According to Veena Sahajwalla, professor and founding director of the Unsw Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (Smart) Center, a new era of 3D printing “microfactories” is helped to convert plastics into “highly competitive” products.
Sahajwalla in conversation with Mandy Drury from CNBC at the Sydney Innovation Summit by Schneider Electric On Monday in Australia, manufacturers would have to put their thinking about sustainability in the direction of profitability.
“It's not about saying, I do it because it is green. Actually, that should be the last. The first has to be profitability, does it work? Does it show the right performance?” she said.
This thinking has intelligently urged plastic filaments from 100% waste plastics that come from “all kinds of old printers”.
They are installed in hyper-localized, highly automated “microfactories” for the production of personalized products.
“If so [waste-made plastic] Can now be fed into a 3D printer. Can you actually print a number of products? “, She said.
Such a product that has already been manufactured are “clamps” or blocks – for construction and construction projects.
“Imagine all the construction and construction projects where you need plants and imagine that you would have to wait a long time to get these parts and components,” said Sahajwalla.
The large expenses for plants during construction projects mean that companies often acquire second -hand.
The 3D-printed alternative of Smart, which was built in a microfactor in Sydney using plastic filaments from older plastic waste, could ultimately reduce costs, says Sahajwalla.
“You could literally speak to your local microfactor and say: Can I do this at a comparative price and the right performance?”
“Microfactor technologies have come into play here. To really closed the gap between what is considered a waste on the one hand, and on the other hand something that is high performance, high -tech and competitive closure of the gap.”
Hydrogen revolution?
Autonomous trucks and buses that are driven by clean energy based on hydrogen base are located thanks to a technology that is still in its infancy in its infancy, shortly before dividing the streets.
Scott Brown, Managing Director of Pure Howgens, told CNBC that his company now has a hydrogen jar in the city of Adelaide, the “no diesel pollution that can make a difference for their health” and less noise pollution in the morning morn foundation facilities.
He predicts a decline in fuel cell prices in the next 10 to 15 years.
Car manufacturer HondaPresent Toyota And Hyundai have already taken more fuel cells engineering.
Fuel cells relate to the use of hydrogen or other fuels for generating clean electricity.
“There is not much material connected. It looks like a PC and in our case they put it in a truck or bus,” said Brown.
Due to its increasingly cheaper production, fuel cell prices have “dropped by about 50% in the past three years,” he added.
Brown predicts that the prices for the battery cell for clean energy will fall “dramatically” in the coming decade, since Chinese companies use more hydrogen -powered vehicles.
According to the figures of the South Korean analysts SMESARACH Group in November, the sale of hydrogen companies in China have superior to numerous purchases worldwide.
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