Several strategies have been posed to mitigate environmental burdens from plastics manufacturing.... more Several strategies have been posed to mitigate environmental burdens from plastics manufacturing. Two growing areas of exploration have been the use of bio-derived plastics and the use of material efficiency principles to reduce overall plastics demand. Bio-derived plastics are typically considered to be more environmentally sustainable than their petroleum-based counterparts. Additionally, advances in manufacturing technology have broadened the potential to use materials in an efficient manner by controlling internal structures, thus reducing dependency on solid components. The goal of this work was to provide an initial perspective into how internal microstructures in bio-derived plastics can broaden their range of mechanical and thermal properties, while reducing resource consumption. To determine the ability to influence material efficiency in this manner, poly(lactic) acid specimens were manufactured with 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% infill percentages, using additive manufacturing ...
The 2020 response to the coronavirus pandemic has had a profound and rapid effect on social behav... more The 2020 response to the coronavirus pandemic has had a profound and rapid effect on social behavior, the economy, and consumption. Associated declines in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have prompted calls to action to use the pandemic experience to accelerate decarbonization. Such action depends on understanding how GHG emissions reductions were achieved and whether they can be sustained. In this work, we focus on the industrial sector by comparing United States (US) industrial energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and key materials production between the first two quarters (Q1 and Q2) of 2020, when pandemic response became active, relative to 2019. We show a striking decoupling between energy use and GHG emissions in the US industrial sector between Q2 2020 and Q2 2019, yet pandemic decarbonization in the industrial sector is unlikely to be durable. Observations suggest three major takeaways for US industrial decarbonization: (1) efforts to decarbonize transportation will contribute ...
Population growth and urbanization over the coming decades are anticipated to drive unprecedented... more Population growth and urbanization over the coming decades are anticipated to drive unprecedented demand for infrastructure materials and energy resources. Unfortunately, factors such as the degree of resource consumption, the energy-intensive nature of production, and the chemical-reaction driven emissions make infrastructure materials production industries among the greatest contributors to anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Yet there is an often-overlooked potential environmental benefit to infrastructure materials: most remain in use for decades and their long service lives can facilitate extended storage of carbon. In this perspective, we present an overview of recent technological advancements that can support infrastructure materials acting as a global, distributed carbon sink and discuss areas for further research and development. We present mechanisms to quantify the extent to which the embodied carbon will be removed from the carbon cycle for a long enough period of time to prov...
Several strategies have been posed to mitigate environmental burdens from plastics manufacturing.... more Several strategies have been posed to mitigate environmental burdens from plastics manufacturing. Two growing areas of exploration have been the use of bio-derived plastics and the use of material efficiency principles to reduce overall plastics demand. Bio-derived plastics are typically considered to be more environmentally sustainable than their petroleum-based counterparts. Additionally, advances in manufacturing technology have broadened the potential to use materials in an efficient manner by controlling internal structures, thus reducing dependency on solid components. The goal of this work was to provide an initial perspective into how internal microstructures in bio-derived plastics can broaden their range of mechanical and thermal properties, while reducing resource consumption. To determine the ability to influence material efficiency in this manner, poly(lactic) acid specimens were manufactured with 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% infill percentages, using additive manufacturing ...
The 2020 response to the coronavirus pandemic has had a profound and rapid effect on social behav... more The 2020 response to the coronavirus pandemic has had a profound and rapid effect on social behavior, the economy, and consumption. Associated declines in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have prompted calls to action to use the pandemic experience to accelerate decarbonization. Such action depends on understanding how GHG emissions reductions were achieved and whether they can be sustained. In this work, we focus on the industrial sector by comparing United States (US) industrial energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and key materials production between the first two quarters (Q1 and Q2) of 2020, when pandemic response became active, relative to 2019. We show a striking decoupling between energy use and GHG emissions in the US industrial sector between Q2 2020 and Q2 2019, yet pandemic decarbonization in the industrial sector is unlikely to be durable. Observations suggest three major takeaways for US industrial decarbonization: (1) efforts to decarbonize transportation will contribute ...
Population growth and urbanization over the coming decades are anticipated to drive unprecedented... more Population growth and urbanization over the coming decades are anticipated to drive unprecedented demand for infrastructure materials and energy resources. Unfortunately, factors such as the degree of resource consumption, the energy-intensive nature of production, and the chemical-reaction driven emissions make infrastructure materials production industries among the greatest contributors to anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Yet there is an often-overlooked potential environmental benefit to infrastructure materials: most remain in use for decades and their long service lives can facilitate extended storage of carbon. In this perspective, we present an overview of recent technological advancements that can support infrastructure materials acting as a global, distributed carbon sink and discuss areas for further research and development. We present mechanisms to quantify the extent to which the embodied carbon will be removed from the carbon cycle for a long enough period of time to prov...
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Papers by Sabbie Miller