In the race to decarbonize, hard-to-abate industries like transport, mobility, energy, manufacturing, and heavy industries face immense challenges. These sectors are pivotal in achieving global climate goals but require transformative innovation to overcome their reliance on high-emission processes. Enter design fiction: a tool for imagining and prototyping future scenarios that inspire radical innovation while addressing the complexities of decarbonization. 

What is Design Fiction? 

Design fiction is a speculative approach that blends storytelling with prototyping to explore “what if?” scenarios. It goes beyond forecasting trends or analyzing probabilities—it creates immersive, tangible provocations that challenge assumptions and inspire innovation. By developing speculative artifacts such as fictional news reports, prototypes, or policy drafts, design fiction brings possible futures to life, encouraging stakeholders to engage with them. Rather than predicting the future, it envisions alternative realities that push boundaries, provoke dialogue, and open up new possibilities for transformative action.

For hard-to-abate industries, design fiction offers a way to: 

• Explore the integration of emerging low-carbon technologies. 

• Rethink supply chains and production models. 

• Address societal, regulatory, and consumer behavior shifts in response to decarbonization. 

Why hard-to-abate industries need design fiction 

These industries operate within complex ecosystems, often constrained by entrenched practices, high capital costs, and regulatory pressures. Traditional approaches to innovation may fall short in imagining transformative solutions. Design fiction enables stakeholders to: 

1. Visualize low-carbon futures: Crafting scenarios where new technologies—such as hydrogen fuel, carbon capture, or electrified transport systems—are operational within a reimagined value chain. 
2. Challenge assumptions: Provoking fresh thinking about entrenched norms, such as the necessity of fossil fuels in energy-intensive manufacturing. 
3. Align stakeholders: Engaging diverse actors—from policymakers to engineers—through tangible prototypes and narratives that illustrate shared goals. 
4. Test policy and business models: Simulating the implementation of carbon pricing, circular economy strategies, or renewable energy integrations in controlled, fictional contexts. 

Examples of Design Fiction scenarios  

Net-Zero Factories 

A speculative scenario where AI-driven, autonomous factories produce goods using 100% renewable energy, with zero waste and closed-loop recycling systems. What roles would human workers play? What new supply chain dependencies could arise? 

Hydrogen-Powered Transport 

Fictionalized blueprints for hydrogen-powered shipping fleets or aviation systems, paired with narratives about new infrastructure and regulatory frameworks. 

Energy Communities 

A future where localized energy grids enable heavy industries to share renewable energy surpluses, reducing dependency on centralized grids. How might this disrupt existing energy markets? 

How to Implement Design Fiction in Your Organization 

• Assemble a cross-disciplinary team: Combine expertise in engineering, design, sociology, and business to capture diverse perspectives. 

• Identify key challenges: Focus on specific pain points, like process emissions in steel manufacturing or the electrification of long-haul transport. 

• Develop artifacts and scenarios: Create visual, tangible, or interactive prototypes (e.g., mock-ups of decarbonized supply chains or AI-driven energy optimization systems). 

• Facilitate collaborative workshops: Use the scenarios to engage stakeholders in brainstorming and co-creating actionable solutions. 

• Iterate and integrate: Refine the outputs based on feedback, and use insights to inform strategic roadmaps, R&D investments, or policy proposals. 

The Way Forward 

Design fiction is not just a tool for creative exploration; it is a catalyst for systemic change. By challenging entrenched assumptions and fostering collaboration, it can help hard-to-abate industries envision and accelerate their decarbonization journeys. As the world demands urgent climate action, the ability to think boldly and imagine differently is more critical than ever. 

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Before diving into treatment technologies, we recommend reading the first article in this series, where we explore what PFAS are and their devastating environmental and health impacts.

PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a group of synthetic chemicals widely used in industrial and consumers products. Due do their persistence and resistance to degradation, they accumulate in the environment and pose significant health risks. Addressing PFAS contamination requires a combination of well-established and emerging treatment technologies that focus on treatment, and increasingly, destruction.

Mature PFAS treatment technologies

Several well-established technologies are currently used for PFAS removal, including:

• Granular Activated Carbon (GAC): One of the most studied methods for removing PFAS, commonly used in drinking water treatment. It helps absorb organic compounds, as well as taste, odor, and synthetic chemicals. GAC works well for longer-chain PFAS like PFOA and PFOS but is less effective for shorter-chain ones like PFBS and PFBA, which don’t adsorb as easily.
• Anion Exchange Resins (AER): They are like tiny magnets that attract and hold onto impurities, preventing them from passing through the water system. Negatively charged PFAS are attracted to the positively charged anion resins. This method can treat almost all PFAS chain lengths but is more expensive than GAC.
• Nanofiltration or Reverse Osmosis Membranes: High-pressure membrane filtration systems, i.e. nanofiltration and reverse osmosis, have been highly effective in eliminating over 90% of PFAS, including short-chain compounds.

