WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Aluminium is one of the Earth’s most common minerals but now AI’s are designing alloys, new use cases are emerging, and it’s all going green …

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Firstly, thanks to Paul and Dana at AZ China for asking me to be the keynote for their annual Aluminium summit which is normally held in China but this year because of COVID-19, yet again, was held virtually.

Heavy industry is necessary in today’s world, after all we use huge quantities of aluminium, concrete, steel, and other products in all the things we see around us – from buildings and infrastructure to packaging, vehicles, and all manner of other things.

Rewind and replay the keynote!

With foundations and processes that are over a century old though the industry on the one hand accounts for 7% of all global greenhouse gas emissions, and on the other, with the development of new alloys, holds the key to helping us create future products such as lighter aircraft, robots, and space craft, as well as opening the door to new architectural possibilities. And many more.

During my keynote I showed the audience how new Creative Machines from companies like Toyota are helping design new alloys 200x faster than previous methods, delved into the future of transportation and the debate about battery electric vehicles (BEV’s) and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV’s), and then looked at new energy and manufacturing processes which on the one hand will help the industry decarbonise quickly, and on the other will drive the debate about the aluminium casting, powder, scrap, and sheet markets.

The industry might be old, some might say ancient, and while we can use hydrogen, solar, and even floating mini nuclear reactors to decarbonise it, and even though modernisation will take a while we’ve started the journey.