Assessments and Solutions for Eco-Effective Product Design

Maximizing environmental and economic benefits through innovation

Your Partner in Building Eco-effective Solutions

Is your company interested in new product or process solutions that are ecologically effective and make financial sense at the same time? World-renowned research institute SRI International is uniquely qualified to work with you as a partner.

To improve the eco-effectiveness of your products or processes, SRI’s Eco-Effective Product Design Team can provide independent technical assessments and innovative product development. We can collaborate with you to develop novel approaches and solutions that meet your needs. Our multidisciplinary team can identify areas for improvement across a wide range, including novel materials, revamped processes, supply chain management, product engineering, and intelligent materials pooling.

We have more than just breadth and depth of technical expertise—we offer integrity, independence, and more than 60 years of successful innovation.

Sustainable Products from “Cradle to Cradle”

Industry is seeking a more sustainable approach to product design—one that creates both economic and environmental value for its customers—through attentive design efforts that maximize benefit to the environment, rather than just minimize harm. Known as “cradle-to-cradle” design, or C2C, this new paradigm for eco-effective products relies on a design cycle of innovative materials, processes, and systems wherein all waste that cannot be simply disposed into the biosphere is pooled and fed back to the technosphere.

SRI’s Eco-Effective Product Design Team consists of multidisciplinary technical staff who integrate C2C concepts in all aspects of product design and can help determine how C2C design can transform your products to maximize their sustainability.

The world’s relentless demand for goods and services does not have to damage the environment. In fact, if properly handled, this demand could help sustain the biodiversity of the natural world while creating economic value to the industries that serve it.

Teaming with the Architects of C2C Design

SRI is collaborating with Dr. Michael Braungart and Dr. William McDonough, co-founders of MBDC, a product and process design firm in Charlottesville, VA. Dr. Braungart has also founded EPEA, a research institute in Hamburg, Germany that focuses on eco-effectiveness. Drs. Braungart and McDonough have developed the concept of “Intelligent Materials Pooling,” which is built on the philosophy that waste is food, so all waste should either be a resource  for the industrial sphere or be disposed directly into the environment where it should enrich the biosphere.

SRI's Eco-Effective Product Design Team follows this protocol and shares the goal of improving the environmental, social, and economic aspects of every product according to its own life cycle.

SRI innovations in Environmental Science and Technology

SRI sponsored the first National Air Pollution Symposium in 1949, and has been dedicated ever since to finding solutions to improve our environment. SRI’s solutions include:

PCB destruction: SRI developed the Assisted Hydrothermal Oxidation (AHO) technology for the complete destruction and containment of hazardous industrial waste and toxic chemicals such as PCBs. This technology has been licensed to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for commercialization.

Fuel cells: SRI’s novel proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), and direct carbon-hydrocarbon fuel cells offer high performance at low cost and produce no harmful gases.

Solar cells: SRI offers a low-cost, low-energy process for the production of conventional silicon solar cells and novel, flexible thin-film nanostructured solar cells.

Degradable hydrolytic polymers: SRI’s decomposable plastic can be used in applications such as garbage bags, food packaging, diapers, and medical uses, reducing the burden on landfills.

PERMIX chemical reactor: SRI’s novel chemical reactor has demonstrated an improved ratio of desired products to waste products by a factor of 20 over comparable technology. In addition to and increasing product quality by reducing or eliminating waste, the technology increases yields, thus decreasing total cost of raw materials.

Hydrogen safety: To help prepare for potential widespread use of hydrogen as a fuel, SRI is performing hydrogen deflagration tests to investigate and mitigate hazards from hydrogen leaks.

Environmental fate assessment: SRI has developed many of the experimental, modeling, and predictive methods for determining the fate of organic pollutants released to water and air.

Trace detection of organic compounds: SRI is applying ultrasensitive laser photo-ionization mass spectrometry to perform real-time detection of pollutants at part-per-trillion concentrations in air and water.

Monsanto Million Dollar Environmental Challenges: In 1994 and 1996, Monsanto challenged R&D organizations to develop technology that could reduce the need for deep-well disposal of aqueous plant discharges through on-site treatment, separation, and recovery of valuable inorganic and organic compounds from waste streams. SRI won both the challenges with these innovative proposals:

-- Recovery of ammonia and organics from a solution rich in ammonium sulfate by biotreatment to convert the sulfate to sulfide followed by membrane separations.

-- Recovery of high-purity amino acids through novel combination of two separation technologies—solvent extraction and ion exchange. The remaining waste was environmentally neutral.

These are just a sampling of the technical innovations SRI has developed for clients over the years. We look forward to working with you to design and build eco-effective products for your business.

For more information
Dr. Ripudaman Malhotra
Associate Director
Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory
ripudaman.malhotra@sri.com
(650) 859-2805

For information about our work in related areas, visit SRI's Physical Sciences Division and Engineering and Systems Division.