Emerging PFAS treatment technologies

A few new innovative technologies are being developed to enhance PFAS removal efficiency:

• Selective Absorbents: Companies like Puraffinity are pioneering precision technologies to target PFAS removal. Their Puratech absorbent solution is designed to integrate seamlessly into existing treatment systems and can be tailored to capture specific PFAS compounds.
• Foam Fractionation: Oxyle has developed a multi-stage foam fractionation, catalytic destruction, and machine learning monitoring process. This method has shown to eliminate over 99% of PFAS.

While these technologies improve PFAS capture, they do not destroy the compound. This limitation has driven interest in developing destruction technologies.

Emerging PFAS destruction technologies

Unlike traditional removal methods, destruction technologies aim to completely break down PFAS compounds rather than simply capture them. While holding promise, these technologies are still energy-intensive and costly.

• Supercritical Water Oxidation (SCWO): This oxidation process converts organic contaminants into water, carbon dioxide, and inert mineral residue. 347Water has developed AirSCWO systems, which have been proven effective in destroying PFAS-laden ion exchange resins.
• Electrochemical Oxidation: This technique is an electrochemical reaction that degrades PFAS compounds on a large scale while producing little to no waste, making it a potential solution for large-scale PFAS degradation.

Additionnally, researchers are working on next-generation PFAS destruction technologies such as low-temperature mineralization, plasma technology, and sonolysis.

Destruction technologies require high PFAS concentrations to be effective and tend to be energy-intensive, making them less suitable for diluted waste streams. Furthermore, these technologies are quite immature, requiring validation before large-scale deployment. To address these challenges, technology providers have been exploring hybrid solutions that combine both removal and destruction methods to provide a holistic solution. For instance, Gradiant has developed a technology that enables on-site PFAS removal and destruction, eliminating the need for waste handling, landfilling, or incineration.

3 startups to draw inspiration from

Oxyle

A Swiss start-up that developed a technology which is claimed to have over 99% removal of PFAS with lower energy use compared to traditional methods. The three-stage process involves foam fractionation, catalytic destruction, and machine learning monitoring.

Gradiant

A U.S.-based water and wastewater treatment solutions provider, Gradiant has developed ForeverGone, a technology that is capable of removing and destroying PFAS on site, without the need for waste handling, landfilling, or incineration. It is different from conventional solutions such as granular activated carbon (GAC) and ion exchange

Puraffinity

A UK-based start-up which focused on developing precision technologies for the removal of PFAS from water. Puraffinity has developed an absorbent solution called Puratech, which integrates perfectly into existing water treatment systems and can be adapted to target specific PFAS compounds.

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123Fab #104

1 topic, 2 key figures, 3 startups to draw inspiration from

Urban areas face rising temperatures from the combined effects of climate change and the “urban heat island” phenomenon. Concrete and asphalt trap heat, creating hotter cities, escalating energy demands, and endangering vulnerable populations. To mitigate these effects, solutions must address the problem across all scales: city, neighborhood, street, building, and individual levels.

City-Level Strategies

At the city scale, urban planning focuses on creating cooler environments by improving airflow, increasing plant cover, and reducing heat-retaining surfaces:

• Urban Planning and Cool Corridors: Designing open spaces and cool corridors encourages air circulation and reduces heat concentration.
• Increasing Plant Cover: Initiatives like Paris’ Oasis Project transform schoolyards into green spaces, doubling as cool islands and heat refuges.
• Low-Emission Zones (ZFE): Reducing vehicular traffic in cities cuts emissions, indirectly lowering heat retention.
• Urban Water Management: Large-scale rainwater management systems and urban basins help infiltrate water into the soil. This not only prevents flooding but also encourages evaporation, naturally cooling the air during heatwaves.

Neighborhood-Level Strategies

Neighborhood interventions tackle heat through surface treatments, targeted greenery, and smart solutions:

• High-Albedo Materials: Reflective materials reduce heat absorption, like those used in Paris’ “cool islands.” High-albedo materials are surfaces that reflect more sunlight than they absorb, helping to lower surface temperatures.
• Vegetation and Cool Islands: Projects like Urban Canopée integrate vegetation into neighborhoods, while ENGIE Lab Crigen’s Skycooling panels provide shade-based cooling.
• Water Permeation: Soil desilting and localized rainwater infiltration enhance evaporation, which cools the surrounding air naturally. Incorporating small water features like ponds or fountains within neighborhoods can amplify these cooling effects.

