The CO2 Impact of Materials Science Research

The intention of much of our research within the materials science community is to develop and optimize materials necessary for our transition to a renewable energy society, and ultimately to contribute to a reduction of CO2 emissions. However, this research comes at a cost: time, resources, energy, and ultimately CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHGs). As a scientist, I believe it is important to assess how our actions and our research activities impact society, and to acknowledge that research can have both positive and negative impacts.<br/><br/>One quantifiable aspect of this impact is the GHG emissions incurred by my PhD research studying computational and experimental materials discovery of inorganic semiconductors for solar energy applications. In this talk, I estimate the associated emissions with the intention to open a dialogue within the materials science community about how much energy and CO2 is used doing high-throughput materials discovery research. I find that the primary energy-intensive aspects of my research have been (1) supercomputer time, (2) synchrotron beam time, (3) laboratory synthesis and characterization, and (4) travel associated with research and conferences, and I include an estimate of my personal GHG emissions for comparison. I also estimate a few alternate scenarios as a way of contextualizing these emissions, and compare these scenarios to my actual emissions by source.<br/><br/>The key takeaway is that research and activities associated with a materials science career significantly increase my carbon footprint beyond that of a typical citizen. I expect that this finding applies to scientists across the US, and around the world. I note that this assessment does not include the carbon impact that the technologies we produce will have, nor the damage from mineral extraction and waste products such technologies may induce, though such life cycle assessments are also critical. It is optimistic that switching to renewable power sources within our laboratories and decreasing travel drastically reduces emissions, and our energy grids are becoming more renewable overtime, but this is not happening fast enough. Using energy and CO2 to address our energy CO2 challenges is indeed necessary, but because our consumption is so high, scientists have a moral imperative to demand that the energy used for our research comes from renewable sources whenever possible.