Abstract
The industrial sector is a major contributor to global energy and resource use, climate change, and pollutant emissions. To accelerate the much-needed transition to cleaner industrial pathways, manufacturers, investors, and policy makers need rigorous analyses of emerging technologies that encompass not only environmental, but also technical and economic performance criteria. This presentation will discuss how the integration of engineering analysis, life-cycle assessment, energy systems modeling, and economic analysis can be used for holistic evaluation of these important criteria, enabling more robust emerging technology research and deployment decisions. To illustrate the utility of this integrated approach, a recent case study on additive manufacturing processes applied to lightweight aircraft components will be presented, which sheds light on which applications might yield the greatest sustainability benefits, as well as which technical and cost challenges must be overcome to more quickly and fully realize these benefits.
Biography
Eric Masanet is Associate Professor in the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University, where he leads the Energy and Resource Systems Analysis Laboratory. From June 2015 to July 2017, he served as Head of the Energy Demand Technology Unit at the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris, where he led the development of long-term clean technology outlooks for the global buildings, industry, and transport sectors. He is the former Editor in Chief of Resources, Conservation, and Recycling, the leading peer-reviewed journal on sustainable resource systems. Prior to joining Northwestern in 2012, Eric spent eight years at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), where he served as Deputy Head of the International Energy Studies Group. While at LBNL, he held a joint research appointment at UC Berkeley, where he also served as Program Manager of the Engineering and Business for
Sustainability Certificate Program. He holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley, with a specialization in sustainable manufacturing.