Environmental Technology Committee Meeting

The committee will develop AISTech sessions, select abstracts, determine session structure and session chairs, review paper- and session-chair instructions, and finalize the call for papers for AISTech 2028. Technical discussion topics include hot-dip galvanizing, galvannealing, aluminized products, new zinc-alloy coatings, dual metallic/organic processes, new facilities and modernizations, productivity improvements, new equipment technologies, coated-product substrate quality, defect prevention and detection, and surface post-treatments. The agenda also includes planning for a 2027 European Galvanizing Line Study Tour. The second day includes a tour of Befesa Zinc in Mooresboro, North Carolina.

The technology conference covers ironmaking, steelmaking, finishing processes, and engineering and equipment technologies. Program topics include safety and health; environmental technology; cokemaking; ironmaking and direct reduced iron; electric and oxygen steelmaking; specialty alloys and foundry operations; secondary refining and continuous casting; hot and cold rolling, galvanizing, tinplate, plate and long products; pipe and tube; metallurgy; energy and utilities; electrical and digitalization applications; project and construction management; maintenance and reliability; refractory systems; material handling; cranes; and transportation and logistics. Technical topics include hydrogen-based ironmaking, scrap optimization, energy efficiency, greenhouse-gas reduction, carbon capture and storage, water treatment and reuse, AI and digitalization, predictive maintenance, industrial control-system cybersecurity, steel product quality, and process reliability. The schedule lists technical sessions, the Howe Memorial Lecture, an undergraduate student project presentation contest, a graduate student poster contest display, a Steel to Students roundtable, Technology Committee meetings, and a Town Hall Forum. The event also includes an iron and steel exposition.

The conference focuses on innovative technologies, research and design advances, and solutions for renewable and sustainable energy, including utility-level systems integration. Selected papers may be considered for publication in an ASME journal. Tracks cover AI for energy systems; heat pump, refrigeration and cryogenic technology; sustainable and resilient buildings; energy storage; hybrid systems and microgrids; solar optics, thermal applications, chemistry and fuels; photovoltaic and electrochemical technologies, including batteries and fuel cells; waste heat recovery, thermal desalination and water harvesting; alternative energy conversion, including geothermal, nuclear, wind, hydro, ocean and wave energy; hydrogen, bioenergy, biofuels and sustainable fuels; combustion, cogeneration and carbon capture, storage and utilization; advanced energy materials and manufacturing; space energy systems and in situ resource utilization; critical mineral recovery and supply chains; data center energy-water and cooling; and sustainability, safety, durability and recyclability of electrochemical storage. The program also includes lightning talks and poster presentations.

Under the theme “Chemical Engineering Reimagined,” the meeting covers chemical-engineering research, technologies, and emerging growth areas. Program guides highlight AI and machine learning, climate change, industrial careers, and early-career faculty. The AI and machine-learning program includes sessions on process development; polymer simulation, informatics, and data analytics; data-driven pharmaceutical process controls; AI-enabled process design, scale-up, and workforce readiness; nuclear chemical engineering; manufacturing-system modeling; computational catalysis; digital twins in energy systems; biomass utilization; and data-driven medicine. Featured discussions consider digital transformation, evolving industrial ecosystems, sustainability pressures, and changing workforce expectations, as well as ways to incorporate data science into chemical-engineering curricula, degree programs, certificates, and teaching of statistics and programming. Featured lectures address chemical engineers’ roles amid advances in AI, sustainable energy, and an interconnected global economy, and the use of catalysis to convert biomass, CO2, and end-of-life polymers into fuels, chemicals, and materials. Other lecture themes include carbon circularity, process intensification, renewable hydrogen, and pathways toward net-negative carbon manufacturing.

The Climate and Sustainability Committee develops strategic insights, analyses, and policies concerning gas utilities’ role in a reliable, resilient, and affordable lower-carbon energy economy. Its work includes identifying legislative and regulatory frameworks at the federal and state levels, investments needed to deploy and scale advanced technologies, and initiatives supporting sustainability and decarbonization strategies.

