As the UK races towards playing its part in the global community’s ambitious net zero goals, the National Materials Innovation Strategy, developed by the Henry Royce Institute, is trying to position the UK as a leader in sustainable materials, championing breakthroughs that could fundamentally change how we generate, store and use energy while reducing our footprint.
At the core of the effort is the belief that materials science underpins every major advancement. “Materials is the base of everything,” says David Knowles, CEO of the Henry Royce Institute. “Everything we do in the manufacturing space and the technology space is linked into materials.”
Materials are key to our changing economy – and the tools that will keep emissions down in years to come, he reckons. “We’re not going to have quantum computing without materials.”
Yet, despite its importance, materials science has traditionally been siloed within industries, slowing down innovation. And, although it’s integral to everything we do, it’s often overlooked.
David Knowles
“Materials is everyone’s second best friend,” says Knowles. “People don’t lead with it, but it’s absolutely essential to the delivery of different areas of technology.”
Understanding its importance – and unlocking how materials development can cut across industries – is why the strategy was developed. But beyond the broad shifts, there are a number of game-changing materials that could give the UK the edge in the fight against climate change.
1. Lithium-free batteries
Batteries are set to be the backbone of the clean energy transition, powering the electric vehicles revolution and providing grid-scale storage to reduce reliance on more polluting energy sources when seasonal shifts in our energy demand require greater supply.
But today’s lithium-ion batteries have multiple drawbacks, from high costs to limited supply chains and environmental concerns around lithium mining. In 2021 and 2022, the demand for lithium to build batteries outstripped supply, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) – despite the fact that production has increased by 180% since 2017. That’s why the UK is focusing on alternative battery chemistries. Among the methods recommended in the innovation strategy are plans to develop and deploy next-generation battery chemistries and materials to improve performance and diversify supply away from constrained chains. Sodium-ion and solid-state batteries are leading the charge, offering higher energy density, improved safety and a more sustainable supply chain.
“While lithium-ion (li-ion) technologies are the predominant technology in the short (and likely medium) term, there is a significant opportunity to accelerate the development and deployment of a portfolio of battery chemistries, including post-li-ion (for example, sodium-ion, solid-state, lithium-sulphur), as well as large-scale flow batteries,” the report authors write.
Moving beyond lithium is important – and this is recognised globally. But the challenge is to scale up production while ensuring the materials meet global performance standards, stepping forwards, rather than backwards. One way in which the UK stands ahead of competitors here, the report acknowledges, is that it is home to The Faraday Institution, spearheading research into next-generation batteries to try to develop alternative chemistries that can become viable commercial solutions. If successful, these innovations could make battery storage cheaper, more efficient and more widely available.
2. Net zero cement
Cement and concrete production is responsible for nearly 8% of global CO₂ emissions, making it one of the largest industrial polluters. We use a lot of concrete around the world every year, too: 4.2 billion tonnes annually. So it’s understandable that the strategy is aiming to develop a lower-carbon construction centre. “If we got net zero cement – even a 50% reduction – it would have an unbelievable impact on our transition to net zero,” Knowles says. Innovations in cements, carbon-capturing aggregates and self-healing concrete are making it possible to cut emissions while improving durability.
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We’ve seen those innovations for decades around the world: limestone calcined clay cement, nicknamed LC3, has been around since 2005, with some predicting it could account for more than a quarter of all cement used worldwide by 2050. It’s able to reduce emissions by 40% compared with traditional concrete and Portland cement. And there are new innovations every year from university laboratories and private companies. One recent example from the University of Cambridge involves the ability to recycle Portland cement by heating it in electric arc furnaces.
But, while those laboratories and industry are making great strides in developing cleaner cement and other building materials, there are hitches elsewhere. One major barrier to bringing these new technologies into the construction sector? Insurance and regulatory hurdles. “You can’t bring new material innovations into the built environment at pace because insurance companies want bricks and mortar, and established ways of doing things,” Knowles explains.
That issue is one key reason why a focus of the new materials strategy is doing more than simply promoting the adoption of new material development, and instead looking more holistically at how to tackle those non-technical barriers to unlock the speedier adoption of sustainable building materials in the future.
3. Specialist, sustainable polymers
Plastics are one of the world’s biggest environmental problems, with hundreds of millions of tonnes ending up in landfills and oceans every year.
