Sustainable materials with both eyes open

Allwood, J M and Cullen J M 2011. Paperback, UIT Cambridge, 297 pp. ISBN 978-1906860059 £24·95/$49·95.

In 2009, Professor David Mackay published his now-famous insight into sustainability in the energy industry, ‘Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air’. Another Cambridge academic has recently done the same thing for materials.

Dr Julian Allwood has hitherto been known mainly for his work on flexible manufacturing processes, notably in metalforming. His recent focus has been on sustainability issues, however, and he currently heads the WellMet2050 research group in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering. Its 5-year EPSRC grant addresses the commodity metals of steel and aluminium, and WellMet2050’s objective is to propose ways of making and using these metals that will fulfil the world’s Kyoto commitments. Although the 2005 Kyoto protocol calls for a 50% reduction in CO₂ emissions, the challenge to steel and aluminium in contributing their share is to achieve a four-fold reduction. The additional factor of two follows from a projected doubling of demand over the next forty years.

The book ‘Sustainable Materials With Both Eyes Open’ is based mainly on the outcomes of the first half of the WellMet2050 program, but it also extends the analysis to include cement, paper and plastics. These five materials taken together represent the five biggest generators of CO₂ in the global materials industry. Their coverage in the book is neither prescriptive nor proselytising; Allwood and his team have been careful to present the facts objectively and clearly. The style is engaging and modern, with a distinct ‘Generation Y’ feel, and the result is exemplary popular science – stimulating, lucid and evidence-based. The visual impact of the book is exceptional, and its structure makes it equally conducive to either browsing or study, according to the reader’s interest.

The book begins with a powerful metaphor, by converting per capita material masses into equivalent body weights and thereby confronting us with our personal Material Family in the form of a cohort of phantom children. Next, the statistics of the global materials industry are set out, and the material and energy flows (illustrated with great perspicacity by Jonathan Cullen’s Sankey diagrams) are developed. The authors then ‘open one eye’, and project the best feasible outcomes of present-day industry sustainability initiatives. These initiatives, targeted mainly on the primary processes in ore reduction, are shown to be insufficient – even if carbon capture and scrap recycling objectives are fully realised. The ‘Both Eyes Open’ view then introduces a series of concepts that sum together to bridge the gap. Some of these relate to material efficiency within the manufacturing process while others focus on the use-phase of materials. A reduction in the physical volume of material produced is essential to the realisation of these concepts, but a diminution of business is not – increased added value and competitive advantage are surely implicit in industry’s pursuit of material efficiency.

Although the book’s front page authors are given as Julian Allwood and Jonathan Cullen, the contributions of the six WellMet2050 PhD students (Mark Carruth, Dan Cooper, Martin McBrien, Rachel Milford, Muiris Moynihan and Sandy Patel) are also acknowledged. The continuation of their collective work in the second phase of the WellMet2050 project will centre on practical demonstrations of the carbon-saving principles revealed by the book. ‘With Both Eyes Open’ promises to be a provocative catalyst for the materials technology community’s increasing recognition of our significant role in sustaining mankind’s resources.

Mick Steeper Chair, Rolling Committee (MSTD) and member of Iron and Steel Society board, IoM3

“Sustainable Materials With Both Eyes Open” was published on 24^th November 2011 by UIT. More information about the book, including its e-version, can be found at http://www.withbotheyesopen.com/

The WellMet2050 project also has its own website at http://www.wellmet2050.com/