Many products that we use every day -- from shampoo to antifreeze to packaged foods to electronics to textiles and building materials -- are made more durable, more lightweight, and even waterproof using a popular petrochemical called ethylene. Essentially it's everywhere. And it emits a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Researchers at the University of Toronto (tip o' the cap to our Canadian friends!) have developed a process of creating ethylene without emitting the CO2, and they're using only renewable energy in the manufacturing process.
This is a great example of keeping what's right with a product and eliminating what's wrong with it. We don't always have to do without something in order to make progress. We just have to go about it differently.
“For every tonne of ethylene, one to two tonnes of carbon dioxide are emitted through the conventional manufacturing process,” says Dr Christine Gabardo, a former postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto, who is pioneering a breakthrough innovation that makes ethylene without fossil fuels and is ready to scale it up commercially.
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