|
by Michael C. Driver
Click HERE for PDF version of this report (Adobe PDF Reader required) Second World Materials Summit ,12 – 15 October, Suzhou, China The conference opened with a cultural visit to a Suzhou garden in the morning and a technical visit to the Suzhou Industrial Park in the afternoon. There the delegates saw a model of the industrial park.  
The industrial park is receiving a great deal of investment from the Chinese government resulting in great technical progress but also great architectural progress as can be seen from the garden shown here. 
Plenary session Monday October 12 19:40 to 20:10 New Materials in the advanced Powertrains – the future of Volkswagen’s Electric Vehicles The first presentation was by Jorg Huslage of the Research Group Electrical Drives and Fuel Cells of Volkswagen Wolfsburg, Germany. His talk discussed how Volkswagen has concluded that the best solution to the CO2 emission crisis will be the use of electric vehicles. Renewables have become important with hydrogen being the energy carrier. New engines will be downsized and efficient with electric-drive being the preferred technology. 
Cost is the most critical challenge and lithium ion batteries may be the answer. What is needed from and energy storage system for vehicles is high-energy and high-power but not at the same time. High energy cells with high specific energy and low specific power require thick electrodes. These are for “Marathon Runner” applications like the electric vehicle. High power cells with high specific power and low specific energy require thin and more porous electrodes. The applications for these cells are for “100 meter Sprinter” hybrid vehicles. Questions included the use of hydrogen in internal combustion engines rather than fuel cells, Huslage said that such uses are very inefficient. He also noted that in an electric car with a range of 100 km people would only drive 70km for fear of running out of power. He mentioned that Daimler already sells cars based on the lithium ion battery technology. Monday October 12 20:10 to 20:40 Materials Innovation of Energy Storage for the Sustainable Transport and Recent Progress and Challenges of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles Katsuhiko Hirose of the Toyota Motor Corporation of Tokyo, Japan  Hirose San started by saying that the high price of oil can seriously affect the trade balance of a nation. To combat this we need to use more public transport and provide an alternative fuel or energy source for our vehicles. He went on to say that Tokyo, London, and Paris are very exceptional cities in the world because billions have been spent in these cities on public transportation. The most promising candidate to reduce CO2 emission and to keep the high quality of mobility that we have all come to expect is hydrogen. Instead of choosing between batteries or hydrogen, Hirose advocates batteries and hydrogen. The main challenges for fuel cell vehicles are the catalyst for the fuel cell stack. It needs to have low or no platinum content. The durability of the catalyst and membrane is an issue together with the development of a high-temperature electric membrane. Hydrogen storage is also an issue requiring a low cost tensile fiber for the storage containers together with a high volumetric hydrogen storage material. The issues we face are all interconnected: population increase, rich and poor, unstable world, lack of energy, environmental pollution, and climate change. Materials developments will help us to cut these connections. “The end of the stone age was not due to the lack of stone” and new material will lead us to technical innovation and change society to a sustainable one. The new “axe” material is hydrogen and electricity. Tuesday October 13 9:40 to 10:10 Materials for Efficient Energy Production and Usage. Raymond Lee Orbach, University of Texas at Austin, USA. 
Current fossil energy sources, current energy production methods, and current technologies cannot meet the energy challenges we now face. We need transformational discoveries and disruptive technologies rooted in the ability to direct and control matter down to the molecular, atomic, and quantum levels. Five areas where science and imagination can impact energy security are: solar energy utilization electrical energy storage, bioenergy, nuclear energy (fission and fusion), and hydrogen production, storage, and use. For solar energy the technology requires: photovoltaics exceeding thermodynamic efficiency limits (e.g. multi exciton generation from a single photon), easily manufactured, low cost polymer and nanoparticle photovoltaic structures, efficient photoelectrolysis, defect-tolerant and self-repairing systems, bio-inspired molecular assemblies systems, and new experimental and theoretical tools.To take advantage of intermittent energy generators like wind and solar, efficient energy storage is required. Batteries and ultracapacitors will benefit from advances in nanomaterials. Nanoscale science will also benefit biofuel production by aiding the design of catalysts for biofuel production.Nuclear energy presently provides 20% of the USA nation’s electricity and could provide more. The issues are the disposal of spent fuel and the threat of nuclear proliferation. Bys closing the fuel cycle the spent fuel can be burned in fission reactors. Cracks in the “first wall” of containment of the nuclear process are a problem but experiments with copper-niobium are looking promising. Fusion holds great promise and China is a major partner with the US in building a fusion reactor. The hydrogen economy is a compelling vision that provides ample and sustainable energy, flexible interchange with existing energy technologies, and a diversity of end uses to provide electricity through fuel cells. Basic research is needed in hydrogen production (catalysts, photocatalysis, bio-production, solar and nuclear), hydrogen storage (hydrides, nanoscale materials, theory), and fuel cells (electrocatalysts and membranes, low temperature fuel cells, and solid oxide fuel cells) Tuesday October 13 10:10 to 10:40 Materials for Low Carbon Energy
Liquan Chen, Institute of Physics, CAS, China
The speaker started by showing that the primary source of energy in China was from coal (68.7%), followed by oil (19.5%) and hydro and nuclear (8.0%). He said that China was the largest country producing at least 90% of its energy internally and that the emphasis was on lean energy production. Clean coal was a major effort with a coal-based solid oxide fuel cell using an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) and an integrated gasification fuel cell system (IGFC). There was work going on to reduce the temperature of operation of the fuel cell from 1000C to 600C using Fe-CeO2 –Cu catalysts to produce hydrogen. 
By 2020 4% of China’s electricity will be produced by nuclear power (30 new nuclear power stations) and 16% by 2030 (160GW). He showed an International (Thermonuclear) Experimental reactor (ITER) where functionally graded materials will be used as a first wall. China has the most hydroelectric capacity of any country in the world (300MKW by 2020) and the Three Gorges Dam plant produces electricity equivalent to 50M tons of coal reducing CO2 pollution by 100M tons. Electricity loss has been reduced by the introduction of superconducting cables which transport more than 500M KWh of power and work is progressing on improving the quantum efficiency of white LEDs to 60%. He also described work on improving the insulating properties of window glass for buildings. Wind power is also important and by 2020 3% (30MKw) of the nation’s power will be produced by wind and these numbers will also be achieved by solar power. Solar furnace has already been used to produce silicon single crystals. Energy storage has also been tackled by the development of Na/S cells and Li-ion batteries particularly for transportation applications.
Tuesday October 13
Scientific Issues for Future Nuclear Energy Claude Guet, Office of the High Commissioner for Atomic Energy, France • Defined by the energy act of July 2005 – in harmony with European climate action and renewable energy package adopted in 2008 (under the French presidency ) • Objectives – Increase the share of renewable energy from 9% to 23 % by 2020 – Reduce energy consumption – national energy independence and guaranted security of supply – Ensure competitive energy prices • How : – « There is no choice between nuclear or renewables, nuclear and renewables have to go together » – To increase research into energy field – To provide methods of transporting and storing energy |
Academics and industry experts from around the world have gathered at American University of Sharjah (AUS) to participate in the Fourth IMS International Conference for Applications of Traditional and High Performance Materials in Harsh Environments which commenced at the university today, Wednesday March 25. The two-day event is organized by the Institute of Materials Systems (IMS) at the university’s College of Engineering (CEN) and has brought together engineers and scholars to exchange ideas and discuss the latest developments in materials and present their work to the international materials community. 
.
Call for Participants
