Materials Processing Institute’s Post

📢 Join the movement in shaping Europe’s future! The #AntwerpDelcaration unites almost 20 sectors and growing: chemicals, pharmaceuticals, paper, steel, mining, aluminium, glass, zinc, metals, textiles, refineries, #cement, lime, fertilisers, ceramics, industrial gases and biotech. 🤝 Together, these sectors represent 7.8 million workers 👷♀️ and generate €550 billion in Europe, serving as the backbone of our society and leading the change towards climate solutions. ✅ We cannot afford to put these indispensable industries, and in turn Europe’s future, at stake. The “Antwerp Declaration” outlines the need for urgent actions to ensure Europe’s industries remain competitive, resilient, and sustainable amidst economic challenges. 🖊️ Your company or organisation can support the calls here ⤵️ https://lnkd.in/e8iqT6E2 #IndustrialDeal Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2024 European Commission Alexander De Croo Ursula von der Leyen Cefic Cepi Cerame-Unie European Industrial Gases Association (EIGA) European Lime Association (EuLA) EURATEX - European Apparel and Textile Confederation The European Steel Association (EUROFER) Eurometaux (European Metals Association) Euromines EUROPEAN ALUMINIUM Fertilizers Europe FuelsEurope Glass Alliance Europe industriAll Europe

"A strong domestic foundation industries is not a choice, but a strategic imperative for the UK” - A great article in MEM magazine highlighting the importance of the #FoundationIndustries. The foundation industries (glass, ceramics, cement, metal, paper, and chemicals) boast a collective turnover of £67.5 billion, supporting the employment of 250,000 people across the UK. These industries are energy and capital intensive, contributing 50 million tonnes of CO2 a year, therefore can be seen as polluters rather than providers of 75% of the material we use on a daily basis. UKRI’s Transforming Foundation Industries (TFI) Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK, EPSRC and ESRC: Economic and Social Research Council, is addressing these challenges. Decarbonising industry doesn’t come at a small price and requires intricate planning to ensure industries remain commercially viable while driving a sustainable future. But with demand for more sustainable materials increasing, there is a huge economic, environmental and societal opportunity to transform these industries in the UK. Partnerships and sector-wide collaboration are essential for unlocking investment opportunities and TFI has established a research and innovation hub to strengthen industry-academia networks. Creating this space allows market and demand-led improvements in technology and processes to be considered and advanced. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/ebf2BJ-g #FoundationIndustries #Research #Innovation #Collaboration #Investment

👏 Cefic welcomes the European Commission's Strategy on Advanced Materials for Industrial Leadership, a crucial move for the chemical industry's role in Europe's green and digital transition. Dr. Daniel Witthaut, MBA Cefic's Executive Director for Innovation highlights: 💬 "The chemical industry's capacity for innovation is instrumental in designing advanced materials with new functionalities. This leads to the development of new products, applications, and even value chains." These materials are vital to solve societal challenges, including reducing emissions and enhancing energy efficiency. 🔄 ➡ To ensure the Strategy's success Cefic underlines the need for: Increased funding 📈 Technology scale-up funding ↗️ Support for Private Public Partnerships 🤝 to ensure these innovations translate into industrial leadership. Aligned with the Antwerp Declaration, we're committed to a transformative European Industrial Deal. 💡 Let's innovate for a competitive, resilient Europe. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eeWyyuBk _28/02/2024 #AdvancedMaterials #GreenTransition #DigitalTransition #Innovation #Sustainability #AntwerpDeclaration #IndustrialDeal #Competition #Competitiveness #Industry #Chemistry #ChemicalIndustry  

[ MEET OUR MEMBERS ] Today we introduce you to #TCMA, the Turkish Composite Manufacturers Association / KOMPOZİT SANAYİCİLERİ DERNEĞİ, founder of the MEET4COMPOSITE | International Composite Show. ▶ TCMA's goal is to promote the use of #composites in both existing and emerging markets while ensuring that Turkish manufacturers remain competitive on the global stage. With a diverse range of companies involved in the production and application of composite materials, it aims to stimulate #innovation, #standardisation and #education across the entire value chain. ▶ #Sustainability is at the heart of TCMA's initiatives. The association works to integrate the principles of the circular economy into the composite manufacturing process by focusing on recyclability and resource efficiency, and it's involved in national and international decision making, and standards creation. Education and creating awareness among stakeholders about new developments and regulations is a further focus. 🌍 COLLABORATION AT EUROPEAN LEVEL "Membership in #EuCIA provides TCMA with a vital platform for #collaboration and #knowledge exchange on a European level. EuCIA’s #network connects us with industry leaders, policymakers and innovators across the continent, giving us access to the latest trends, regulations, technological advancements and investments in composite materials." Read more in our interview with Kerem Paksoy 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eTRsXnDt #EuCIAmembers #compositematerials #türkiye #associations #europe #circulareconomy #policy

