Events
Tuesday, March 25th, 2025 | 1:00 - 2:00 pm
Seth Kane, Postdoctoral Scholar, UC Davis Materials Decarbonization and Sustainability Center
Global materials production, as of 2019, exceeded 42.8 Gt and was responsible for over 25% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Simultaneously, global forestry and agriculture resulted in 9 Gt of underutilized biomass residues. The utilization of these residues in materials production represents a key pathway to reducing the burdens of materials production, creating long-term storage of atmospheric carbon, and meeting society’s material demands. There is also a growing and competing demand for biomass residues for energy production.
This seminar will discuss viable pathways to utilize biomass residues in concrete, steel, plastics, and other materials in the context of global material production, biomass residue availability, biomass properties, and material performance changes. We will highlight the role that biomass residues can play in existing roadmaps for industrial decarbonization of key materials, by informing robust supply chains using local resources and identifying hotspots to prioritize industrial and policy solutions.
Dr. Seth Kane studies sustainable materials and carbon sequestration in the built environment, with goals of emissions reductions and mitigation of damage to heavily impacted communities. His work encompasses materials (including polymer, cementitious, biomass, carbon, and composite) and technologies (including pyrolysis, additive manufacturing, alternative recycling, and energy storage) and is inspired by his first-hand experience with how a warming climate impacts both the natural and built environments, having grown up in interior Alaska. Dr. Kane completed his PhD in Mechanical Engineering with a Materials Science focus at Montana State University and is currently a postdoctoral scholar at UC Davis, focusing on industrial ecology in Civil & Environmental Engineering.
Tuesday, October 29th, 2024 | 1:00 - 2:00 pm
Sabbie Miller, Faculty Director, UC Davis Materials Decarbonization and Sustainability Center
Materials like plastics generate high emissions during production due to energy-intensive processes, while others, such as cement and concrete, have high emissions largely due to their massive scale of consumption in construction. This seminar will provide a primer on key drivers for these and other materials, which contribute disproportionately to global emissions. We will explore the specific emission challenges associated with four key materials—cement/concrete, steel, plastics, and bricks—and discuss the unique obstacles and opportunities for decarbonization in each. Attendees will gain insight into technological, policy, and design innovations that can help reduce the carbon footprint of these essential materials.