Special Seminar: How Low Can You Go?—Assessing the role of emerging technologies in low-demand pathways to industrial decarbonization

Optional ZOOM LINK
Meeting ID: 944 9274 9893
​Passcode: 337292

In its most recent assessment (AR6), the IPCC identified low energy- and materials-demand pathways as crucial—yet largely untapped—options for accelerating global progress toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. The industrial sector is key to unlocking these pathways, but to do so it must adopt numerous emerging technologies whose technical, economic, and energy impacts remain uncertain.

This seminar will discuss how innovative engineering models can be applied to simulate technology performance and impacts "at scale" by integrating methods from the process modeling, economic analysis, climate scenario modeling, and life cycle assessment domains. Such models can highlight both potential technology benefits (environmental, social, economical) at scale and the barriers that must be overcome to achieve them, providing actionable guidance to technology innovators and policy makers that can accelerate adoption. To illustrate the utility of such integrated approaches, recent applications to additive manufacturing, industrial tooling, and cement/concrete material systems will be presented and discussed, as well as how such methods can (and should!) become part of the engineer's "toolkit" for addressing global sustainability challenges.

Hosted by Professor Lee Lynd.

About the Speaker(s)

Eric Masanet
Professor of Environmental Science & Management, UCSB

Eric Masanet holds the Mellichamp Chair in Sustainability Science for Emerging Technologies at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB), where he is also professor in the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and (by courtesy) in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. His research develops methods that integrate process systems analysis, techno-economic analysis, and LCA techniques to identify technology and policy pathways to sustainable, economical, and equitable industrial systems. His public service roles include leadership of the Energy Demand Technology Unit at the International Energy Agency, lead author for the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report, an author of the Fifth US National Climate Assessment, consultant in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Research Advisory Board member at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. He holds a PhD in mechanical engineering from UC Berkeley, with a specialization in sustainable manufacturing systems.

Contact

For more information, contact Ashley Parker at ashley.l.parker@dartmouth.edu.