Climate startup will help decarbonise construction in Luxembourg

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Ioanna Lykiardopoulou

Ioanna is a writer at TNW. She covers the full spectrum of the European tech ecosystem, with a particular interest in startups, sustainabili

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Ioanna is a writer at TNW. She covers the full spectrum of the European tech ecosystem, with a particular interest in startups, sustainability, green tech, AI, and EU policy. With a background in the humanities, she has a soft spot for social impact-enabling technologies.

Cambridge-based climate startup Levidian is expanding its operations to the EU. The company is bringing its next-gen decarbonisation device targeting methane emissions — the second biggest contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide — to Luxembourg.

Using a proprietary low-temperature, low-pressure method with no additives, the so-called LOOP device breaks down and converts methane into its component atoms: hydrogen and carbon, which is stripped in the form of wonder material graphene — the thinnest and strongest material ever discovered.

Luxembourg-based construction company Stugalux will use LOOP to process biomethane gas produced from food and agricultural waste. The resulting hydrogen will power an electricity-generating turbine, while graphene will be integrated into Stugalux’s building products.

“[This] is a fantastic example of how a LOOP system can be used to decarbonise in three ways simultaneously [and] an incredible way to demonstrate the circularity of LOOP contributing to a cleaner economy,” said John Hartley, CEO of Levidian.

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LOOP’s threefold decarbonising impact translates into some impressive numbers, according to Stugalux’s owner Joel Schons.

“Together, the three LOOP systems will process nearly 250,000 cubic meters of waste gas per year, producing more than 30 tonnes of graphene, and preventing 572 tonnes of CO2e every year,” he said.

Stugalux will initially deploy a LOOP20 on-site, meaning a device capable of removing approximately 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per year. By 2025, it hopes to have installed two LOOP100 systems, to scale up decarbonisation.

Levidian deployed its very first LOOP device in late 2022. In collaboration with Eco Group, the startup installed a LOOP10 system in southern Scotland, with future plans for over 60 LOOP1000 units within the next five years.