Materials Industry Profile
The availability of appropriate materials and processing methods is often critical to the successful realization of a new engineering or process concept. Because harsh industrial environments impose severe demands on materials performance, the success or failure of many industrial energy efficiency concepts depends on the selection of suitable materials and fabrication techniques.
Material properties play a central role in determining the operating parameters and efficiencies of almost all industrial processes. However, materials also cause many planned and unplanned process interruptions in which productivity and energy are lost, and safety is compromised. Operating efficiency is also lost as materials corrode, wear, foul, or otherwise degrade. Improved materials that perform better under corrosive, high-temperature, and high-pressure conditions will enable new technologies to save more energy. In addition, longer lifetime saves the energy and raw materials needed to produce and install replacement materials.