Sustainability isn’t just about making sure your discarded water bottle is recycled.

In the scope of human evolution, the notion of sustainability is a new one. According to Wikipedia, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development brought about the current definition in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. This means that only 30 years ago, people were waking up to the idea that Gen X and the generations after them would need to do a far better job of taking care of this planet than ever before. From their earliest school days, Gen X was taught that the Earth was in trouble; rivers burned, acid rain fell upon our crops, and humans were to blame. It was time to own our mistakes.

Zane Clark
CEO, SAMPE North America

Luckily, those same students went to college and learned how to approach these problems through a real-world approach to sustainability. Now, sustainability is so pervasive that it has filtered its way into every aspect of the manufacturing supply chain. In fact, the push to address a net-zero lifecycle is accelerating public discourse and creating more urgency in an industrial response. And not a moment too soon. The EPA is projecting that by 2050 the global population will increase by 50 percent, global economic activity will increase by 500 percent, and energy material use will increase by 300 percent.

Where and how will all these people live? How will they move about? Work? Play? Rhetorical questions like these are regularly posed by academics and manufacturers alike. The best of both worlds regularly come together to push the boundaries of sustainability in global materials and manufacturing across multiple technologies. They focus on emerging technologies important to addressing diverse market requirements in several fields, including aerospace, defense, automotive and ground transportation, infrastructure and construction, energy technology needs, e-mobility, as well as sustainability, recycling and, circular economy (the triad).

As any of the engineers of the industries mentioned above will tell you, sustainability isn’t just about making sure your discarded water bottle is recycled. It’s also about teaming with global entities to form innovative, technologically solid partnerships. It’s about incorporating both advanced and multi-functional materials, such as rapid cure thermosets or integrating materials from one industry into another; aerospace materials being integrated into automobiles for lighter, greener transportation.

“We are now in a transitory stage between artificial intelligence, Big Data, and digitization being the economic driver and sustainability forging the next industrial revolution,” said Raj Manchanda, Chief Technology Officer, SAMPE North America. “These drivers inform all aspects of the manufacturing supply chain, thus reducing waste, saving energy, time, and money for even better manufacturing processes.”

AI-Powered Systems

Let’s talk about artificial intelligence and sustainability. AI is finding its way into all aspects of our lives, from AI-enabled autonomous systems that are changing the way the military operates and protects their troops to how this very article was written with a supporting role by artificial intelligence. Yes, every time you sit down at your laptop to write using spell-check, Grammarly, or any other cloud-based typing assistant that reviews spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity, engagement, and delivery mistakes, you are using AI.

The infrastructure and construction industries have been paying considerable attention to how the advancement of material and process engineering can bring about sustainability in their products.

The fact is an entire industry is forming around how AI can help everyday businesses do better. According to Earth.org, Google uses an AI model to reduce the energy load of its resource-hungry data centers, reducing the energy cost of cooling by 40 percent, IBM uses AI for better weather forecasting, making their predictions 30 percent more accurate. This helps renewable energy companies better manage their plants, maximize renewable energy production, and reduce carbon emissions. Xcel Energy, a coal-burning and nitrous oxide-emitting utility company, uses AI to predict energy consumption patterns better and adapt its operating systems, thus significantly boosting efficiency. Carbon Tracker, a climate advocacy think-tank, uses AI to track emissions from coal plants using satellite imagery. Using satellite data, they help guide investments toward lower-footprint ventures.

New Business Model

For companies in the composites and process engineering industry to compete, we must collectively embrace energy efficiency, carbon neutrality, and biological materials as a new business model. Automobiles and trucks have seen the most attention in developing composite structure usage to establish lightweighting trends needed to meet imposed regulations. Carmakers embraced glass and carbon fiber technologies and (initially) with thermoset resins and rapid cure processes.

More recently, cars are built with structural thermoplastic systems, and automated manufacturing equipment development is used to manage a variety of composite methods that have decreased overall production time and waste. Hydrogen technology will play a more critical part in cars, and automotive “end-of-life” regulations will require more attention to recycling and bio-derived materials.

Material and process engineers have dedicated the past 50 years to energy technology, in wind, tidal, solar, geothermal, oil and gas, and transportation/conversion. They are looking into the future to embrace new, emerging markets.

The infrastructure and construction industries have been paying considerable attention to how the advancement of material and process engineering can bring about sustainability in their products: power poles, light poles, for example, use filament-wound or pultruded composites.

Guard rails, rebar, transmission power lines, flooring/grating, and protective walls (some that are fire resistant) embrace the many attributes of composites to make their products more robust, lighter, and with a longer life span, all of which mean more sustainable products.

Material and process engineers have dedicated the past 50 years to energy technology, in wind, tidal, solar, geothermal, oil and gas, and transportation/conversion. They are looking into the future to embrace new, emerging markets:

  • Hydrogen technologies (growth arena for past 10+ years)
  • Fuel cell technologies
  • Battery technologies (often within structures)
  • Electrification aspects

In addition, lessons learned in hydrogen “packaging” within various configurations was developed in the 1970–1980s from the CNG/LPG tank technologies with thermoset/thermoplastic resin filament-wound pressure vessels are now being used to create the e-vehicles of the future.

Speaking of e-vehicles, it’s no longer enough to think only of electric cars and trucks. The industry is taking the idea of two-dimensional vehicles into a whole new dimension with the advent of e-Mobility:

  • eVTOL: electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing aircraft, which uses electric power to hover, take off, and land vertically.
  • UAM: Urban Air mobility uses highly automated aircraft to transport passengers or cargo at lower altitudes within urban and suburban areas.
  • AAM: Advanced Air Mobility uses autonomous air transportation systems.

These e-mobility vehicles are not something out of a Jetson’s cartoon; they are being built today. The use of traditional lower-cost composite fibers offers many opportunities for this field. Once these vehicles “take off,” manufacturing process techniques will need to be fast to keep up with demand. However, the market is there, the volume is tremendous, and innovation is the key to making this emerging industry a sustainable and functional part of our future.

A Collective Effort

AI-enabled autonomous systems are changing the way the military operates and protects their troops.

This work cannot be done in silos. It will take a collective effort throughout the whole distribution channel and material life cycle, from raw material extraction to design, reuse, and disposal, to make it work. New methods of approaching identification of sustainability and recycling technology progress by using “patent-mapping” as well as ranking technology using TRLs (Technology Research Level) parameters has shown to be most important.

It will also be the responsibility of this industry to tell the world how composite materials must be a part of the ongoing narrative. As an industry, there are three areas we must focus on together: Promote efforts to manage materials and products on a life cycle basis; build capacity to manage materials in the future; and accelerate the public dialogue necessary to start a generational-long shift.

The industry must come together to share ideas, exchange information (data), and work to address the common goal of sustainability. All of us should keep in mind of that wide-eyed kid learning about the beautiful world around us and how we want our children to experience a future that is better for everyone.

This article is written by Zane Clark, CEO, SAMPE North America. For more information, visit here .