Martin Smith, Professor of Geochemistry, will discuss his research into the natural resources required to meet ever-increasing demand for environmentally-friendly technology like electric cars and wind turbines.
Professor Smith’s lecture, entitled ‘’, takes place on Wednesday October 30 at the Sallis Benney Theatre.
In particular, the public talk will focus on “how hydrothermal and weathering solutions can form the resources needed for new clean energy technology”.
Expanding on the subject matter of the talk, Professor Smith said: “It’s an important area to be working in at the present time, due to the recognition that if we want to move away from producing carbon dioxide as the output for energy production, we need to move from extracting hydrocarbons to extracting the minerals required to make new materials for renewable energy production.”
“We can’t meet an ever-expanding demand with recycling. We’re going to have to look at new resources. We need to look at resources that we can extract in an environmentally sensitive manner.”
Clean energy technology is vital if the UK is to achieve ‘net-zero’ carbon emissions by 2050, as vowed by the government. While Professor Smith said that current energy targets are “absolutely right”, he added that it was important to understand the “resource implications” behind such ambitions.