Most bio-based fuels and chemicals are made from food crops today, but companies are under pressure from governments and economic forces to switch to non-food cellulosic materials instead.
Large-scale stationary energy is key to a smarter power grid and for integration of intermittent renewables. Redox flow batteries are touted as an emerging option, but have been too expensive.
Led by optical coherence tomography (OCT) the clinical optical imaging market will rise to $2 billion in 2020, more than doubling from 2012.
New technologies to enhance exploration and production of oil and gas have attracted $7 billion in funding since 2003, as waves of innovation have opened up new kinds of plays in shale gas, tight oil, and heavy oil.
Power electronics – used to convert and manage electricity in devices ranging from mobile phones to pumps and motors – will grow to a market worth $23 billion for discrete components in 2024, up from $13 billion today.
Samsung, Merck, BASF, Sony and Philips are the world’s leading innovators in printed, flexible and organic electronics (PFOE), according to Lux Research, which rated corporations based on both internal R&D spending and open innovation activities.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) recently released a white paper detailing its planned 3D printer. HP’s "Multi Jet Fusion" system claims a tenfold increase in build speed, improved part quality with controllable properties like color, elasticity and strength, and better "economics" than current offerings.
Driven by the global rise of obesity, diabetes, and other health concerns, alternative sweeteners have gained a 12% share of the $73.4 billion global market for sweeteners and 22% of its volume by sucrose equivalent (SE).
Construction of green buildings rose to 325 million m2 of new floor space in 2013, representing a $260 billion market, with growth driven by economic benefits rather than environmental motivations.
The bio-based materials and chemicals industry is poised to attract nearly $1 billion in investment this year, led notably by later-stage funding rounds.
The market for commercial uses of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, will grow to $1.7 billion in 2025, driven by a broad range of applications led by agriculture.
Lux Research announced today the launch of its new Lux Invest Intelligence service, extending its offerings to the Financial Services segment.
The allure of flexible local production based on 3D printing has led to claims that 3D printing will undermine the advantages that have made China a manufacturing and exporting powerhouse.
Buildings account for about 40% of energy consumption and carbon emissions. Green building technologies can reduce this environmental footprint significantly, but a lack of reliable information about available technologies is holding back adoption.
Printed, flexible and organic electronic (PFOE) sensors can offer flexible form factors, larger area, lower cost, lower power, and better disposability compared to conventional sensors, key attributes for wearable applications.
Tesla Motors’ plan to build a new 35 GWh lithium-ion cell production facility – dubbed the Gigafactory – for electric vehicles that will bring about only a modest reduction in battery costs, and create significant overcapacity, given likely sales of less than half the targeted 500,000.
Led by China, the solar industry will grow at a CAGR of 8.3% – from 37.5 GWp in 2013 to 65.6 GWp in 2019 – but emerging trade disputes involving the Asian giant, as much as global policies, cast a shadow over short-term prospects.
Building-integrated vegetation (BIV) – the use of green roofs and green walls to improve air quality, manage storm-water and generate energy savings – is experiencing a burst of innovation to lower costs and hasten payback on investment.
Wide bandgap (WBG) materials such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) are best positioned to address emerging power electronics performance needs in electric vehicles (EVs), with SiC displacing silicon as early as 2020.
Metamaterials – artificial materials with unusual properties not typically found in natural materials – will soon be turning up in niche commercial applications, and are poised to enter the mainstream in 10 years.
District heating (DH) can deliver cost gains of up to 74% over conventional distributed heating, with benefits varying with technologies, fuels and climate.
Once considered risky and expensive, the $500 million chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) market has been revitalized by higher oil prices, improved chemical formulations and advances in laboratory analysis, with Canada and the Middle East leading the way for global expansion.
Energy storage, driven largely by electronics and plug-in vehicles, will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8% to $50 billion in 2020, with dramatic shifts coming from the transportation industry.
Lignin, a component of lignocellulosic biomass and a common byproduct stream from cellulosic conversion processes, has a potential market worth of $242 billion across 13 select products alone.
Driven by adoption of vital signs monitoring and in vitro diagnostic (IVD) devices, the mobile health (mHealth) market will grow eight-fold from $5.1 billion in 2013 to $41.8 billion in 2023.
Applications like building-integrated photovoltaics provide a small, but profitable opportunity for thin-film suppliers.
With rising commodity prices, recovery of resources from wastewater streams is becoming increasingly feasible, especially oil, precious metals and industrial fats, oils and greases (FOG).
While politicians haggle over the rules' influence on climate treaty negotiations, the boost to technology development and deployment will determine their true impact.
Government support drives dominance, but aggressive targets, such as China’s 10% ethanol in 2020 and India’s 20% biofuels in 2017, likely won't be met.
Over 100 trillion microbes live in and on the human body, predominantly in the digestive tract, comprising our "microbiome." Scientists are now starting to appreciate how fundamentally this microbiome affects our physical and mental health, creating new opportunities in food and medicine.
92% of autonomous vehicles will have only simple driver-assist features like adaptive cruise control; software developers will benefit most.
Bringing U.S. gas onto the $170 billion global liquefied natural gas market will raise prices at home, and Australia is emerging as a serious export challenger.
China’s architectural coatings market nearly doubled to 4.64 million tons between 2008 and 2013, and will sustain its growth as the rising Asian giant maintains its rapid pace of urbanization.
Batteries for hybrids and plug-in vehicles are growing fast, more than tripling over the past three years to reach 1.4 GWh per quarter.
Natural gas and solar can also help minimize CO2 emissions, but new innovations will be needed to meet long-term emissions goals.
Powered by a growing range of industrial applications, 3D printing will become a mainstream production tool in many industries.
Driven by favorable government policies, funding and world-leading academic research, China has become the global leader in graphene and carbon nanotube (CNT) publication and patenting activity.
Start-ups in these fields show above-average momentum, while companies working on emissive displays such as OLED are fading.
The Asian giant is developing cellulosic ethanol, but will rely in the near-term mostly on coal to increase ethanol production.
Advanced technologies have sparked 81 clinical trials, as drug delivery via transdermal patches will lead to $6 billion in new annual sales within the decade.
Besides delivering energy savings, start-ups like Google's acquisition Nest can arm utilities with tools to engage with consumers and remain competitive.
The pace of consumerization will vary according to disease applications, and require a clear demonstration of cost savings potential.
With new materials and processing technologies opening up new applications, versatile high performance thermoplastics will gain broader adoption.
Customer-owned microgrids will be the dominant ownership model in the near-term, while MaaS offers a completely new business model with flexible growth opportunities.
The next wave of tech innovation will bring wearable computers to mainstream, but in the long term highly integrated invisible computing will take over.
Customer-owned microgrids will be the dominant ownership model in the near-term, while MaaS offers a completely new business model with flexible growth opportunities.
Racking and mounting cost reductions and electrical innovations will cut balance-of-system costs, with biggest drops in the residential segment.
Google announced a cash purchase of home automation start-up Nest Labs for $3.2 billion; Google Ventures has been a major investor in the company, whose last funding round totaled $80 million.
Hydraulic fracturing has given the U.S. a new wealth of oil and gas that's transformed its energy economy – now other nations are poised to get in on the act.
