6 amazing developments to solve environmental problems

1. Mist collector for drinking water production

Not everyone has access to clean drinking water. Now from this suffer 771 million people, that is, approximately every tenth inhabitant of the Earth. Researchers suggest that due to climate change, the situation will only get worse: by 2025, 50% of the world's population will be in areas experiencing water shortages.

One solution to this problem could be fog catchers. For example, The CloudFisher, developed by The Water Foundation together with German industrial designer Peter Trautwein. Externally, this installation resembles an advertising banner - a steel frame with supports, to which a fine-mesh three-dimensional mesh clings. She is the one responsible for collecting water. By passing fog through it, the net catches the droplets and then sends them into the reservoir. Such structures can be installed several in a row.

It is possible to use The CloudFisher in any location where fog is common, including in the mountains. The water catcher is not afraid of wind - it can withstand even a flow speed of 120 km/h. By the way, the installation was tested at height: in 2013 it was placed on the top of Butmezgid in Morocco. Tests have shown that the fog catcher is capable of collecting up to 600 liters of absolutely clean water in one day.

2. Air purification tower for smog

Smog is a common phenomenon in cities. He appears due to the use of fuel in factories and transport, fires and construction. It consists of fine particles, carbon monoxide, soot and other harmful elements.

An original solution for clearing space from smog was proposed by Dutch designer Daan Roosegaard. Together with his team, he launched the Smog Free Project and created a seven-meter tower Smog Free Tower. The installation works on the principle of a home air purifier, but in enhanced mode: it can handle 30 cubic meters in an hour. The tower, of course, is not capable of correcting the situation in the entire city, but it is quite capable of creating a small area with perfectly clean air in a park or a busy square. Smog Free Tower has already visited South Korea, China, Mexico and a number of other countries. Her journey began in Rotterdam. By the way, from the collected smog the company created jewelry rings, or rather the stone for them is a transparent cube, inside of which a smaller black cube is hidden. Previously, they could be purchased to support the development of the project, but the supply has run out - now the rings can actually be seen in museums, including the National Museum of Zurich and the City Museum of Amsterdam.

3. Breeding wax moths for plastic recycling

Plastic is a strong and durable material that is used everywhere. But his stability also has unpleasant consequences: on his own he decomposes hundreds of years. And even during this period, it is difficult for plastic to disappear completely: in the process, microparticles remain that penetrate into the soil, water and air, and then into the bodies of living organisms. Including humans: they have already been found in the lungs, liver, kidneys of adults and even in the placenta of newborns. At the same time, the amount of plastic waste is constantly growing: every year in landfills of the planet is added about 400 million tons.

It is not yet possible to completely abandon this material, but the solution to the problem may be its high-quality processing. An unusual tool for this task found seventh grade student at the Skolkovo gymnasium Yuri Melnikov. The student proposes to entrust the destruction of plastic waste to wax moths. This insect loves to eat wax, but can also consume polyethylene, converting it into alcohol during digestion. Together with his biology teacher, Yuri has already tested his idea: a specially bred population of moth larvae successfully dined on the remains of waste from a plastic recycling plant in Velikiye Luki. Melnikov presented his developments this year at the Startup Village 2023 conference. In September, he received Skolkovo resident status; the project called “Eat Polymer” became a full-fledged startup and is now preparing to receive a grant for a patent.

4. Plastic-like material from greenhouse gases for air purification

Another solution to the problem of oversaturation of the planet with plastic is environmentally friendly alternatives. Many researchers are searching for such material. One of the unusual options is the development of the American company Newlight Technologies - AirCarbon. This is a polyhydroxybutyrate resin that is created literally out of thin air. The technology is as follows:

1. Developers first collect methane, one of the greenhouse gases, in places from which it often enters the atmosphere - energy production plants, landfills, water treatment plants.
2. Then it is placed in a reactor along with air, water and a special biocatalyst.
3. The catalyst extracts oxygen, hydrogen and carbon from this mix, and then solders them into a thermoplastic polymer molecule.

Thus, AirCarbon combats two problems at once: air pollution and the abundance of plastic. The material is real apply for creating both thin polyethylene film and large plastic parts or even fabrics. The main thing is that it is “green” at all stages of its life cycle, as it decomposes naturally.

5. A huge network to clean the ocean of garbage

Plastic accumulates not only in landfills, but also in the world's oceans. Every year in the water turns out about 8–10 million tons of bottles, bags and other waste made from this material. Such pollution harms the lives of fish, animals, and nature in general.

One way to clear the ocean of debris is to set up a net to catch it. This method in 2012 offered Dutch inventor Boyan Slat speaking at TEDx. Then he was just a school graduate, and personal experience prompted him to become interested in this issue. While on vacation in Greece, the guy was diving and was amazed to see more plastic than fish. Slat did not like the use of special vessels and mechanisms for targeted catching of bottles, because they would not only be beneficial, but also harmful. And he suggested using the help of the ocean itself, or rather, its current: identifying the points where garbage accumulates, installing a U-shaped barrier with a mesh there, and then just wait.

At first, Slat’s idea was not appreciated, but he did not give up and six months later he launched his own company The Ocean Cleanup. And things took off: in 2013, the idea went viral, the project acquired a team and received funding through crowdfunding. The first scavenger hunt took place in 2021. Since then, the project has caught several hundred tons of bottles, containers and other items. By the way, the networks were developed with care for the inhabitants of the ocean. Small animals like plankton can easily swim through the cells, but for large ones they installed special mechanisms that give signals warning of the need to move in another direction. If a dolphin or seal suddenly swims into the net, thermal cameras will report this and the organizers will help the animals free themselves through the rescue holes.

6. Transparent material with solar panel function to save electricity

Classic sources of electricity that are used at stations, such as coal, gas or oil, cause significant harm to the environment. For 1 GWh they allocate from 490 to 820 tons of greenhouse gases. Inexhaustible resources like the Sun are much safer - the figure here is only 5 tons. To collect and processing energy from its rays usually use flat-plate semiconductor batteries that install on the roofs. Such devices are often black, so they are quite noticeable in the exterior. But there is a more aesthetic way to receive solar energy - a transparent luminescent solar concentrator. Like this in 2014 developed University of Michigan researchers. Scientists have added biomolecules to it that can collect energy from the sun's rays and then convert it into electricity. Such a battery can be installed on the windows of houses and cars, or even on smartphone screens.

A similar idea is used by the Californian company Ubiquitous Energy. They called their photovoltaic material UE Power. Windows with this coating are already installed in some buildings, including the Ubiquitous Energy office in Redwood City and the Japanese glass company Nippon Sheet Glass Co. in Northwood (Ohio).