Street-Level Strategies

Streets act as heat hotspots, but targeted solutions can reduce their thermal footprint:

• Draining Pavements: Products like Holcim’s concrete, a permeable concrete Hydromedia, allow rainwater to infiltrate the soil, supporting evaporation and natural cooling.
• Green Walls and Photovoltaic Shades: Vegetated walls and shaded walkways lower street temperatures while improving aesthetics and functionality.
• Localized Water Features: Incorporating fountains, small basins, or artificial streams along streets can provide significant localized cooling effects.

Building-Level Strategies

Buildings are central to urban cooling, as they represent a significant proportion of heat storage:

• Green Roofs: Vegetative layers provide natural insulation and cooling, reducing the heat stored by buildings.
• Reflective Paint: Products like Cool Roof reduce heat absorption, keeping interiors cooler.
• Advanced Insulation: Aerogels, a cutting-edge material known for their lightweight properties and high thermal resistance, can significantly reduce heating and cooling costs by providing superior insulation compared to traditional materials.
• Bio-Reactive Facades: Innovations like XTU Architects’ microalgae facades actively regulate temperature by producing oxygen and absorbing heat.
• Rainwater Harvesting: Buildings can integrate systems to collect rainwater, which can then be used for evaporative cooling or irrigation for rooftop and vertical gardens, further reducing heat buildup.

Individual Actions

Individual behaviors also play a vital role in reducing urban heat:

• Soft Mobility: Walking, cycling, and using public transport help reduce vehicular emissions and heat contributions.
• Urban Greening: Individuals can plant greenery at home, install small water features in gardens, or volunteer for local tree-planting initiatives to enhance cooling.
• Water Stewardship: Households can promote cooling by managing rainwater infiltration with permeable garden designs, rain barrels, or bioswales to ensure water is available for natural evaporation processes.

Cooling urban environments requires a multifaceted approach across different scales. From city-wide planning and water management to individual actions like soft mobility, these strategies not only provide immediate relief from heat but also promote the long-term sustainability of urban life. Addressing the urban heat island effect is a pressing necessity as cities prepare for increasingly extreme temperatures in the decades ahead.

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2 Key Figures

4

Temperatures can be 1 to 4°C higher than surrounding rural areas due to the presence of heat-retaining infrastructures like concrete and asphalt.

15%

A 10% increase in tree cover in cities reduces surface temperatures and lower energy consumption needs for cooling by around 15%.

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3 startups to draw inspiration from

CoolRoof

French-based startup specialized in reflective coatings for rooftops and pavements to reduce heat absorption in cities, lowering temperatures and energy consumption.

SolCold

A materials startup from Israel that creates innovative coatings which cool buildings by converting heat into light, reflecting sunlight to reduce urban temperatures.

Green City Solutions

German startup that develops urban green spaces using “CityTree,” a smart, air-purifying moss wall that cools and cleans the air in densely populated areas through IoT integration.

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Context 

Our client has developed a strong innovation activity to fuel its transformation. In this context, our client asked us to explore market demand for a new offering in dismantling and extracting valuable components from lithium-ion batteries.

Mission

We carried out a study to define the go-to-market strategy:

• Map of the second-life battery value chain, from manufacturing to end-of-life
• Segmentation of second-life component buyers
• Real-world applications of second-life components
• Interviews with 8 potential customers on interest and technical needs
• List of existing technical standards for selling second-life battery cells
• Review of the EU battery regulation compliance
• Recommendations on the go-to-market strategy and prioritization of potential customers to address first

Key figures

Context 

In view of the declining potential of its historical Oil & gas business, our client investigated several diversification opportunities in adjacent markets, consistent with its know-how and energy transition roadmap.

In this context, the Innovation department wanted to evaluate the potential for diversification in the field of Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) and to identify innovative partners with whom to create a complementary business.

Mission

We carried out a deep dive study divided into three steps:

• A market study to paint a complete picture of all the megatrends (new business models, technologies, use cases)
• A startup landscape to identify the innovative players driving CCUS forward worldwide
• A startup scoring to establish recommendations on the most relevant options for collaboration (R&D agreement, commercial partnership, investment, acquisition, etc.)

Key figures

Context 

Our client has developed a strong Open Innovation activity in order to fuel its transformation. In this context, our client asked us to conduct a deep dive study on high-temperature superconductors.

