The tires absorb moisture from roads while in motion. It can also pull carbon dioxide out of the air to fuel the moss’ photosynthesis which has clean oxygen as its byproduct.
Absorbing 4,000 tons of C02 a year
Goodyear’s estimate is that the Oxygene, if all the 2.5 million vehicles in Paris switch to the brand, could produce 3,000 tons of oxygen and absorb more than 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually. The tire, however, goes beyond cleaning the air. …show more content…
It contributes to cleaner air generation and helps enhance the quality of life and health for city-dwellers.
The design facility of Goodyear in Luxembourg was created by Sebastien Fontaine. However, Goodyear said it might take a decade to bring the Oxygene to the market.
Other uses of moss
Beyond use for Goodyear tires, moss is made by a California company as artwork. Artisan Moss uses ferns and real moss that are harvested from farms and ranches and preserved using non-toxic, food-grade ingredients and arranged into frames made of reclaimed hardwood, Treehugger reported.
Because it is preserved, the plants do not wilt, require water, and put out pollen or spores. The company uses regionally sources branches that were salvaged from local fire-safe zones in the Sierra Foothills.
Bio-indicator of air pollution
The US Forest Service found in a 2016 study that moss that grows on urban trees is a useful bioindicator of cadmium air pollution. The research, conducted by the Pacific Northwest Research Station of the FS, used moss to generate a rigorous and detailed map of air pollution in an American city. The results of the study were published online in the Science of the Total Environment …show more content…
Because the plant lacks roots, it absorbs all of the water and nutrients from the atmosphere, while inadvertently taking up and storing compounds in the air.
Sarah Jovan, a research lichenologist at the FS station based in Portland, said the study used moss to track down previously unknown sources of pollution in a complex urban environment with many possible sources. As a screening tool to help cities strategically place their air-quality monitors, the moss bio-indicators have the potential to improve air-quality monitoring, she said.
It costs the FS $50 per site for the heavy metal analysis. Jovan said the cost makes it possible to sample extensively and flag hotspots for follow-up instrumental monitoring.
Together with five scientists from the FS and the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University, Jovan and Geoffrey Donovan, from the Pacific Northwest Research Station, launched the exploratory moss study in 2013. They set out on a minivan and had a ladder and collection equipment to gather 346 samples of Lyell’s orthotrichum moss. It is a species which grows abundantly on the trunks and branches of hardwood trees across