Clean Tech: 2022 Trends and Innovations

Clean tech includes clean and sustainable energy sources, products, and services. The hallmark of clean technologies is that the positive properties and benefits are greatly increased, while the negative properties are significantly reduced.

Clean technologies have two goals. First, the ideas in this category must solve problems effectively. These problems are usually large-scale, if not global. Second, clean technology solutions must be financially attractive. They must draw investors and garner the support of clients who may be susceptible.

There are many industries in which clean technology solutions can be developed. These include energy, waste management, and agriculture with the approaches regenerative farming uses. To be considered a clean technology, products and services must be more than just sustainable. High levels of productivity and efficiency should also be set as goals. Here are some of the most innovative cleantech trends to pay attention to in 2022.

Cellular Technologies in Food Production

Cellular agriculture is just one way to outsource food production. Humanity has already learned how to make meat, fish, and dairy products without the use of animals. At the same time, meat can be grown not only from animal cells. Some scientists create meat-like proteins from plants. The characteristics of these products almost entirely reproduce traditional analogs in terms of their composition. And gene editing is used to increase the yield of products.

Carbon capture, use, and storage (CCUS)

Plants are humanity’s greatest ally in the fight against climate change as they absorb carbon dioxide and turn it into oxygen. The more trees people plant, the less CO2 remains in the air to trap heat. Unfortunately, plants require so much water and land that it is time for a person to look for a new ally that can clean the atmosphere.

The solution could be artificial photosynthesis, which mimics the natural process of plant nutrition. The technology uses carbon dioxide and water as food and sunlight as an energy source. But instead of letting them grow into branches and leaves, they produce carbon-rich products like alcohol. This process uses a particular type of solar panels that absorb light and transfer electricity to a carbon dioxide container dissolved in water. Catalysts stimulate a chemical reaction that produces oxygen and a carbon-based by-product. Oxygen is released into the air, just like with plants. Another product can be collected and stored, for example, in depleted oil fields.

Smart Cities

The concept of a smart city involves introducing hundreds of new technologies – from monitoring movements to transmitting data using light. And according to Globe News Wire, the global smart cities market is estimated to grow by half by 2025.

Among the essential characteristics of smart cities are sustainability and environmental friendliness, public participation in management, efficient use of data, the desire to improve the quality of services, and the standard of living. Automation of processes with the help of specially designed sensors and programs provides additional opportunities:

• Smart metering
• Waste management
• Smart lighting
• Eco-monitoring
• Traffic light control
• Smart parking
• Smart ticket
• Safe city

Energy-saving Technologies 

As the green tech market was reported to be worth 11.2 billion USD in 2020 and is anticipated to keep growing, more and more energy-saving technologies are being introduced. Energy-saving technologies are developed based on innovative solutions that are currently technically feasible and bring economic benefits. Large enterprises spend a huge amount of resources, including energy. They become a significant part of the costs, minimizing the overall profit. In this regard, many hire specialists who develop and implement the following technological savings measures:

• The installation of variable frequency drives, the use of heat exchangers, compressed air, energy-saving lighting lamps, steam energy, and many others.
• The construction and commissioning of modern individual boiler houses with condensing-type equipment that combine the energy of gas combustion and the energy of water vapor.
• Use of alternative energy sources (sun, water, wind, etc.).

Fundamentally, while climate change and global warming are a growing problem for the world, clean technologies are one of the ways to minimize this problem.