Research Articles

Tuesday 1 October 2024 - How Profitable, Emerging CO2 Utilization Applications Can Accelerate CCUS Deployment. ; Overview of CO2 utilization pathways and products; Discussion of scale, TRL (technology readiness level), and profitability for promising CO2 technologies; Analysis of additional revenue streams from CO2 utilization applications - including waste disposal fees, carbon credits, and 45Q tax credits; Key considerations for CO2 utilization market growth

The role of automation is becoming more prevalent all the time, with the usage of AI and robotics potentially making the utilization and adoption of additive manufacturing more successful.

The growth of the EV market has slowed significantly in Europe and the US in the first half of 2024. A key route to reinvigorating growth will be the release of models in a more affordable price range. To this end, there are many avenues to reduce the cost of an EV. While the battery rightly takes focus, other components throughout the vehicle, such as the electric motor, can contribute to cost reduction too.

The Chinese market has seen an explosion in the production capacity for PLA, a biodegradable bioplastic. One of the effects of this shift in the market is that between 2025 and 2035, IDTechEx has forecast that PLA will increase its market share quite significantly, with it expected to hold around 30% of the bioplastics installed capacity.

According to IDTechEx forecasts, dedicated geological storage of carbon dioxide will outpace EOR as the leading end fate of capture CO2 by the end of the decade. By 2045, IDTechEx forecasts the world will be sequestering 1.6 gigatonnes per annum of CO2 underground.

While China may be the market leader in 2024, IDTechEx's latest article predicts that the US will replace China as the world leader in unit sales by 2044.

Does the hydrogen combustion engine offer a viable route to continuing ICE car production? According to IDTechEx's latest article the answer is, at least for cars, no. But why?

Thursday 26 September 2024 - Insights on the Li-ion Battery Market: Opportunities and Challenges Ahead. Recent trends and developments in the Li-ion market; Discussion on various chemistry choices being made; Key technology innovations and developments; Cost and price trends

Semiconductor manufacturing processes require many chemicals and specialty gases. Owing to its cryogenic properties, exceptional thermal conductivity, chemical inertness, and high diffusivity, helium is used throughout the semiconductor manufacturing line, particularly for wafer cooling where there are no viable alternatives.

Wednesday 25 September 2024 - Unlocking Lithium Brine Potential: The Role of Direct Lithium Extraction. Lithium Mining and Extraction: Fundamentals and Current Practices; Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE): A Comprehensive Overview; Sorbent-Based DLE Technology: In-Depth Exploration; Evolving Business Models in the DLE Market; Sustainability and Cost Benchmarks Across Lithium Extraction Methods; Lithium Market Outlook: Drivers, Challenges, and Emerging Trends in DLE

Conductive inks are a diverse and versatile technology, with differing price points to suit various applications. Conductivity, stretchability, cost, and durability are just some of the factors of consideration for manufacturers when selecting ink types and materials, and IDTechEx's latest report, Conductive Inks Market 2024-2034: Technologies, Applications, Players, deep dives into the many combinations available.

Underlying the hype for SiC (silicon carbide) and the future potential of GaN (gallium nitride) for EV power electronics, challenges remain for both technologies. While OEMs, tier-one suppliers, and market analysts generally agree that SiC and GaN will eventually share the market with incumbent Si technologies, the exact roadmap and time scale remain uncertain. A development in its relative infancy that IDTechEx expects to boost overall performance, volume capabilities, and cost, are engineered substrates.

The gas sensor market is a diverse sector that incorporates a variety of core gas sensing technologies and emerging technologies for indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring. IDTechEx expects environmental applications of gas sensors to see the most growth going forward, as there is a need for measuring gases from a wider array of sources than ever before.

Tuesday 24 September 2024 - How Chronic Supply Challenges Are Reshaping Helium Use in Key Industries. An overview of global helium production and supply; Impact of supply challenges on different industries e.g. semiconductors and fiber optics manufacturing, cryogenics, and several others; Technological advances to reduce helium consumption (e.g. MRI and NMR); Trends in the adoption of substitutes or reclamation systems; Outlook for global helium production capacity and demand

The autonomous truck industry is experiencing a significant revival, with vehicle delivery numbers continuously breaking records. Companies across Asia, Europe, and the United States are eagerly advancing into the commercialization testing phase. Autonomous trucks are addressing critical real-world issues by reducing transportation costs and optimizing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) through meticulous, practical calculations.

Autonomous emergency braking (AEB) is one of the most important ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) features a vehicle can have. Studies have shown that pedestrian crash risk is reduced by 25-27% and pedestrian injury crash risk by 29-30% through the implementation of AEB.

High-performance computing, 6G communication, autonomous vehicle chips, and consumer electronics are all key markets that benefit from advancing semiconductor packaging. IDTechEx's report, "Advanced Semiconductor Packaging 2024-2034: Forecasts, Technologies, Applications", goes into detail about emerging technologies, including 2.5D and 3D packaging.

Thursday 5 September 2024 - An overview of the construction machine industry; Drivers for electrification and current government legislation; Comparisons of electric and diesel machine performance; Analysis of total cost of ownership (TCO) benefits of electric machines; Batteries for the construction machine industry

Silver-flake-based inks currently dominate the conductive inks market, but the outlook for non-silver inks is set to change dramatically over the coming decade, with a CAGR of 24%. Stretchable/thermoformable inks and copper inks will seize the largest market share, driven by applications such as in-mold electronics, wearable electrodes, and RFID & smart packaging.

