Publication date: 10th April 2024
The transformation to a future renewable green economy based on new sustainable energy sources will require a new infrastructure and large amounts of new materials. The development and production of the new material has to be based on a sustainable and fair use of our resources, which demands a lifecycle in a truly circular economy. Recycling is difficult from the entropy point of view, but nearly inexhaustible solar energy can be the driver for sustainability for the foreseeable future.
The development of recyclable materials for e.g. renewable green fuel production, storage, transport and utilisation requires large-scale production from secondary raw materials. The decision making for future resilient energy systems has to be based on environmental and climate neutrality aspects as well as on performance criteria defined by a holistic life cycle assessment and thus a new dynamic metric of sustainability. The implementation of these intelligent green concepts for a future sustainable economy requires profound knowledge on environmental footprints and long-term performance factors. Such goals can be achieved by using regenerative or self-repairing materials, programmable self-disassembling and recyclable materials based on solid state ionics.