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Abu Dhabi-based climate tech startup Desert Board is repurposing palm trees into their patented carbon-negative building boards, CNN writes. The company aims to make use of the UAE’s estimated 40 mn palm trees to decarbonize the country’s construction sector which accounts for 8% of total carbon emissions.
How do they do it? Desert Board uses the waste from palm trees — which take a decade to decompose and release substantial amounts of methane into the atmosphere — left over from pruning to create their proprietary Palm Strand Board (PSB), a material that can replace plywood in furniture, flooring, walls, doors and shelves, the company noted to CNN. PSB is recyclable, has the same durability as a regular board, and offsets some 400 tons of carbon emissions compared to conventional alternatives per 1 ton of PSB produced. The carbon saving comes from the palm trees natural ability to capture CO2 while they are alive, the company notes. The materials are also fire, termite, and moisture resistant, the company told the news outlet.
Current capacity: Desert Board manufactured its first PSB two years ago, and is currently operational in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and India, CNN added. The production plant in Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa Economic Zones Abu Dhabi (Kezad) currently produced enough of its PSB materials to fill up two and a half football fields (c. 300x 133 yards) on a daily basis, Desert Board director Kamal Farah told CNN.
The UAE is going big on green construction: In December, the Abu Dhabi Waste Management Company (Tadweer), Masdar City, the UAE Energy and Infrastructure Ministry, and GIGA Graphene Technologies partnered to develop graphene-enhanced concrete made with recycled plastic in the UAE. In August, Abu Dhabi-based investment firm GL Holding signed an agreement with Dutch green construction equipment company Urban Mobility Systems to build a green manufacturing facility. A year ago, the UAE cabinet approved regulations designed to lower carbon emissions in the construction sector.
