Awesome, impactful concept, this can be huge! Now comes the challenge of scaling
Thanks! We are hard at work at our hyper scale mode these days and looking for team members that can help us on the road to carbon negativeness.
Launch HN: Carbon Crusher (YC W22) – Carbon Negative Roads
41–50 of 96 posts
Re: Launch HN: Carbon Crusher (YC W22) – Carbon Negative Roads
#42Very cool stuff. How far are you along with "SkyRoads"? Monitoring roads with the spatial resolution you would need sounds quite expensive. Though if it is for quotes on a per-request biases or once a year it might be more suitable.
Thanks a lot! We are in closed beta mode right now. Yes you are on point here. As premium surveillance feature will add this to the cost per m2 / mile road, the monthly price will depend on the number of pictures for our customer and it will cost extra for e.g. hyperspectral satellite images. For per-request quotes we are trying to find a suitable way to make it work so we can cover the cost. All thoughts / inputs appreciated :)
Re: Launch HN: Carbon Crusher (YC W22) – Carbon Negative Roads
#43I love this idea. I really hope your technology is more widely adopted.
Thanks a lot! So do we :)
Re: Launch HN: Carbon Crusher (YC W22) – Carbon Negative Roads
#44This is really cool, congrats and good luck!
Thanks a lot for that! :)
Re: Launch HN: Carbon Crusher (YC W22) – Carbon Negative Roads
#45You're going to get a lot of flak (and deservedly so) for the copy 'carbon negative roads'. Sure your process is less carbon intensive than traditional methods of making roads, but repaving roads directly enables a significant source of carbon emission, which dwarfs the carbon emissions of constructing the road itself. The optics aren't good.
Figure out how to mix red dye in with your binder and pave a bike lane.
Re: Launch HN: Carbon Crusher (YC W22) – Carbon Negative Roads
#46How are you saying this is carbon negative? Don't get me wrong the process is impressive and very cool, but the marketing around it just feels scammy. -5kg of carbon per m2? How? The lignin based binder absorbs more carbon from the air after it is placed into the road? I may be misreading but it seems like these numbers are based on the amount of carbon in the lignin itself (i.e. since it isn't burned which would be…
> -5kg of carbon per m2? How? The lignin based binder absorbs more carbon from the air after it is placed into the road? I may be misreading but it seems like these numbers are based on the amount of carbon in the lignin itself (i.e. since it isn't burned which would be positive, you can count it as negative as it is not burned)
Replace the lignin with some fantastical material that contains no carbon and requires no carbon to produce, and after it is laid on the road it quickly absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere equivalent to the amount of carbon that lignin contains.
Would you say that is carbon negative?
Re: Launch HN: Carbon Crusher (YC W22) – Carbon Negative Roads
#47How are you saying this is carbon negative? Don't get me wrong the process is impressive and very cool, but the marketing around it just feels scammy. -5kg of carbon per m2? How? The lignin based binder absorbs more carbon from the air after it is placed into the road? I may be misreading but it seems like these numbers are based on the amount of carbon in the lignin itself (i.e. since it isn't burned which would be…
> -5kg of carbon per m2? How? The lignin based binder absorbs more carbon from the air after it is placed into the road? I may be misreading but it seems like these numbers are based on the amount of carbon in the lignin itself (i.e. since it isn't burned which would be positive, you can count it as negative as it is not burned) Replace the lignin with some fantastical material that contains no carbon and requires no…
Nope.
Nor is buying a bunch of stuff at the store that you don’t need just because it’s 35% off retail price “saving money”.
Cash flow positive is not losing money slower, it’s making more than you spend. Carbon negative absorbs more carbon than you spend. Including in chopping up an old road and recycling it, which is going to take a lot of power.
If I had a box that you plugged in that was actually carbon negative and I forgot I left it running while I was on vacation, I would not feel guilty. If doing nothing results in less carbon emissions than doing something, it’s not negative.
Re: Launch HN: Carbon Crusher (YC W22) – Carbon Negative Roads
#48How are you saying this is carbon negative? Don't get me wrong the process is impressive and very cool, but the marketing around it just feels scammy. -5kg of carbon per m2? How? The lignin based binder absorbs more carbon from the air after it is placed into the road? I may be misreading but it seems like these numbers are based on the amount of carbon in the lignin itself (i.e. since it isn't burned which would be…
This was my first reaction as well. I think the subtext is that the byproduct is currently being burned as a fuel source, which is common for things like sawdust in mills. So there's one aspect of this calculation that could be waaay off. If the mills that would have burned this byproduct in a boiler are selling it instead, they'll need another energy source for their boilers! If that energy source is a fossil fuel instead of a wood byproduct, then this "upcycling" has inadvertently become carbon positive (or perhaps neutral at best). And it will be a lot easier to retrofit an industrial boiler for natural gas than to convert it to electric. Even if it were electric, most of the world does not remotely have as clean a grid as Norway's. So it would be some decades before any carbon advantage emerges.
Re: Launch HN: Carbon Crusher (YC W22) – Carbon Negative Roads
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
OP says the lignin is "a waste product from the paper industry" and "majority of lignin is burnt". So it sounds like: currently, grow tree (pulling carbon from the atmosphere), process for paper industry, burn the resulting lignin, carbon returns to atmosphere. With this process: grow tree, process for paper industry, embed lignin in road material. If the lignin remains in the road more-or-less permanently (I asked a…
Yes exactly, that's how we think about it. We are using nature's own capture machine, trees... thanks for this clear explanation :)
Except the current use of the byproduct is not just flaring it off pointlessly as waste. The byproduct is being burned as a fuel, which in that usage is already (nearly) neutral. If an alternative fuel has to be used instead, that fuel is more than likely going to be natural gas or coal.
Re: Launch HN: Carbon Crusher (YC W22) – Carbon Negative Roads
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
> -5kg of carbon per m2? How? The lignin based binder absorbs more carbon from the air after it is placed into the road? I may be misreading but it seems like these numbers are based on the amount of carbon in the lignin itself (i.e. since it isn't burned which would be positive, you can count it as negative as it is not burned) Replace the lignin with some fantastical material that contains no carbon and requires no…
Nope. Nor is buying a bunch of stuff at the store that you don’t need just because it’s 35% off retail price “saving money”. Cash flow positive is not losing money slower, it’s making more than you spend. Carbon negative absorbs more carbon than you spend. Including in chopping up an old road and recycling it, which is going to take a lot of power. If I had a box that you plugged in that was actually carbon negative…
You don't think something that reduces net carbon in the atmosphere is carbon negative, then you're just making up your own definitions of things. Why waste everyone else's time? Seems like a hell of way to go about life.