Powder Materials and Energy Efficiency in Transportation: Opportunities and Challenges

The transportation industry accounts for one quarter of global energy use and has by far the largest share of global oil consumption. It used 51.5% of the oil worldwide in 2003. Mobility projections show that it is expected to triple by 2050 with associated energy use. Considerable achievements recently have been obtained in the development of powder and powder-processed metallic alloys, metal matrix composites, intermetallics, and carbon fiber composites. These achievements have resulted in their introduction to the transportation industry in a wide variety of transportation components with significant impact on energy efficiency. A significant number of nano, nanostructured, and nanohybrid materials systems have been deployed. Others, some of them incorporating carbon nanotubes and graphene, are under research and development and exhibit considerable potential. Airplane redesign using a materials and functional systems integration approach was used resulting in considerable system improvements and energy efficiency. It is expected that this materials and functional systems integration soon will be adopted in the design and manufacture of other advanced aircrafts and extended to the automotive industry and then to the marine transportation industry. The opportunities for the development and application of new powder materials in the transportation industry are extensive, with considerable potential to impact energy utilization. However, significant challenges need to be overcome in several critical areas.