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Daily Digest for

August 17, 2025

Water Consumption of African Data Centers from AI

Carnegie Mellon University Africa researchers published a study (presented at ACM COMPASS 2025) estimating WUE for data centers in 41 African countries and calculating that Llama-3-70B uses ~0.7 L for a 10-page report while GPT-4 can use up to ~60 L.

Suzlon commits 100% renewable energy for manufacturing by 2030

Suzlon Group joined RE100, pledging 100% renewable electricity at all 15 manufacturing facilities by 2030, with targets for carbon neutrality by 2035 and net-zero by 2040; reported 88.51% reduction in Scope 1+2 emission intensity and 80.7% increase in renewable consumption in FY24-25.

Electrosynthesis of ethylene glycol with integrated CO2 capture

The authors (Northwestern University and collaborators, supported by Braskem) report an electrified process that oxidizes ethylene to ethylene glycol (EG) while integrating electrochemical CO2 capture to greatly reduce lifecycle carbon intensity.

  • Main result: The integrated electrolytic system achieves 94% Faradaic efficiency for ethylene-to-EG conversion, 91% CO2 capture efficiency from a 10% CO2 stream, and sequesters 0.60 tonnes CO2 per tonne EG, yielding an estimated carbon intensity of 0.133 tCO2-eq/tonne EG versus the global average 1.2 tCO2-eq/tonne EG.
  • Background and implementation details: The work identifies hydroxide counter-migration and an increased pH at the membrane–anode interface as challenges, introduces cathodic electrochemical carbon capture and RuSnOx catalysts favoring Cl over OH adsorption, is supported by Braskem, used NUANCE (EPIC, Keck-II, SPID) and Canadian Light Source facilities, and is associated with two US provisional patent applications (no. 63/607,143 and another titled ‘System for producing mono-EG and carbon dioxide and method for producing same’).

UK Launches consultation on Transition Finance Guidelines

The Transition Finance Council (co-founded by the City of London Corporation and the UK Government) launched a consultation on draft Transition Finance Guidelines on 18 Aug 2025 to mobilise capital for high-emitting businesses. The consultation runs until 19 Sep 2025, the Guidelines propose voluntary Principles and Factors across asset classes and geographies, with a second consultation in November 2025 and a final version planned for 2026.

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