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Boosting bee health with natural supplements
CategoriesSustainable News

Boosting bee health with natural supplements

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Bees pollinate 70 of the 100 main human food crops, making them essential to the global food supply chain. Yet two human actions, the application of pesticides and the destruction of insect habitats, have put the world’s bee population in a precarious state.  

Bees are struggling against a variety of factors, including new and more rigorous bacteria and viruses, and the global spread of intensive farming practices – all of which combine to affect their overall population health. Now, French company Oligofeed has created a dietary supplement to help bees improve their health by increasing their resilience against environmental changes. 

As habitats for pollinators have shrunk, insects must rely on fewer varieties of plants and less food overall. This leads to an internal deficiency in certain microelements. Those elements help strengthen bees’ immune systems, making them more able to withstand environmental pathogens.  

Oligofeed’s patented bee food is all-natural, non-toxic and leaves no traces in honey. The antioxidant properties of the microelements in the feed help strengthen bees’ natural immunity, thereby helping them fight off a variety of diseases and mites. Although, the Oligofeed team emphasises that the supplement is meant to be used as part of a beekeeper’s health regime for hives, not as a replacement for anti-mite treatment. 

Designed as a preventive treatment given three times a year during the seasons when bees are not pollinating, the food is mixed in with a sugar supplement. The supplement is given in syrup form during spring and autumn and as a patty during the winter. When tested on different subspecies of bees across four countries, the food revealed no side effects and no toxicity and by improving the general strength of a beehive’s health, also improved overall honey production.  

Oligofeed’s product is not yet commercially available, although beekeepers interested in trialling the food can get in touch to take part in further field tests. 

Springwise’s library includes a number of ways in which technology is helping bees complete their essential work of pollinating crops, from supporting them via electric vehicle pollination to supplements that encourage pollination of a more diverse set of crops.

Written By: Keely Khoury

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A modular system for boosting biogas production from waste
CategoriesSustainable News

A modular system for boosting biogas production from waste

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Organic waste makes up a huge proportion of all municipal waste, with around 17 per cent of global food production going to waste at the retail, restaurant, or household level. But what if that food wasn’t all wasted? What if some of it could be turned into renewable energy? That is the question being answered by New Zealand clean-tech startup Cetogenix. 

Cetogenix has designed a modular system for breaking down organic waste to generate renewable energy and other useful by-products, such as fertilisers and biodegradable plastics. The company’s technology uses a combination of chemical and microbial processes, which can be located at source and easily scaled. 

The flagship product, called CETO-Boost, is currently under development. When complete, it will allow a 40 per cent increase in the production of renewable natural gas from anaerobic digestion plants. It will also be capable of being retrofitted, and the company has identified more than 15,000 anaerobic digester plants that could benefit from this retrofitting. 

Cetogenix secured $4.5 million(around €4.1 million) in a 2022 seed funding round led by deep-tech investor Pacific Channel, with support from angel investors. The investment is being used to scale up the company’s technology and enable global deployment, with an initial focus on Europe and North America. 

This technology aims to tackle both organic waste and natural gas issues at the same time. In the archive, Springwise has spotted other methods for tackling these issues, including turning organic waste into bio-plastic and using methane pyrolysis to generate green hydrogen.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

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Boosting science research with day-to-day spending
CategoriesSustainable News

Boosting science research with day-to-day spending

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: As the world continues to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, spending on the sciences is again a hot topic as governments work to decide which areas of research to fund and with how much money. In the UK, the government has announced almost £3.5 billion for use in developing supercomputing capabilities, regional innovation accelerators, and workforce skills for the next generation of jobs.

For citizens interested in science, a new bank card offers a way to get involved in the latest research. Called the Science Card, the current account and Mastercard debit card allows members to round-up everyday expenditure to support research projects.

There are two levels of membership available. The Standard account is free, while the premium ‘Fusion’ account costs £19.90 per month. The company is currently working on a new perk for Fusion account holders – the ability to become partial owners of the intellectual property (IP) of a new project. Depending on the commercial success of a project, IP owners could earn passive income for an extended period of time.

Cardholders use the app to explore available research projects and choose which ones to support, either with a direct payment or via micro-grants from rounding up common expenses. The company itself dedicates 10 per cent of its profits to scientific research. Cardholders also receive more conventional benefits such as immersive spending data, and the company plans to offer cashback on certain sales, including books, coffee, and software.

Other positive impact cards spotted by Springwise include a card that provides cashback on environmentally friendly products, a debit card that lets users fund tree-planting as they spend, and a card that powers the circular economy.

Written By: Keely Khoury

Reference

Boosting electric vehicle batteries with seaweed
CategoriesSustainable News

Boosting electric vehicle batteries with seaweed

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: The more we improve fossil-fuel-free vehicles, the greener the transportation sector will become. And, according to The University of Glasgow’s School of Chemistry, Scottish-grown seaweed may be the unlikely key holder to making electric vehicles (EVs) more enticing for buyers. More specifically, the team is currently testing whether it will help improve the life span and charge time of lithium-ion batteries, used to power EVs. 

A material found in brown seaweed might help develop batteries using silicon instead of graphite. Although graphite is a central component of a lithium-ion battery, it can only store a limited amount of charge and has a restricted lifespan. Replacing it, then, is vital to improving the charging capacity, with silicone being suggested as a viable alternative. The only issue is that when silicon is used on its own, it damages the battery quickly. So, to couple an increased need to store energy with an increased battery lifespan, the team have created a prototype that combines silicone with a material in seaweed. 

“Battery technology is going to play a hugely important role in our transition away from fossil fuels. Electric vehicles, renewable energy production, national grids and other critical elements of a net zero future will depend on having batteries that can store large amounts of energy in the smallest volumes possible and with extended lifetimes,” said Professor Duncan Gregory, chair in Inorganic Materials at the University of Glasgow’s School of Chemistry. 

Using funding from the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC), the team has so far produced a prototype the size of a watch battery, with tests showing promising results. To prove that seaweed can boost charging capacity, the researchers are now looking towards making a larger battery to test the technology at scale. 

Springwise has previously spotted other innovations that aim to improve electric vehicles (EVS), including a 3D-printed prototype that could improve EV engine efficiency and a battery manufacturer that makes EVs less likely to catch on fire.

Written By: Georgia King

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