𝐀𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐮𝐦, 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐄: "𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞" 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐄𝐔 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 Article and service by askanews A radical shift is needed to save the European #aluminium industry and secure its competitive and sustainable future. European policies are contradictory and penalise #SMEs, which account for 90% of the workforce and 70% of the value chain in this sector. This is the warning issued by Mario Conserva, President of FACE, during the conference "𝐀 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞", held at the Ara Pacis to mark the 25th anniversary of the organisation. The event served as a platform for dialogue among various stakeholders in the aluminium value chain, which must also prepare to tackle challenges posed by the United States under the new presidency of #DonaldTrump. #CesarePozzi, Professor of Industrial Economics at Luiss Guido Carli University, called for a reassessment of EU policies to revive the manufacturing sector, stressing the importance of reclaiming the cultural roots of Europe’s past success, which was built on a widespread and now declining manufacturing base. According to Pozzi, a different approach is required to revitalise the sector effectively. Senator #MassimoGaravaglia criticised #EU environmental policies, arguing that they penalise European manufacturing without reducing global emissions. He highlighted that Italy, with 3% of global GDP, contributes only 2.5% to global emissions, while China, with 20% of global GDP, accounts for 30% of emissions. Garavaglia urged boosting production in Europe and Italy to counteract the rise in global emissions effectively. The perspective from businesses was presented by Tiziana Tronci, Board Member of Gefond srl, who called for simplified measures for companies, such as improved access to credit. She also emphasised the importance of attracting young talent to the aluminium supply chain and leveraging digitalisation to make the sector more competitive and sustainable. Read the full article 👉🏼 https://lnkd.in/esnmy37j #FACE #Alluminio #AGreenCompetitivenessAgendaforEurope

I’m glad to share a piece of recently published paper on “Path dependence in environment-related innovation”. In this paper, we provide robust evidence of the path dependence in technology innovation. The accumulated stock of brown patents inhibits green structural changes in innovation. The negative path dependence effect of brown patents on green innovation is stronger in firms with large scale, state ownership, and a high level of environmental regulation. However, such negative path dependence can be alleviated for firms with superior environmental and financial performance. This suggests that the government has to create economic incentives to break the path dependence and encourage firms to engage in green innovation.

Last week was a long one, but attending the National Composites Centre and Bristol Composites Institute conference was definitely worth it. The event covered a variety topics and posed some thought-provoking questions. Here are my key takeaways and what I'll be doing next relating to: 1. Machine Learning 2. Life Cycle Analysis 3. Carbon Fibre 4. Chemical Recycling. *Machine Learning*: The challenge of building generalisable models stood out, especially at TRL 3-6, where processes often involve many uncontrolled variables. It’s tough (though not impossible, as Mark Taylor keeps reminding me) to apply data science to evolving processes. The message for UK companies is: don’t wait for generalisable models to start adopting ML. If you have an existing production process, tailored models can be created more easily - don’t risk leaving money on the table. The EconoMISER project and FISC consortium, involving CPI, has already demonstrated this. That said, if you're working with small and messy datasets, my colleague Katharina Roettger has had a lot of experience making sense of mine! *Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)*: I had a productive discussion with Stuart Walker about LCA’s role in product development. LCA too late in development risks setbacks, particularly for technologies with sustainability goals. We need to bring LCA forward in development to know when to proceed, pivot, or stop. At CPI, we do LCAs as part of getting processes ready for scale up, but I’m interested to see just how early it can be meaningfully applied? My colleague Sandra Chauruka can expect me to bend her ear on this. *Carbon Fibre at National Composites Centre*: Tim Young.'s presentation on the NCC carbon fibre line was excellent, showing how innovation in CF has cascading benefits in the supply chain. He made a strong case for why this should be done in the UK, with composites being to sectors such as energy, defence, and transport. I’ll be discussing internally at CPI how we can support these efforts. *Chemical Recycling*: Callum Branfoot’s talk on dealing with and valorising epoxy resin decomposition products (‘the goo’) resonated with my research on chemical recycling. The challenge extends beyond technical feasibility; it’s also about overcoming operational and logistical hurdles. What should optimise for, and how can we best funnel these materials back into the chemical supply chain? This feels like a challenge reminiscent of those faced by commodity petrochemicals. Fortunately, we have a wealth of expertise at CPI, and I’ll be speaking with our chemical engineers to get their view. Overall, it was an insightful week with plenty to follow up on. Thanks to BIC, NCC and the speakers for such an engaging event! #DataScience #Composites #innovation https://lnkd.in/eris_PqD

Finding the right harmony between sustainability and economic feasibility is a tough challenge in the steel sector. Dr. Karel Eloot from McKinsey & Co. shares an important perspective: even though consumers are ready to invest more for green steel, the costs associated with technological change pose considerable hurdles. Dive into the latest article from Fastmarkets for all the details: https://fmrkts.com/3ToxWIe #Fastmarkets #GreenSteel #Sustainability

🔬 ACM CRC’s research priorities focus on transport, energy, advanced manufacturing and Industry 4.0. There are several barriers spanning the current composites development lifecycle, from material design to product realisation. Our four Research Programs tackle these and other industry challenges currently faced in Australia. 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙢 1: 𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙈𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙨 Through this Program, we are addressing key challenges in materials so they meet automation, affordability and circular economy requirements. Visit https://lnkd.in/gPmPJgFG to learn more about our Research Program 1. #CompositeMaterials #Innovation #Composites #Manufacturing #CarbonFibre #Automation #Marine #Hydrogen #CircularEconomy #CooperativeResearch Russell Varley Dr Steve Gower Prof Gangadhara Prusty Cooperative Research Australia

Balancing sustainability with economic viability is no small feat in the steel industry. Dr. Karel Eloot from McKinsey & Company highlights a crucial insight: while consumers show a willingness to pay premiums for green steel, the current costs of technology transition present significant challenges. Andrew W. Perrine Faye Paul Lim Read the latest Fastmarkets article for the full story: https://fmrkts.com/3XbUSeV #Fastmarkets #GreenSteel #Sustainability