It is 60 cm high, 50 cm wide, 30 cm deep, black and stores 3 kg of CO2 from the atmosphere. The mobile trolley case for loading up to 24 tablets from Formcase is literally a tough one. Because its housing consists of 25% technical biocarbon.
Biocarbons store CO2 up to 3.3 times its own weight. The biocarbon is refined, mixed with plastics and additives in compounders and delivered to manufacturers of plastic parts as ready-to-use granules. The granules are developed by carbonauten polymers, a division of carbonauten GmbH.
World premiere gives sustainable education a whole new meaning
“The collaboration with Formcase and their long-standing injection molder Plastmeccanica from Italy was exemplary,” sums up Cris Hedesiu, head of carbonauten polymers. “We have achieved a technical world premiere with the minus CO2 product. That was also due to the enthusiasm of Plastmeccanica.”. Formcase boss Joachim Laub is convinced: “The case is used in schools, universities and companies. This gives sustainable education a whole new meaning.”
At this year’s DIDACTA, the largest German education fair, the minus CO2 charging case was presented to the public for the first time from March 7th, 2023 to March 11th, 2023 in Stuttgart.
VIDEO: Carbonaut founder Torsten Becker @ Greentech.LIVE Conference & Expo (SPRING 2023 Edition)
Carbonation as a solution to reduce greenhouse gases
The German climate start-up “carbonauten – the minus CO2 factory” has set itself the goal of reducing greenhouse gases in the range of gigatonnes worldwide. This is achieved through the carbonization (industrial charring) of biomass residues into technical biocarbons. This is because biomass only stores the CO2 actively extracted from the atmosphere by plants for a short to medium term.
The technical biocarbons produced by carbonauten, on the other hand, are stable for several thousand years. “Regenerative” instead of “Sustainable”. carbonauten does not lock away the generated biocarbons, but uses them as a raw material for minus CO2 products.
The demand for minus CO2 is high
carbonauten polymers specialize in the development and production of ready-to-use masterbatches and compounds. These are plastic granules highly filled with technical biocarbons. This improves many of the properties of the plastics, reduces costs and maintains their recyclability. Permanently stable or biodegradable polymers and biopolymers can be used as a basis. The granules are processed like other plastics, which makes defossilization easy for producers and, for the first time, economically attractive.
The plastics industry’s medium-term need for CO2-negative polymers with improved properties at low prices is in the 6-digit tonne range. The carbonauten polymers division is in initial talks with investors so that these capacities can be created at decentralized locations worldwide as quickly as possible.