Sustainable materials for industry and manufacturing

One of the core goals of “Industry 4.0” is to improve sustainability in practice. There are endless ways that have been proposed to accomplish this. Increased adaptation of automation and ‘smart’ feedback technologies, innovative materials with reduced carbon footprint, and better characterization and analysis tools to assess whether new ‘green’ materials are truly sustainable.¹

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Advancing towards a “zero net” goal of zero net carbon footprint has become a priority for governments around the world, prompting manufacturers and industries to change practices and adopt more sustainable approaches. are beginning to introduce laws that encourage them to adapt to²

A key concept in sustainability practice is the idea of ​​a “circular economy”. In a true circular economy, no waste is generated as all products can be reused as starting materials in one process or as raw materials in another process.³ A circular economy is an attractive concept as it reduces stress on finite natural resources while at the same time addressing the growing problem of environmental waste. This issue is of particular concern for materials such as plastics that persist in the environment for long periods of time, and the potential impact of microplastic waste on the environment. , animal and human health.^Four

Reducing energy usage is also a hot topic in industry. With the current energy crisis, increasing energy unit costs, and threats to energy supply security in many countries, minimizing energy consumption has never been more important from a financial or environmental perspective. I’m here.

The big question now is how to achieve all these goals, especially in the ever-growing construction sector.^Five Construction contributes significantly to global greenhouse gas emissions and is also typically very energy intensive.

The construction industry’s environmental and energy footprint comes from many different places. The first is the costs associated with manufacturing or extracting raw construction materials and transporting them. Then there is the energy consumption associated with the construction process itself and the environmental damage associated with dust generation and the impact of heavy machinery. Finally, there is the impact of building operations and operations on aspects such as heating, lighting and ventilation.

What are sustainable materials?

So what is the answer to the growing sustainability challenges facing the construction industry and many other manufacturing and industrial processes? One is the development of new sustainable materials.

Sustainable materials can be materials created from renewable resources or refactored waste, rather than those manufactured from petrochemical sources, which account for most of today’s chemicals. Other examples of sustainable materials could replace steel standards in the form of new alloys. Such alloys can offer mechanical performance equal to or better than existing steels, but are lighter, reducing the need for concrete and supporting structures.

One of the challenges for researchers developing new materials is how to evaluate them in terms of chemical composition and structural analysis, and how to evaluate and compare the sustainability of such materials.

Achieving this means using a variety of analytical techniques and instruments. For metal alloys, methods such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analysis, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy are commonly used. For polymers and other products, mass spectrometry-based methods are very useful techniques, and methods such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) are used to analyze potential outgassing into the local environment. A very useful tool for

Quantifying the composition of materials is essential to understanding how and why they behave the way they do. It is also important to establish comparative values ​​that can be used to determine whether new materials with desirable properties are truly more sustainable than other materials.

Importance of collaboration

The question of how to assess and establish benchmarks, guidelines and actionable legislation for sustainable materials is important to address and one of Pittcon’s main tracks. Dr. Matthew Glasscott will host a session welcoming international experts on ‘Sustainable Building Materials’ as part of the Pittcon conference.

Dr. Glasscott, an expert in environmental analysis, will speak with Dr. Chris Suiteer (NIST), Dr. Judith Vidal (National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)), and Dr. Paul Kempler (University of Oregon, Oregon Electrochemical Center). Dr. Mo Li (University of California, Irvine) discusses how analytical methods, models, and tools can help address materials-related sustainability issues in the construction industry. Click here for more information on this event.

An international conference and trade fair, Pittcon is a long-established event dedicated to bringing together experts in the many fields covered by analytical techniques for sustainable industrial development.

Pittcon will feature conference sessions dedicated to fostering collaboration among professionals from diverse backgrounds, highlighting new strategies for analyzing and assessing the sustainability of materials and recent studies on sustainability. and the ideal place to find upcoming legislative changes.

For more information about Pittcon and how to register, please visit our home page. Information on the conference schedule and details of all speakers can be found in the technical programme.

References and bibliography

1. Tseng, ML, Tran, TPT, Ha, HM, Bui, TD, & Lim, MK (2021). Trends and Challenges in Sustainable Industrial and Operations Engineering for Industry 4.0: Data-Driven Analysis. Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering, 38(8), 581–598. https://doi.org/10.1080/21681015.2021.1950227
2. Sartal, A., Bellas, R., Mejías, AM, & García-Collado, A. (2020). Sustainable Manufacturing Concepts, Evolution, and Opportunities within Industry 4.0: A Literature Review. Advances in Mechanical Engineering, 12(5). https://doi.org/10.1177/1687814020925232
3. Hossain, MU, Ng, ST, Antwi-Afari, P., & Amor, B. (2020). The circular economy and the construction industry: existing trends, challenges, and future frameworks for sustainable construction. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 130 (October 2019), 109948. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2020.109948
4. Narancic, T., and O’Connor, KE (2019). Plastic Waste as a Global Challenge: Are Biodegradable Plastics the Answer to the Plastic Waste Problem? Microbiology, 165(2), 129–137. https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.000749
5. Onat, NC, and Kucukvar, M. (2020). The Carbon Footprint of the Construction Industry: A Global Review and Supply Chain Analysis. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Review, 124, 109783. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2020.109783

This information was sourced from, reviewed and adapted from material provided by Pittcon.

See Pittcon for more information on this source.