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Materials Needs for Energy Sustainability by 2050: Are We Really At Risk of Running out of Critical Materials?

Monday, April 10
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Marriott, Second Level, Foothill G1/G2

Efforts to reach net zero targets by the second half of the century will have profound materials supply implications. For example, the use of lithium in electric vehicles is expected to grow by over an order of magnitude by 2030, with the additional demand corresponding to multiples of current global production. Similar projections exist for rare earth elements, nickel, cobalt, and other critical materials used in other clean energy technologies, and accelerate through the next decades.

Materials supply risk is not new, and the industry has been dealing with these types of issues for a long time. However, the magnitude and breadth of anticipated changes across supply chains, driven by the scale and speed of the energy transition, raises an important question about our ability to reach decarbonization goals. Simply put, are we at risk of running out of critical materials during the energy transition?

This interactive event will bring together participants from the industry to consider this question. The panel discussion will look at the “big picture” of critical materials use in clean energy and sustainability, explore how the industry actually diagnoses and responds to supply chain risks, and examine the role of innovation in materials science and engineering in helping solve various aspects of the material supply challenge.

 


Networking Reception

Participants in this event had the opportunity to connect with their peers and our panelists directly following the Materials Needs for Energy Sustainability by 2050 Panel!

Monday, April 10
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Marriott, Second Level, Foothill F

 

 

Anthony Ku, Moderator—Xiron Global

Anthony Ku is co-founder of Xiron Global, a strategic advisory group serving clients in the areas of clean energy, materials, and sustainability. He was Chief Technology Officer at NICE America, a clean energy technology incubator affiliated with China Energy, with responsibilities for strategy and technical execution in areas related to carbon management, hydrogen infrastructure development, and energy management. Prior to joining NICE, he was a Senior Engineer at GE Global Research where he led advanced materials development projects in support of GE’s Water, Energy, Aviation, and Healthcare businesses. He was also a founding editor of Sustainable Materials and Technologies, a technical journal focused on reducing the knowledge gap between materials development and system-level engineering design. Anthony has been active in materials sustainability for over a decade, and currently co-chairs the Industrial Advisory Board for the EU’s International Roundtable on Critical Materials. He earned a PhD from Princeton University and MS and BS degrees from MIT, all in chemical engineering.

 

Yoshiko Fujita, Speaker—Idaho National Laboratory and Critical Materials Institute (DOE)

Dr. Yoshiko Fujita is a distinguished staff scientist in the Energy and Environment Science & Technology Directorate at the Idaho National Laboratory. She is also the lead for the Driving Reuse & Recycling Focus Area within DOE’s Critical Materials Institute. She has served as a principal investigator on multiple projects sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Offices of Science, Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, and Fossil Energy, in the areas of critical materials, subsurface contaminant fate and transport, and geothermal energy. Her primary research expertise is in the areas of metal-microbe biogeochemistry and water quality, with an emphasis on fundamental studies supporting the development of practical applications and approaches for implementation. Most of her work has been characterized by interdisciplinary collaborations, at scales ranging from the molecular to the field.

 

Robert Gray, Speaker—DuPont

Robert Gray is a Technology Director with 25 years of technology and business leadership at DuPont, focused on the intersection of innovation and value creation. He is currently the DuPont Climate, Circular Economy, and Water Strategist. Additionally, he is the W&P Operations Sustainability Leader and leads efforts relating to Substances of Concern.

He joined DuPont in 1997 where he has held a series of technology and business leadership roles including Product Management, Process Development, Manufacturing Technology, and Applications Development. These have crossed many DuPont Products including Tyvek®, Kevlar®, Nomex®, Corian®, Elvanol®, Typar® and Intermediates. More recently he was the Manufacturing and Processing Technology Leader for Tyvek® and Typar® and prior to that the Asia Pacific Applications Leader for the Safety Business based in Shanghai, China.

Gray has a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from MIT and a MS degree in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech.

 

Andrew Haddad, Speaker—Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Andrew is a research scientist in the Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). There, his group studies mechanisms of ion separation and recovery with a specific interest in addressing separation problems that affect water and critical materials security. He is a member of the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) desalination hub centered at LBNL, and a member of the Lithium Resource Research and Innovation Center (LiRRIC), an interdisciplinary research hub at LBNL focused on addressing lithium related research. Previously, Andrew was a Rosenfeld Postdoctoral Fellow at LBNL/UC Berkeley and earned his PhD in chemistry from the University of Louisville.

 

 

This program was organized by the MRS Focus on Sustainability subcommittee in collaboration with MRS Energy & Sustainability.

 


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