The KATA project is a direct response to pressing issues of Methane Release, harshening climatic conditions and scarce life resources for nomads in Mongolia.

For centuries nomadic families have depended on the vast lands of Mongolia to provide them and their livestock with sufficient amount of food and water. However, the past decade has proven this tradition to be no longer viable. Global Warming and its harsh effects on the Mongolian environment are to blame.

Almost half of Mongolia’s 3 million population are migrating nomads, that move to a new location seasonally once the soil of current settlement was depleted of its natural resources. The rapidly worsening environmental conditions have drastically reduced the chances of finding a new favourable for living land at once, thus forcing nomads to abandon historically formed customs of living in the wild and move to the peripheries of polluted cities in hopes of finding means for survival.

What neither the suffering nomads nor the moderately content city dwellers are aware of are the effects that Global Warming has on their entire existence and not only convenience of daily life. The gigantic silent atomic bomb that our planet has yet to become aware of is residing under the vast lands of the most breathtaking valleys and mountains of Mongolia: the Methane Bomb.

A deep layer of frozen biomass, permafrost, has been releasing unimaginably large quantity of methane gas into the atmosphere, putting our population in danger due to its flammable and explosive characteristics. If addressed immediately, this problem might be alleviated and furthermore, turned into a source of seemingly endless source of renewable energy.

The KATA Initiative is a comprehensive response to the Methane crises currently riveting Mongolian lands. The main pillars of KATA are:

METHANE EXTRACTION

\\ safe extraction of Methane from the depth of Permafrost through trees, that are biologically predefined as Methane digesters. Mongolian lands house several typologies of trees and shrubs that take in Methane through their roots and pass it into the atmosphere

TRAPPING METHANE

\\ if covered with extremely lightweight zeolite containing nano fabric ( polymer/aluminium alloy based material), the particles of methane will immediately attach to its surface driven by the chemical properties of both components. In such a way an extremely volatile gas becomes tangible and allows for numerous handling options, transportation being one of them.

TRANSPORTING METHANE

\\ once the gas is translated into a mere layer of particles on a provided surface it can also be rearranged into a different chemical setup, yet again changing its physical properties. Enriched with zeolites, methane obtains an additional atomic mass of the zeolite grain, thus becoming a finite sand-like substance that will not escape into the atmosphere.

TRANSPORTING WITH B-DRONES

\\ Methane collecting drones are part of the transportation system of the KATA Initiative. Several drone typologies have been designed to collect, transport to the storage facilities as well as deliver methane to the research and development centres of KATA’

STORAGE OF METHANE

\\ the drone’s trunk is packed with methane molecules which are later transported to the receiver -airport. The assembly of the airport predefines its form. At first, methane pockets are located in the soil, then porous rubber-based material is “inflated” into the ground, fully encapsulating floating methane. Shape memory polymer, enriched with numerous zeolites, is later poured into the newly formed cavity. Thus, the airports form is not invasive or harmful towards the surrounding soils and serves as a porous environment into which drones bring methane gas for prolonged storage.

METHANE RESEARCH

\\ due to its chemical properties, methane gas containing less than 40% of impurities, can be used as clean burning energy instantaneously or stored for later applications at the methane airport. If the gas contains more than 40% of other volatile particles, it will be transported to the research centre, where its main application is targeted towards purification research and educational purposes of the local communities.

A public center will manage and develop the system of KATA project. The design is based on trees, as the trees are used as main construction. The facade is a double membrane of zeolite fabric, which protects the center for the harsh weather.

The center is growing with the trees, as the system grow.

THE SYSTEM IN A GAME

\\The nomads are the main drivers of the system. As method of education we published a game to understand the pillars in the system:

METHANE ENERGY APPLICATION

\\ local extraction, purification and advancement of methane research are the bare minimum applications that KATA Initiative will provide the nomad community with. Instant clean source of energy will be delivered by the  gets and surrounding cities by sustainable drone transportation system. The much needed source of energy that Mongolia has been striving for is at last given to its people.

The KATA Initiative is not a profit-oriented corporation, but rather a collective of like-minded scientists who aim at transforming the potential world-scale catastrophe to a source of life for the struggling Mongolian society. The minimal scale intervention will begin nearby the northern city Ulaangum, servicing both the migrating nomads and the urban dwellers. The KATA Initiative will later be implemented in other methane-rich Mongolian territories. With the advancement of technologies and continuous input from the world intelligence methane gas will slowly become a driving force for prosperous life inside and outside of the Mongolian borders.

Download booklet about project

Methane. The most dangerous greenhouse gas of all times.

