Organisers of a 20 million dollar (£14 million) contest to develop products out of greenhouse gas from power plants have announced two winners ahead of a similar but much bigger competition backed by Elon Musk.
Both winners made concrete that trapped carbon dioxide, keeping it out of the atmosphere, where it can contribute to climate change.
Production of cement, concrete’s key ingredient, accounts for 7% of global emissions of the greenhouse gas, said Marcius Extavour, XPRIZE vice president of climate and energy.
“So it’s not surprising that the winning teams focused on reducing emissions associated with concrete, which will be a game-changer for global decarbonisation,” he said in a statement.