The program includes symposia on AI, machine learning, and data science across electrochemical systems; energy storage and battery materials; and the translation of battery materials into manufacturable electrodes and cells. Battery topics include fast charging, electrolyte and interphase engineering in lithium- and sodium-ion batteries, solid-state battery benchmarking, and beyond-lithium-ion chemistries such as lithium-sulfur, lithium-air, sodium-ion, magnesium and multivalent-ion, and redox-flow batteries. Manufacturing themes include scalable synthesis, coating and drying, in-line metrology, quality assurance, pilot-line scale-up, cost models, reliability testing, and raw-material processing. Other symposia address industrial electrochemistry and process intensification, including reactor scale-up, techno-economic analysis, life-cycle analysis, commercialization, and hybrid process systems; water electrolysis, hydrogen, renewable fuels, and fuel cells; and carbon nanostructures for energy conversion and storage. Additional listed topics include corrosion, semiconductor materials and processing, and electrochemical systems for energy conversion.

The technical program includes a joint AeroMat symposium on advanced coatings for aerospace and industrial gas turbines, including thermal and environmental barrier coatings, turbine clearance control, load-bearing and tribological coatings, component repair, and cold spray for aerospace applications. Research and development topics include AI and machine learning for materials and process informatics; modeling and simulation; carbon neutrality, environmental impacts, and life-cycle analysis; characterization methods; cold-spray fundamentals and particle impact; aerosol deposition; novel coatings and feedstock materials; and hybrid, laser, and additive manufacturing processes. Application areas include automotive and medical uses; battery and sustainable-energy applications; electronics and semiconductor manufacturing equipment; thermal-spray additive manufacturing; equipment, powders, consumables, and economics; circular-economy repair and remanufacturing; and wear and corrosion protection across energy, oil and gas, marine, manufacturing, construction, and food processing. The conference also includes oral and poster presentations, panel discussions, keynote presentations, and an industrial forum. The co-located exposition features thermal-spray equipment, advanced surface solutions, additive manufacturing technologies, consumables, and applied research.

The technical program solicits new, significant work relevant to the nuclear industry, with summaries and abstracts presented orally. Topics include advanced reactors and power systems; energy storage integration with nuclear plants; fusion; nuclear fuel recycling, waste forms, transmutation and disposal; AI applications in nuclear safety and materials research; nuclear nonproliferation; advanced and additive manufacturing; and thermal hydraulics. Embedded topics include Decommissioning Environmental Sciences and Remote Technology, covering robotics and remote systems, decommissioning, environmental remediation, nuclear cleanup, used-fuel management, and related AI, digital-twin and regulatory topics. Accelerator Applications covers accelerator facilities and design, nuclear data, materials science, medical and industrial applications, security and forensics, and environmental studies. Accepted and presented summaries are slated for publication in ANS Transactions.

The technical symposia span ceramic and glass science, engineering, processing, and applications. Topics include ceramic interfaces and grain boundaries; oxide quantum materials; superconductivity, magnetism, and correlated phases; functional ceramics; extreme-environment and microelectronics materials; two-dimensional materials; high-entropy materials; bioceramics; glass surfaces and the glassy state; and computational modeling, data science, and AI/ML for materials discovery and manufacturing. Energy-related subjects include materials for energy storage and conversion, nuclear energy applications, protonic ceramic cells, and materials for a sustainable and resilient energy future. Manufacturing topics include advanced ceramic processing, additive manufacturing, glass manufacturing scale-up, and intelligent manufacturing. The additive-manufacturing symposium covers feedstock design, printing and post-processing, modeling, characterization, process-structure-property relationships, qualification, certification, scale-up, cost, reliability, and industrial implementation. The raw-materials symposium addresses material quality and variability, alternative and recycled feedstocks, sustainable sourcing, circularity, supply-chain resilience, resource security, and decarbonization.