Tackling metal scarcity, rising demand & climate impact

Описание: Seminar by Professor DebRoy of Penn State University, organised by Prakash Srirangam of Warwick University.

Abstract: The global metals industry, the backbone of modern civilization, is facing severe challenges from resource scarcity, rising demand, and greenhouse gas emissions. Known reserves of critical metals such as copper, nickel, and chromium may be exhausted within decades at current extraction rates. Demand continues to grow with population increase and the transition to green energy and electric vehicles, while metal production remains highly polluting; steelmaking alone accounts for about 8% of global CO₂ emissions, several times more than the entire aviation sector. In our recent Nature article, we propose five complementary strategies and their implementation to address these threats. These include: intelligent material substitution (e.g., niobium-microalloyed steel replacing carbon–manganese steel to cut CO₂ emissions by ~20%); adoption of green technologies aided by appropriate incentives to overcome the high cost of adoption; advancing circularity through longer product lifetimes and enhanced recycling of key materials; strengthening supply chains via diversification, stockpiling, and enforceable international agreements; and investing in workforce skills for sustainability and automation. Together, these measures can rejuvenate the global metals industry, safeguard the environment, and ensure a sustainable future.

Tarasankar DebRoy is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, at Pennsylvania State University, a journal editor, a YouTuber, and a former Fulbright-FACAPE Distinguished Chair holder. He authored Innovations in Everyday Engineering Materials (11,000+ downloads, Springer), Theory and Practice of Additive Manufacturing (Wiley, 100+ worked examples), and the forthcoming Digital Twins of Advanced Materials Processing (Academic Press, Elsevier, Fall 2025). His papers have been well cited ( in excess of 44,000 times). He earned the Arata Award (IIW, France), the Easterling Award (University of Graz, Austria, and IIW), the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Distinguished Visiting Fellowship (Cambridge), and the American Welding Society’s Irrgang, Spraragen, Savage, Jennings, Honorary Membership, and other awards. He has held the Distinguished Visiting Professorship at IIT Bombay, the Aditya Birla Chair at IISc Bangalore, and visiting professorships at KTH Stockholm, University West (Sweden), and AUST (Nigeria). He delivered invited talks worldwide, including at Cambridge, Cornell, Michigan, UCLA, IISc (India), CMRDI (Egypt), CSIRO (Australia), and the U.S. Department of State.