Mission

We carried out a study to define the go-to-market strategy:

• Market study on megatrends and key forces shaping the industry
• Competitor benchmark and illustration of large-scale deployments
• Funding analysis and illustrations of the latest investments
• Patent volume and key patent filer analysis
• Sourcing of all startups in the field
• Interviews with these startups to create fact sheet one-pagers

Key figures

123Fab #99

1 topic, 2 key figures, 3 startups to draw inspiration from

People generally link global warming with carbon dioxide (CO2) but, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) explains, 30% of the increase in global temperature since pre-industrial levels is due to higher methane (CH4) concentrations in the atmosphere. This is because methane is extremely more effective at trapping heat.

Where does methane come from?

The IEA has estimated that 40% of methane comes from natural sources (wetlands, biomass burning…), and the remaining 60% from human activities (agriculture, oil & gas production, waste). The two pathways to methane production are:

• Gas leaks – methane is the main component of natural gas. Thus, it can leak from pipelines and drilling.
• Decomposition of organic matter – when organic matter is in oxygen-free environments, particular microbes called methanogens take the lead in breaking down the organisms. This process, called methanogenesis, leads to the creation of methane.

According to McKinsey, five industries could reduce global annual methane emissions by 20% by 2030 and 46% by 2050. Those are agriculture, oil and gas, coal mining, solid-waste management, and wastewater management.

What about methane capture from the air?

Methane is 200 times less abundant in the atmosphere than CO2 — a scarcity that makes removing it a technical challenge. Capturing methane would require processing a lot of air, which could require an extremely large amount of energy. And unlike CO2, which can be captured both physically and chemically in a variety of solvents and porous solids, methane is completely non-polar and interacts very weakly with most materials. However, researchers claim to have found a promising solution. A class of crystalline materials, called zeolites, capable of soaking up the gas. Regardless of this solution, the difficulty of capturing methane from the air is the reason why most technologies focus on oxidizing the greenhouse gas rather than “hooking” it out.

Startups are developing innovations to curb methane emissions

For the decomposition of organic matter:

• in the gut of ruminants (like cows and cattle) – Australian startup Rumin8 and Swedish startup Volta Greentech are fighting this issue by developing seaweed-based nutritional supplements that inhibit methane production.
• on landfills and wastewater – US startup LoCi Controls bolsters the methane capture process using solar-powered devices.
• on wetlands – UK methane capture startup bluemethane has developed a technology to capture methane from water, enabling to mitigate the methane production from rice cultivation.

For gas leaks:

• oil & gas production – UK startup Kuva Systems uses short-wave infrared cameras to autonomously monitor and alert oil and gas companies about methane leaks. Whereas US startup BioSqueeze has developed a biomineralization technology that seals miniscule leakage pathways in oil and gas wells.
• melting permafrost – the trapped organic matter in the frozen seafloors or shallow seas is emitted when they thaw. US startup Blue Dot Change is investigating whether releasing ion particles into the exhaust steam of ship vessels crossing the ocean can accelerate the destruction of methane.

A methane tax just like carbon taxes

Norway was one of the first countries to introduce a carbon tax in 1991. Aside from carbon, the harmful gases regulated by the tax also include methane. All Oil & Gas operators on the country’s continental shelf are now required to report all methane emissions from their activities. As a result, studies show that the country has succeeded to consistently maintain low methane emissions. Canada is proposing to require companies to inspect their infrastructure monthly, fixing the leaks they find as part of efforts to reduce the sector’s methane emissions by 75% by 2030 (compared with 2012). Although the EU is among 150 signatories to the Global Methane Pledge – an agreement to cut emissions of methane by 30% – EU energy chief warned early March that the EU was lagging in the race to curb methane emissions. Since the proposals on methane in 2021, they have been watered down.

In short, methane will be critical to solving the net-zero equation. The good news is that mature technologies are at hand. From feed additives for cattle to new rice-farming techniques, to advanced approaches for oil and gas leak detection and landgas methane capture. Where costs are prohibitive, there is a need for coordinated action to create the infrastructure and fiscal conditions that would support further action. Finally, across the board, there is a need for more monitoring and implementation.

2 Key Figures

Budget of $60-110 billion annually up to 2030

Full deployment of the methane abatement measures would cost an estimated $150-$220 billion annually by 2040 and $230-$340 billion annually by 2050.

< 100 funded companies

Tracxn

3 startups to draw inspiration from

Kayyros

French-based startup founded in 2016 which is a developer of an energy analytics platform for traders, investors, operators and governments. Kayrros powers part of the Global Methane Tracker.

BioSqueeze

US-based startup founded in 2021 that has developed a biomineralization technology that seals miniscule leakage pathways in oil and gas wells.

Rumin8

Australian-based startup founded in 2021 which is a manufacturer of seaweed-based nutritional supplements for livestock that inhibit methane production. The startup is backed by Bill Gates’ fund Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

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