up with a new way to manufacture chemicals. Before, the process of creating such chemicals gave out carbon dioxide emissions, which only helped climate change.According to Javier Garcia Martinez, scientists are now using sunlight to make these chemicals from carbon dioxide instead of using harmful fossil fuels. Many companies hope to use this advancement in the future by commercializing it.
- Electric Air Travel – Electric planes are currently being developed to offset carbon emissions and reduce cost. The average airplane contributes too much carbon dioxide currently, and takes up a lot of money and time to keep up with maintenance. The new design will change all of that. The innovation has a lot of progress that needs to happen before humans can get rid of the old design, but many aviation companies are working hard to have these planes ready to fly in a few years.
- Sustainable Cement – Unless you live in a rural area, you only need to look out your window to see cement. It makes up our driveways, buildings, sidewalks, and more. According to Scientific American, the creation of cement contributes up to 8 percent total of carbon dioxide emissions. Change will be difficult since so much of the material is used, but low carbon approaches are already being found. Scientists are creating concrete that absorbs carbon dioxide instead of emitting it. Other companies are using alternative fuels from waste.
- Hydrogen – Hydrogen has been eyed for years as a way to get rid of carbon emissions. The problem? Fossil fuels become exposed to steam in order to create hydrogen. It’s hardly a zero-emission energy source. Researchers are finding a way around that through the process of electrolysis, where machines split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Electrolysis is nowhere near ready to be used in industries, but countries are investing in it in the hopes it will be used soon.
Those are the four important advances to note of the year! If you want to know more, check out Scientific American’s magazine issue for December 2020. It has a ton of interesting articles and many non environmental related advances that I think are pretty cool!