The UK is no different, with the National Materials Innovation Strategy pointing to data suggesting British households generate 90 billion pieces of plastic waste every year – less than a fifth of which is recycled domestically. We’re also heading in the wrong direction, with the amount of packaging waste expected to triple by 2050. The strategy therefore makes the development of biodegradable and bio-based polymers to replace traditional plastics one of its core recommendations, with a section devoted to consumer products, packaging and specialist polymers.
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By leveraging plant-based sources and industrial waste, researchers are creating plastics that break down naturally, reducing environmental impact. But, in this instance, it’s not just an engineering problem of finding more eco-friendly alternatives to traditional plastics that have polluted our planet. Beyond simply finding better materials, the UK is also championing a circular economy approach, ensuring that new materials are designed for reuse, recycling and decomposition from the start.
“As a group, we’ve turned the phrase ‘sustainable by design’,” says Knowles. “That hasn’t been the mantra of people when they’ve been thinking about new materials or the application of new materials. But now it’s got to be ingrained in everything we do.”
That has huge implications for the design of materials. “One of the first questions we ask now is: ‘Can we unmake this as easily as we can make it?’” he adds. “It’s not just about better materials and higher-performing materials; that’s one of the design criteria that we’ve got to consider.”
One issue is that there is no consensus on certain terminology. Knowles points out that, while it’s good to pursue sustainable polymers, there is no agreement on what ‘sustainable’ really means worldwide or across industries. And without that agreed-upon target, it’s difficult to know exactly how to get there.
4. Next-gen electronics
Energy waste is a massive issue for our environment – and so tackling its scourge is vital, but tricky. Electronics are vital to modern life, but they consume enormous amounts of energy. “I think one of the big opportunities is next-generation power electronics and transistors,” says Knowles, pointing to low-energy-loss electronics as “a huge opportunity going forward.” The challenge is ensuring the UK takes the right approach, he says. Rather than trying to catch industry up, it should pursue a strategy that leapfrogs rival countries. “This is ambitious, but if we get the digital piece right, that will be transformational in the discovery and application of new materials, because nobody around the world’s got that,” he says.
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New materials like wide-bandgap semiconductors and meta-materials could cut energy loss in electronics by a significant chunk, amping up the efficiency of everything from data centres to electric vehicles – both of which look likely to power the economy in years to come. The UK is also investing heavily in quantum materials and low-power transistors through the Materials for Quantum Network, established in 2022, with the goal of developing even more energy-efficient computing systems.
The strategy puts these next-generation materials at the heart of the revolution that can ensure the UK plays a significant role in the race to net zero. If they’re brought to commercial production, these breakthroughs could slash electricity consumption across industries and put the UK at the heart of sustainable electronics manufacturing globally.
5. Hydrogen storage materials
Hydrogen is frequently hailed as the fuel of the future and has been championed by the IEA as a way to achieve net zero goals, but storing and transporting it remains a major challenge. That’s why UK researchers – guided by the National Materials Innovation Strategy – are developing better materials for hydrogen transport, storage and use, as well as for the generation and conversion of energy through large-scale electrochemical means.
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The strategy sees three key areas of technology in which industry ought to focus: developing new barriers and coatings, developing better materials to enable deployment in extreme environments of the type that storage solutions may encounter, and developing materials that enable ‘hydrogen to X’ – shifting the hydrogen to a fuel stock that can enable use elsewhere.
Given that demand for hydrogen energy in the EU and the UK is expected to be around 2,750TWh by 2050, and the global size of the hydrogen economy is expected to rise from £136bn in 2023 to at least £2trn by 2050, UK leadership in this space could be a major economic driver – while also accelerating the shift away from fossil fuels.
Enabling all these innovations outlined in the National Materials Innovation Strategy is Materials 4.0, the digital revolution transforming materials research. “That’s applying AI and those ‘sexy’ words, but it is also more like a digital thread right across the manufacturing chain,” says Knowles. “It’s got a real opportunity to bind the materials community together in a way that we haven’t been able to before, because we have to develop common methods and processes, and they have to be the same for all the different material sectors. We can’t create different silos around how we tackle those challenges in silico. It’s a great opportunity right now to go on the front foot and use that as the glue to bring us all back together.”
The strategy is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lead the world in sustainable materials, paving the way for a greener, more resilient economy that gets us closer to the global net zero targets that will keep the climate emergency in check. Get the strategy right and “the opportunities are endless,” Knowles explains.
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