🧊 Vol 177: Squeezing plastic crystals to keep stuff cool

Hi there,

Refrigerators have somehow escaped innovation for over a century. AI is rewriting the internet, rockets land themselves, yet the thing keeping your oat milk cold still relies on the same basic technology from the 1920s.

But Cambridge startup Barocal just raised $10 million to commercialise a cooling system that uses solid materials instead of climate-warming refrigerant gases. No leaking HFCs, no traditional compressors… just materials that heat up when squeezed and cool down when pressure is released. Essentially, refrigeration via an extremely sophisticated stress ball.

It sounds quirky, but cooling is becoming one of climate tech’s hottest sectors (sorry). Air conditioning and refrigeration already consume around 10% of global electricity, while leaked refrigerants can warm the planet thousands of times more than CO2. If this tech can scale, this could cut both emissions and energy demand at the same time. Pretty cool! (sorry again)

In this week’s edition: 

💡 ENVIOTECH scored €1M to make streetlights intelligent
🧪 Amazon bets on Nobel Prize-winning chemistry
🌳 Eucalyptus bark could clean air and water

AgriFood x Climate

🧫 UK-based Meatly raised £10 million Series A funding from existing backers such as Agronomics, and first-time investors Oyster Bay Venture Capital, Clean Growth Fund, and JamJar Investments, to build Europe’s largest cultivated meat facility in London.

🪖 US biotech Biosphere secured $9 million from the US Department of Defense and US Army DEVCOM Soldier Center to develop portable bioreactors that turn gases into protein for military rations, with the funding supporting the creation of field-deployable food production systems for remote and logistically challenging environments.

🫒 Israeli startup PhenOlives secured a $270,000 investment from OurCrowd to scale its patented process that converts olive pomace into sustainable olive flour and polyphenol ingredients, with the funds also supporting further R&D into blackwater-derived ingredients.

🦀 Denmark’s Decameal closed an undisclosed seed round from Delphinus Venture Capital, Rockstart and strategic co-investor Aller Aqua to scale its patent-pending process that converts invasive shore crabs into sustainable protein and lipid feed ingredients.

Energy x Climate

🇨🇦 Canada’s Moment Energy secured $40 million Series B funding in a round led by Evok Innovations, with backing from Liberty Mutual Investments, W23 Global Fund, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and In-Q-Tel, to scale its business repurposing used EV batteries into energy storage systems for data centres, utilities and industrial sites.

🧊 UK-based Barocal raised a $10 million seed round from investors including World Fund, Breakthrough Energy Discovery, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures and IP Group to commercialise its solid-state cooling and heating technology that replaces conventional refrigerant gases with pressure-responsive materials (think squeezing plastic crystals to create a cooling effect).

💡 German smart city startup ENVIOTECH secured €1 million pre-seed funding in a round led by former Deutsche Bank co-CEO Jürgen Fitschen, with backing from Joachim Drees and other investors, to scale its retrofit technology that upgrades existing streetlights with intelligent monitoring and dimming systems.

🌋 US geothermal energy startup Fervo Energy is seeking to raise up to $1.3 billion in a Nasdaq IPO that could value the company at around $6.5 billion, with the funds expected to support expansion of its enhanced geothermal power projects that provide round-the-clock carbon-free electricity.

✅ Amazon has signed a multi-year deal with US startup Transaera to deploy energy-efficient dehumidification systems based on Nobel Prize-winning materials chemistry that remove moisture from air more efficiently than traditional HVAC systems, helping cut cooling-related energy use across its buildings.

☀️ Researchers in China have developed an AI-optimised solar-hydrogen energy system for hospitals that combines solar panels, hydrogen storage and fuel cells to provide continuous low-carbon power while also producing medical oxygen, potentially cutting grid reliance and reducing CO2 emissions by around 2,000 tons annually.

🌬️ PepsiCo signed a 10-year renewable energy agreement with Norway’s Statkraft to source wind power from a project in Spain that is expected to cut around 32,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually across its European operations and supply chain.

🌞 UK kitchen retailer Wren is investing in what it says will be the UK’s largest single-roof solar installation, with more than 13,000 solar panels set to cover its Barton-upon-Humber manufacturing plant and supply over 35% of the factory’s electricity demand.

Materials x Climate

🇫🇷 French startup Lithosquare raised €21.4 million to accelerate the discovery of critical minerals by using AI to analyse geological and geophysical data, with the funding aimed at scaling its exploration platform and speeding up identification of deposits needed for the energy transition. 

👗 Amsterdam-based VNYX secured over €1 million from investors including Baltic Business Angels, Squads Fund, Stichting DOEN, Earthstar, RVO and Spark Design & Innovation to scale its AI-powered resale automation technology that helps fashion brands process and resell returned, overstock and second-hand garments more profitably than dumping or burning them.

🌳 Researchers at Australia’s RMIT University have developed a way to turn discarded eucalyptus bark into a highly porous carbon material that could help clean polluted water, filter dirty air and capture carbon dioxide.

🔋 A UK consortium including UKBIC, Watercycle Technologies, Recyclus Group and Polaron secured government funding through the Battery Innovation Programme to develop a lithium-ion battery recycling process that converts battery waste into cathode materials for new batteries domestically.

Water x Climate

💦 Sydney-based Enaxiom raised $1.8 million seed funding in a round led by Epic Angels, with support from BlackNova and Antler, to commercialise its Hydrocool system that reduces water use in AI data centre cooling by using non-potable water and recovering reusable water as a by-product.

🍅 The EU-funded RAINS project unveiled new irrigation technologies and water management strategies designed to help Mediterranean agriculture grow more food with less water as climate change intensifies drought and water scarcity across the region. 

📱 Popular Culture x Climate

This campaign fights popular culture:

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Editorial and curation by Nicola