Innovations That Could Help Save the Planet

Breakthrough green tech ideas can take a long time to become reality. Here are five that will be ready soon

- MEGHAN GUNN

ENTREPRENEURS AROUND THE WORLD ARE trying to turn green tech ideas into viable businesses. Many are working with technology that has been proven to work, but is too expensive for widespread use. The challenge is finding ways to bring the costs down enough so that their solutions can be scaled up to effect real change.

Here is a collection of innovative companies and inventors who believe they are close to hitting that mark with products ranging from the world's whitest paint to high-efficiency electric batteries made from one of the most plentiful elements on Earth.

1_ Earth-Cooling Paint

In 2020, a team of graduate students led by Purdue University mechanical engineering professor Xiulin Ruan came up with a formula for what Guinness World Records later recognized as the world's whitest paint. While it looks pretty similar to other white paints, the new ultra-white reflects up to 98.1 percent of sunlight, which means unlike most paints, which warm buildings, this one can cool them down.

According to a Purdue study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the new paint can lower surface temperatures 8 degrees Fahrenheit by day and 19 degrees by night. Less heat means lower energy usage and lower greenhouse gas emissions. A compound called barium sulfate is what makes the paint so reflective. Different sized particles of the chemical scatter different wavelengths of light. The Purdue team used particles of many various sizes to reflect as much light as possible.

"Products like this ultra-white paint have the potential to make a real difference," says Karema Seliem, associate director of LEED technical development at the U.S. Green Building Council.