Keynote
LTS-PROCESSED CERAMIC COMPOSITES – LOW-COST HIGH-PERFORMANCE SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS

Our laboratory focuses on finding profitable ways to reduce CO₂ emissions at a scale and timeframe that enables the gradual phase-in of renewable energy. Such a program deployed in 10-15 years will effectively reduce CO₂ emissions by 20%, or about 7 billion tonnes. CO₂ emissions using a three-pronged approach: (1) Emit less CO₂ by developing low cost manufacturing processes and new classes of materials to lightweight vehicles. (2) Invent processes that utilize CO₂ as a feedstock to create carbon neutral and carbon-negative footprint products. (3) Capture and sequester CO₂ through subsurface storage. Our analysis of these three approaches show that by low-cost approaches (1) and (2) achieve remarkable reductions in CO₂ emissions, without the necessity to deploy costly approach (3). Technologies commercialized to effect (1) and (2) not result in benchmark-performance materials at low-cost. Work on cement and concrete prove this, as they are the cheapest composites in the world.