Joseph Lowery, Circularity Director, Carpenter Co.

"Imperfect Circles: Industrial Solutions for Material Sustainability"

Description:

Global legislation and consumer demand have helped create awareness across the materials industry of the need to move from a linear to a circular economy. And soon. The premise behind the circular economy is that materials are placed back into their original use, creating raw materials out of “waste”. But doing so implies that recycling operations can produce pristine ingredients from these complex “raw materials”. Even after the mindset shift from “waste” to “value opportunity”, feedstock challenges, transport challenges, economic challenges, and health & hygiene challenges frequently derail highly technical circular economy solutions. If a circular economy is overly challenging, an “oval economy” may be the right approach to advancing sustainability industrially.  

We will spend time examining the principles behind a simplified version of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s “butterfly diagram” and how there is much more to the circular economy than the beginning and end of life. Each step in the chain requires a rethinking of how we tackle problems on a fundamental level.  Instead of pure virgin feedstock, can we achieve the same results with a polydisperse intermediate? What inherent morphological properties does a material possess that can be utilized during a second life? Can transition temperatures be a useful tool for resculpting materials that shouldn’t be resculptable? There are no shortage of industrial sustainability problems to be solved – we’ll highlight a few – and it will require a combination of fundamental science and entrepreneurial spirit to tackle them.

Bio:

Joseph Lowery holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kentucky and a Ph.D. from M.I.T. in Chemical Engineering with a focus on polymer science and technology.  After spending 9 years on next-generation aramid fibers and receiving more than 10 patents on fiber-related process technology, he figured out that breaking things (mostly materials) and putting them back together is way more fun. In a small incubator group at DuPont he learned the power of “value engineering non-productive inventory” (using circularity principles to create 2^nd life materials) and how powerful an integrated technical/commercial business could be.  In 2022 he became the Circularity Director at Carpenter Co., one of the global leaders in polyurethane foam production. His team aims to advance sustainability at Carpenter, create new opportunities for end-of-life foam, and have a great time doing it.