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Automotive Industry Let’s drive forward to the future By Dr Marcus Remmers, Chief Technology Officer, Royal DSM
From electric vehicles to bio-based materials and autonomous driving, the car industry is undergoing a dramatic transformation – and smart chemicals technology is leading the way…
D
id you know that car manufacturer Henry Ford was fascinated by the soybean? During the Great
Depression, he spent hour after hour in his laboratory trying to turn this bean into more affordable plastic to lower the price of his Model T car. By 1941, Ford had developed a handmade car with a plastic body, made completely from plant material. One reporter at the time described it as ‘part salad, part automobile’. Unfortunately, as is often the case when commercializing plant-based materials, the Ford Motor Company was never able to produce soybean-based plastics that could compete with petroleum- based equivalents on performance. Fair enough – we all know that it’s not only sustainability that matters in the car industry. The durability, strength and heat resistance of the materials is equally important. But now, with technological advances unlocking higher and higher bio-based plastic performance, manufacturing industries should no longer view these bio-based materials with a suspicious eye – we might well be closer to achieving Ford’s dream after all.
A rapidly evolving industry
Around the world, the car industry is changing shape before our eyes. Emission reduction targets are speeding up the transition from traditional combustion engines to electric and hydrogen-powered
vehicles.The need for greater circularity is adding pressure to find materials and manufacturing processes that allow for better recycling. On top of this, there is increased demand for connectivity to support trends such as autonomous driving. And, of course, vehicles still need to deliver
Summer 2020
and more of the latest models hitting the showrooms are hybrids, combining internal combustion engines with high-voltage electromotors and batteries. And 100% battery-powered vehicles are also continuing to grow in popularity.
While these high-performance, By Dr Marcus Remmers, Chief Technology Officer, Royal DSM
reliable performance. Chemical companies are at the heart of this transformation – for example, DSM. This company uses its materials expertise to deliver several solutions to help OEMs meet these challenges – or even turn them into opportunities. Specifically, DSM’s solutions deliver the low weight, durability and sustainability that manufacturers need, without compromising reliability, safety, or performance. These materials can help address three of the biggest automotive challenges: powering the car of the future, manufacturing the car of the future, and connecting the car of the future.
Powering the car of the future
The world faces a series of urgent environmental challenges. Car emissions, in particular, are one of the biggest contributors to climate change. And, as vehicle production continues to increase, the impact of these emissions will only multiply. To turn the tide, the automotive industry needs to look for more sustainable alternatives – particularly when it comes to power.
One way to reduce the
Around the world, the car industry is changing shape before our eyes. Emission reduction targets are speeding up the transition from traditional combustion engines to electric and hydrogen-powered
vehicles.The need for greater circularity is adding pressure to find materials and manufacturing processes that allow for better recycling
low-footprint vehicles bring many benefits, they also present challenges. Take electric vehicles powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. These vehicles refuel in the same time as conventional cars, go further on a single tankful than the maximum range of current lithium-ion technology, and emit H2O instead of CO2. All great advantages – but OEMs for these vehicles face the challenge of safely harnessing a highly explosive pressurized gas bottle. To address challenges like this,
DSM offers a range of solutions – for fully electrical vehicles with hydrogen fuel cells or lithium- ion batteries, for biofuel, and for hybrid technology. For instance, when it comes to hydrogen fuel cells, DSM applies its expertise in high-performance barrier and uni-directional tape materials to develop safe, effective, and ultra- lightweight hydrogen tanks from its engineering materials.
environmental footprint of cars is to change from traditional combustion engines to (hybrid) electric- and hydrogen-powered vehicles. Today, this transition is already well underway. We’ve all seen that more
Solar: a viable alternative energy source? But with electric vehicles growing in popularity, how can we source all that electricity sustainably? As we all know, in many industries,the transition to solar energy is well underway. Solar-powered buildings, for instance, are becoming mainstream. But what about solar- powered cars? For a long time, people have been – and still are – sceptical of this technology’s ability to fuel the cars of the future.
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