Associate Professor Kua Harn Wei and his team, comprising of Abhimanyu Goel and Huang Lei, won the top jury award of the “Capturing Greenhouse Gas Removal” Image Competition, organized by Oxford University’s Smith School of Enterprise & the Environment, and the UK CO2RE program. The UK CO2RE conducts research on Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR) and it is co-ordinating Hub of the GGR-Demonstration Programme, which is the largest GGR programme funded by the UK government to date.
They submitted an image entitled ‘Biochar: Halo and Bubble of Life’ as seen in the Instagram post, which is a new material the team is developing, comprising biochar, which is made from recycled wood and limestone calcined clay cement (LC3). This material allows the capture of CO2 in seawater and freshwater, creating a “CO2 halo” around itself.
The image reflected shows a cube 3D-printed with this material in a Voronoi structure, being tested as an aquatic plant nursery. It aims to use captured greenhouse gases to promote marine biodiversity.
The large bubble on the top right represents the biochar’s interior, highlighting the pores that capture CO2. Inside two smaller water bubbles are images of microscopic folds in the biochar, resembling infants, symbolising hope and sustainability for future generations. The jury is composed of researchers from Oxford University, the University College of London and the University of Manchester and they were struck by how impressively the photograph captured innovation in GGR whilst lending the visual a quality of aesthetic optimism.
Congratulations to A/Prof Kua and his team on the win!!! 🎉