It is hidden in frozen permafrost in the tundra at the nothern hemisphere. Until now, it has not been seen as the biggest environmental problem. But during the global rise of the temperature, humanity have a serious problem, which we in short time has to deal with. The permafrost is melting and the trapped methane can be released within a very short time and have the effect on the planet as 400.000 atomic bombs. The KATA project is a rescue program dealing with a unexposed problem, methane. The project will start to retrofit Mongolia, which is where the methane first will attack the environment.

Picture; Collage made on the background of  SuperStudio  (Adolfo Natalini and Cristiano Toraldo di Francia)

CHAPTER 01 – METHANE BOMB

METHANE IS CREATED BY A BACTERIA

A particle of carbon meets energy, which is hydrogen, and adds up to an extremely small atomic mass. Methane is formed in some enzymic chemical reactions, but most of all through the metabolism of a bacteria- the metanogen- that lives in no oxygen conditions- anaerobic. 

IT LIVES IN NO OXYGEN CONDITIONS

The bacteria procreates in the soil where animals’ and plants’ remains are breaking down. This condensed soil is found underneath the lakes and in the tundra- the permafrost.

WHAT IS PERMAFROST?

Permafrost is the soil below the freezing point of water 0 degrees celcius for two or more years.

MEASURING METHANE

To understand the methane production we made a prototype, where we were measuring 8 different types of human waste. The experiment was during one month, and showed that plants were creating the biggest amount of methane.

SO HOW IS METHANE RELEASED

The methane is not only transferred directly from the soil, it is also transfered through the plants. The plants absorb CO2 and the bacteria produce more methane.

When the permafrost is melting methane is released.The plants works as chimneys

METHANE INTO THE ATMOSPHERE

Higher temperature means that, the permafrost is melting and methane particles is released. The particles rise fast into the atmosphere

The methane is trapped in the atmosphere for 12 years. Methane is a greenhouse gas, and traps 34 times more heat per mass than CO2. With  no oxygen, the methane will stay in the atmosphere. But the methane react with oxygen over 12 years and becomes CO2. The CO2 stays in the stratosphere for 100 years. In that way methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas, than CO2.

GLOBAL CYCLE

The global temperature is rising. Positive feedbacks makes the rise of the global temperature grow faster. A positive feedback is not positive on the climate – it is the opposite. There are 4 different positive feedbacks.

• 1. Melting arctic
• The ice is reflecting the heat. But now the ice is melting, so the water absorbs more heat. This mean a higher global temperature
• 2. Disappearing of Amazons
• The Amazon is disappearing. This means that less trees absorb CO2. This mean that trees send less moisture into the air. This mean a higher global temperature
• 3. Clogging sink
• The ocean absorb a big amount of CO2. But the plankton grows slower with higher temperature. This mean a higher global temperature
• 4. Melting permafrost
• The melting of permafrost release a big amount of methane. And the methane turns into CO2. This mean a higher global temperature.

When the feedback works together, the temperature will rise much more quickly.

THE HUMANS EMISSION OF METHANE

We made an interactive map which show the human emission of methane. The map is connected to instant data from the internet. The maps shows, that the amount of methane release has been increased from 2006 until 2013.

The biggest amount of methane is released from the agriculture and fossil fuel extraction

BUT WHERE IS OUR REAL ENEMY?              

Where is the biggest concentration of methane. Is from the humans in city? Or is it the nature?

If you take the same area of Barcelona and the Tundra. Their emission of methane is the same.  But the tundra is about to change, and will soon release much more, when the permafrost melts.

In Mongolia the methane has increased dramatically. So this is where the “enemy” is now.

WHAT IS THE CONSEQUENCES?      

The predictions of methane level in the atmosphere says, that we are in the grey line (see diagram below). But actually we are in the blue line.

Methane is a 25 times more strong greenhouse gas than co2. But a timeperiod of 20 years it is 85 times stronger.

If the methane is released in a spike, the consequences will be catastrophic. This will  be equivalent to 400.000 atomic bombs. This will happen, if the global temperature will rise so fast, as the predictions says. And actually the predictions have until now been too optimistic.

CHAPTER 02 – RETROFITTING MONGOLIA

We know that the enemy hides in the nature. The biggest enemy is now Mongolia. The vision is to retrofit whole Mongolia.

40 % of the population of Mongolia is nomadic. The nomadic is the key to clean Mongolia from the methane in the ground. Using the continuos movements of the nomadics, it is possible within a short time to cover whole Mongolia.

The first place to attack is where the biggest amount of permafrost is in Mongolia and where we can help the dying cities.

Methane is changed into methanol, so that i can be used as fuel and as new power for electricity.