Bill Gates grabbed a wheelbarrow and shovel on Wednesday to fill a parking lot pothole with a new carbon trapping asphalt.
Gates was visiting Modern Hydrogen, a Seattle-area climate tech startup that has developed a device for cracking natural gas molecules, producing hydrogen for fuel and a product known as solid carbon that has a variety of industrial applications — including as a key ingredient in asphalt.
“Bill was great,” said Tony Pan, Modern Hydrogen’s CEO, of the Microsoft co-founder’s visit. “He was super engaged, hands-on.”
Gates had the chance to check out a demo version of the company’s methane pyrolysis reactor, which takes natural gas from fossil fuels or biogas from sources like manure to make pure hydrogen. The hydrogen fuel burns cleanly, producing water vapor as a byproduct. It can be used for energy production, in industrial processes like steel manufacturing, and in fuel cells.
