Hi there HN community, we’re Haakon, Hans Arne and Kris, co-founders of Carbon Crusher (https://www.carboncrusher.io). We are increasing and scaling a technology and project that refurbishes roads in a carbon negative plot.
Roads with cracks and bumps are on the total a results of unstable floor under the highway surface. There are at the moment many ways of repairing such roads, all that are polluting. You would possibly want to presumably commerce the total highway, or mill up and reclaim sides of the highway and bind it alongside with a substance with “glue-adore” properties corresponding to bitumen, or you also can add new asphalt, concrete or gravel on top of the cracks and bumps, then you’ll probably derive the identical cracks and bumps a year later, since this doesn’t stabilize the soil under.
Our formula is an enhanced, new plot of full depth reclamation, with two well-known advantages:
1) Our proprietary constructed Crusher can bite and crush aesthetic grand all the pieces including stone and mountain surfaces, which plot we enact no longer possess to extract, transport and add any new tons and could also re-use the total highway, even in rugged terrain adore mountainside Norway.
2) Our binder. It’s based totally totally on lignin, a ruin product from the paper industry, constituting around 1/3 of the volumes from timber. The extensive majority of lignin is burnt, we slay use of it as a binder in our roads as a change, binding the carbon absorbed by the timber from the air. Our binder has no negative impact on vegetation, animals, folks or tools. It is certainly so innocent that our take a look at-pilot Hans Arne on the total takes a sip of it to recount it to our customers and opponents! But it no doubt does no longer taste very appropriate..
Here you gape a video of our Crusher crushing extensive rocks (thrown in by Hans Arne): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O1uWT5PARDWWHshac128hhv1tRk…
Together, this leads to roughly 20% lower cost when when in contrast with used programs, roads that on moderate final longer between every time they need repairs, and a reduction of Co2 equivalents from ~7-10kg sure to 5kg negative pr m2, or roughly 1 tonne rep negative per 60 feet we refurbish, of a 2 lane highway.
We are innovating to crimson meat up effectivity and the carbon enact of every and every the Crusher and the binder. For the Crusher we’re engaged on making it smarter to boot as to being extremely fantastic, with more and smarter sensor tech and from being dragged in the support of a tractor in direction of being self enough, which could well also extend effectivity by 40-50%. For the binder we’re experimenting with new mixtures to store more CO2, including to the lignin immoral we use now. We are having a possess a study a differ of new biological additions corresponding to masses of forms of refined lignin, masses of carbon negative materials and doubtlessly programmable carbon negative molecules that can mimic the favorable binding properties, and we plot for a 5x extend in carbon grab effectivity within a few years.
We’re three native climate vikings from Norway with fine hearts, sure collectively from earlier tech adventures. Kris dropped out of faculty at age 19 to stumbled on his first instrument company, and met his hardware match Hans on one more project 10 years in the past. Kris invested when Haakon co-based Katapult and started scaling sustainability and tech companies 6 years in the past, and early final year all of us excitedly made up our minds to affix forces to form Carbon Crusher. The very first highway though, refurbished with our formula, became as soon as made 14 years support in Hans Arnes place of origin, “Heart Valley” in Norway. Having the skill at the present time to drive, touch it and gape how appropriate it gentle is, is a fine outlandish competitive edge for us and that our contemporary customers admire. Even when volumes had been restricted to this point it’s appropriate to moreover possess actual contemporary totally delighted customers (municipalities, cities, counties and a few business companies) as ambassadors, as the highway industry is terribly conservative; now we possess in most cases struggled with being nicknamed “the tree glue folks”….
To scale our impact sooner, we’re engaged on changing from one off refined initiatives where we enact the total refurbishment provider for our customers, public or non-public highway homeowners, in direction of a crushing as a provider mannequin with longer term contracts, licensing of tech to contractors and no longer more folks and hardware alive to from our side.
On the product expansion side, we’re at the moment most entertaining about increasing instrument the utilization of satellite tv for pc imagery that can video display highway well being and title restore wants for highway homeowners successfully and provides rapid quotes and Co2 financial savings doable, we name it “SkyRoads”. Extra, we’re engaged on new complementary highway tech that can crimson meat up and add to the carbon doable from our resolution. This involves sustainable top layers and shooting and dissemination of energy captured by the roads.
We would truly like to re-fetch the formula we are expecting in regards to the 44 million miles of roads covering our planet, at the moment emitting over 400 million tonnes CO2 each and every year in building and maintenance, ultimately more thru heat reflection. Our plot would be to 5x the carbon reduction doable of our contemporary resolution, the utilization of roads as a platform for a bunch of applied sciences on carbon reduction. On an annual basis, that could be 2 Gt each and every year. It’s a extraordinarily conservative industry with restricted innovation, particularly on the native climate side, and we are expecting about any individual wants to slay these stretched targets.
All this inspires us; to slay our planet’s roads, which is on the total neglected in native climate dialogue, a allotment of the resolution. This will probably also unbiased require hardware, biotech and instrument innovation, and that excites us. If we be triumphant, our grunt and oblique carbon impact will make a contribution in a meaningful technique to our shared native climate challenges.
We are extensive infected to initiate this and be allotment of the YC community. With a cramped bit of luck this put up gave you some new hobby in sustainable highway tech. Please enact attain out with any questions and we’ll strive our handiest to reply! You are moreover more than welcome to realize us moreover by e-mail any time on contact@carboncrushing.com. Thanks!