While there has been strong growth in the stationary battery sector, electric vehicles remain the key driver behind the Li-ion market, and electric cars will be the largest market for Li-ion batteries over the next 10 years. Although there are some regional concerns over the rate of EV adoption in 2024, sales of electric vehicles grew rapidly in 2022 and 2023, and the medium-long-term outlook for EV adoption remains strong.

Thursday 19 September 2024 - Introduction to brain computer interfacing (BCI); The need for better assistive technology solutions; The wider competition for next generation human machine interfaces (HMIs); Conclusions and outlook for invasive vs. non-invasive approaches

Carbon capture technologies capable of removing CO2 from industrial emissions have been around for over 50 years, but widescale deployment of CCUS (carbon capture, utilization, and storage) has been too slow for global net-zero ambitions. While governments are beginning to implement carbon pricing mechanisms or tax credits to motivate permanent storage of CO2 deep underground, a profitable business model exists beyond CO2 sequestration via emerging CO2 utilization applications.

Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) enables CO2 emissions to be captured from their source, or directly from the atmosphere. Technologies can then be used to recycle carbon dioxide into useful carbon-containing products, or the CO2 can be moved to underground storage facilities.

Thursday 29 August 2024 - Applications of BESS for grid-scale and residential battery storage markets; Overview of global Li-ion battery storage market growth, regional activity, market dynamics and trends; Comparisons across battery storage technologies, and discussion on the current and future position of Li-ion in the energy storage market; Trends observed and analysis on these trends, including cell chemistry, energy density, safety, and thermal management in Li-ion battery storage technologies; IDTechEx's outlook and conclusions on the global Li-ion BESS market.

The key to wider adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) will be lower-cost models with a more approachable price point. The most expensive component of an EV is the battery pack. As well as increasing the energy density and reducing the cost of the battery cells, another avenue to cost reduction is through more efficient packaging of the cells.

The gas sensor market is a diverse sector that incorporates a variety of core gas sensing technologies and emerging technologies for indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring. IDTechEx expects environmental applications of gas sensors to see the most growth going forward, as there is a need for measuring gases from a wider array of sources than ever before.

The rise of co-packaged optics is transforming modern data centers and high-performance networks by addressing critical challenges such as bandwidth density, energy efficiency, and scalability. CPO enhances interconnect bandwidth and energy efficiency by integrating optics and electronics within a single package, significantly shortening electrical link lengths.

Lithium is the lightest and smallest alkali metal in the periodic table and possesses a high electrochemical potential. These attributes make it attractive for use in batteries, as it can provide a high energy density per unit weight, with few viable substitutes. While lithium finds diverse applications in glass ceramics, lubricating greases, air treatment, and pharmaceuticals, batteries dominate its end-use segment.

On a global level, the decarbonization of heat energy methods is needed more and more as heating and cooling accounts for around 50% of energy consumption, with 30% being from industrial heating. 90% of these industrial heating processes include the use of fossil fuels, which leads to high global emissions from industrial processes alone. To meet net zero targets, things need to change.

Helium is a finite resource that plays a critical role across several industries including medical imaging, thermal management systems for batteries, aerospace engineering, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, semiconductor manufacturing, fiber optics, particle physics, scientific balloons, and many more.

Thursday 12 September 2024 - How Is Critical Material Recovery Unlocking a Multi-Billion Dollar Market? Introduction to critical materials and key application markets; Critical material sources and why secondary material streams are rapidly emerging; Critical material recovery technology trends and their application in secondary sources; Valuable lessons to learn from established critical platinum group metal and semiconductor recovery; IDTechEx's outlook and conclusions on emerging critical material recovery markets and key growth opportunities.

The brain computer interface market represents an array of technologies which can decode neural signals, or in other words, read minds. Electrodes or sensors can be placed either on the surface of the head, within the skull, or even within the brain itself to record brain activity. This data can then be used for cursor and keyboard control, speech decoding, and even exo-skeletons. This technology has the potential to revolutionize the quality of life for people living with spinal cord injury, quadriplegia, and other motor and speech function impairments.

Multiple consumer electronics giants, including Apple, Samsung, and Nokia, have previously shown interest in flexible smartphones. Indeed, it naturally seems like the next step after foldable and curved smartphones have seen development and commercialization in the last decade. However, the path to fully flexible smartphones is far from simple, and the reward for successful development is ambiguous.

Sodium-ion batteries bring new opportunities for lower costs, greater sustainability, and safety into the battery market. With sodium being more widely available than lithium, concerns about energy security and supply-chain shortages can hopefully start to decrease for economies.

Autonomous buses represent one of the most challenging platforms in the autonomous driving industry. In recent years, commercial interest has shifted towards roboshuttles and robotaxis, partly due to the complex operational design domains (ODD) of autonomous buses.

End-of-life equipment from automotives, electric vehicles, e-waste and decarbonized energy technologies are rapidly emerging secondary raw material sources for valuable critical materials. A new report from IDTechEx forecasts that US$110B of critical materials will be recovered annually from secondary sources by 2045, with a combined weight of over 3.3 million tonnes.