Meet this year’s inspiring Swiss ClimateLaunchpad Contestants

LEVRON DYNAMICS  – an innovative magnetic solution for energy storage

Levron Dynamics aims to revolutionize the energy storage sector with an innovative magnetic bearing solution designed for flywheel energy storage systems. The scalable yet low-complexity technology developed by Levron is tailored to support the transition towards renewable energy sources by aiding the efficient storage and stabilization of inconsistent renewable energy supplies, such as wind or solar generated power. Renewable energy sources like wind or solar power are clean and abundant, but they lack consistency. This complicates their integration into power grids. Because of this challenge power grids are currently supplemented by turbines used in either nuclear or fossil fuel power plants. To transition towards fully renewable power grids, it is necessary to develop means of short-term energy storage. Flywheel energy storage systems offer quick discharge rates that can help bridge the fluctuation between over and under-production. Unlike batteries, Flywheel systems do not degrade through the charging cycle and do not contain toxic material. However, currently flywheel storage systems rely on mechanical or active magnetic bearing solutions that are limited in efficiency, and scalability and are therefore not suitable for widespread adoption.

Levron Dynamics offers a novel passive magnetic bearing solution, which tackles the inconsistency in power supply and lack of power grid stability due to energy fluctuation, while also enabling larger scales of operation due to much lower costs and lower integration complexity.

As the Flywheel market aimed at providing solutions for renewable energy power grids is rapidly growing, Levron Dynamics seeks to integrate their patent pending passive magnetic bearing solution into future flywheel energy storage systems and establish their position as the go-to technology in flywheel production.

The three young founders Alex Korocencev, Michal Oskedra and Maximilian Theimer are Physics and Mechanical Engineering students at the University of Basel and the ETH Zürich and are advancing the Levron Dynamics project while continuing their studies. The team is currently working out of its own laboratory at the Physics Department of the University of Basel. The core vision and passion that drives the team is “a shared belief in the transformative potential of the Levron Dynamics technology […] to aid the global transition towards sustainable energy”.

KOHLENKRAFT – offering climate positive biochar building materials

Kohlenkraft designs and produces climate positive biochar building materials with the aim to turn the building industry carbon negative.

The building industry accounts for around 39% of global energy related greenhouse gas emissions, of which around 11% can be tracked back to used materials and construction. To lower emissions and potentially not only become carbon neutral, but ideally carbon positive, materials are being sought that can store CO2 in buildings and help with isolation and humidity control.

This is where Kohlenkraft comes in by offering biochar plaster. Biochar has excellent insulating properties, improves air quality, soaks in moisture and can protect from radiation. In addition, it allows buildings to be turned into carbon sponges. Kohlenkraft takes advantage of these positive biochar characteristics by offering a climate positive plaster mixture, which can be used to store 2kgs of CO2 for 1kg of plaster. Compared to other plaster mixtures, such as sulfate mineral compounds for example, Kohlenkraft biochar plaster does not only not emit gas emissions, but positively stores up to 10 times the emissions emitted by other plaster compounds.

Kohlenkraft uses biochar that is procured through pyrolysis. The team has put their mixing recipe and technology under IP protection.

The Kohlenkraft founding team is composed by Bianka Grosshäuser, Corporate Strategist, Moritz Keller, Industrial Designer and Charles Gerike-Roberts, Renewable Energy Engineer. Their vision is “to foster a flourishing and regenerative sustainable building industry, with 10 Gigatonnes of CO2 stored in building materials over the next 10 years.”

Learn more about Kohlenkraft here