Wax, wood and CO2
63 Degrees North15 Nov 2022

Wax, wood and CO2

Three tons of wax. A 4-story office building made almost entirely of wood. And putting CO2 to work instead of letting it heat up the planet: Scientists and engineers across the globe are harnessing unlikely materials to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Today's show looks at how a zero-emissions office building combines integrated solar panels, heat pumps and a huge vat of wax to heat and power the structure, with enough left over to sell. We'll also look at highly efficient heat pumps using CO2 as the stuff inside that makes it work. They're spreading worldwide, and can be found everywhere from inside your Volkswagen ID electric car to the Large Hadron Collider. And also — at a hotel in Hell, Norway, where electricity use was cut by 70 per cent — without making a pact with the devil!

Our guests on today's show are Tore Kvande and Armin Hafner.

There's a video on Professor Hafner's work at CERN here, and more about CoolCERN, here.

Find a related podcast episode here.

Read more:

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