The demand for products and services with more sustainable credibility is driving innovations across materials sectors, including gas separation membranes, composite materials for green energy, and next-generation feedstocks, which are all explored in depth within IDTechEx's portfolio of Sustainability Research Reports and Subscriptions.
Achieving high purity gases
Gas separation processes are necessary across multiple industries to remove unwanted impurities from gases, such as natural gas or biogas. This could be for medical uses, where oxygen or nitrogen are required, or for industrial uses, where hydrogen is in demand as an alternative to fossil fuels in clean energy or transportation applications. IDTechEx's report, "Gas Separation Membranes 2026-2036: Materials, Markets, Players, and Forecasts", describes how achieving high purity of these gases can prove to be challenging with current technologies, which is where new approaches are being developed. For some applications including certain types of hydrogen fuel cells for energy storage and fuel cell electric vehicles, extremely pure hydrogen is required, as some fuel cells cannot tolerate CO impurities.
The use of membranes for gas separation can provide numerous benefits outlined in IDTechEx's report. The energy efficiency associated with membrane-based gas separation can keep carbon footprints low, while the design of the technologies is compact and ideal for smaller spaces and can be also scaled to meet demands. Membrane systems also don't require solvents or chemicals that are environmentally harmful, meaning they can contribute to achieving sustainability targets.
Composites for green energy parts
A large part of the growing green energy space is the materials that physically enable the technologies. Composite materials can allow for lightweight and high-performance qualities across a number of sectors and are required in growing volumes for the green energy sector. Wind turbine blades and hydrogen storage tanks in particular are mentioned by IDTechEx in the report, "Composite Materials for Green Energy Markets 2026-2046: Sustainable Technologies, Players & Trends", as being notable applications for composite materials.
Sustainable movements within the composites sector are largely driven by governmental regulations, many of which are outlined within IDTechEx's report. Within Europe, the EU Green Deal & Circular Economy Action Plan promotes the recyclability and reusability of products, including composites, while the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities works to promote investments into sustainable materials and composite processing technologies that have low environmental impact. In China, the Circular Economy Promotion Law focuses on the promotion of closed-loop material flows and resource-efficient manufacturing, and in South Korea, the Framework Act on Resource Circulation encourages recovery from waste and promotes eco-friendly product certification for low-emission, recyclable materials. The inclusion of composites within these regulations highlights a significant move towards ensuring that the use of composites can begin to comply with sustainability movements.
Biomass feedstocks for chemical production
The presence of decarbonization efforts across many major sectors also includes the chemical sector, with IDTechEx reporting that chemical product exports were responsible for US$2.3 trillion in 2023 and many chemicals having huge carbon footprints. IDTechEx's report, "Next-Generation Feedstocks for Sustainable Chemicals 2025-2035: Markets, Players, Forecasts", focuses on the upcoming use of bio-feedstocks for chemical manufacturing, including waste agricultural residues for 2nd generation feedstocks, algal cultures for 3rd generation, and genetically engineered microorganisms for 4th generation. Many of the drivers for these innovations include factors such as the push for circularity across many sectors and the reduction of environmentally toxic waste, along with public awareness and subsequent expectation of more sustainably produced products.
Due to the high costs of chemicals produced from next-generation feedstocks and the lower yields associated with the manufacturing processes of sustainable chemicals, uptake is expected to be slow. Other challenges outlined by IDTechEx in the report include meeting demand for large quantities of chemicals, as creating high yields of sustainable chemicals is still not feasible, and the lack of sufficient regulation and legislations mandating the use of biochemicals. However, the lack of competition with food crops for next-generation feedstocks is hopeful, alongside the potential for jobs to be created in rural areas surrounding the creation of these feedstocks, meaning as processes become more established, sustainable chemicals can become more widespread.
For more information on sustainability and decarbonization efforts across many major sectors, visit IDTechEx's portfolio of Sustainability Research Reports and Subscriptions for the latest research, developments, and forecasts.
