Trends Identified
Carbon dioxide reuse
For ages, CO2 has never been considered an issue worth dedicating significant scientific attention to. This has changed with the growing certainty about man-made climate change and the role of CO2 as a greenhouse gas: CO2 emissions need to be avoided or CO2 needs to be stored 'eternally' (Carbon Capture and Storage – CCS, see separate fiche). However, CO2 can also be used as a raw material in industrial processes, notably by using the carbon component (C) through chemical or biological reactions. Research and first pilot installations have started on a number of different technology paths (polymerisation, mineralisation, bio-engineering, etc.)
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Carbon dioxide catcher
Practical and affordable ways to capture carbon dioxide from the air can soak up excess greenhouse-gas emissions. Even if we slow carbon dioxide emissions, the warming effect of the greenhouse gas can persist for thousands of years. To prevent a dangerous rise in temperatures, the UN’s climate panel now concludes, the world will need to remove as much as 1 trillion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere this century. In a surprise finding last summer, Harvard climate scientist David Keith calculated that machines could, in theory, pull this off for less than $100 a ton, through an approach known as direct air capture. That’s an order of magnitude cheaper than earlier estimates that led many scientists to dismiss the technology as far too expensive—though it will still take years for costs to fall to anywhere near that level. But once you capture the carbon, you still need to figure out what to do with it. Carbon Engineering, the Canadian startup Keith cofounded in 2009, plans to expand its pilot plant to ramp up production of its synthetic fuels, using the captured carbon dioxide as a key ingredient. (Bill Gates is an investor in Carbon Engineering.) Zurich-based Climeworks’s direct air capture plant in Italy will produce methane from captured carbon dioxide and hydrogen, while a second plant in Switzerland will sell carbon dioxide to the soft-drinks industry. So will Global Thermostat of New York, which finished constructing its first commercial plant in Alabama last year. Still, if it’s used in synthetic fuels or sodas, the carbon dioxide will mostly end up back in the atmosphere. The ultimate goal is to lock greenhouse gases away forever. Some could be nested within products like carbon fiber, polymers, or concrete, but far more will simply need to be buried underground, a costly job that no business model seems likely to support.In fact, pulling CO2 out of the air is, from an engineering perspective, one of the most difficult and expensive ways of dealing with climate change. But given how slowly we’re reducing emissions, there are no good options left. —James Temple
2019
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2019 - How we’ll invent the future, by Bill Gates
MIT Technology Review
Carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies
Carbon capture and geological storage (CCS) is a technique for trapping carbon dioxide as it is emitted from large point sources, compressing it, and transporting it to a suitable storage site where it is injected into the ground. The technology of CCS has significant potential as a mitigation technique for climate change, both within Europe and internationally, particularly in those countries with large reserves of fossil fuels and a fast-increasing energy demand. Given the dominant role that fossil fuels continue to play in primary energy consumption, there is an urgent need to deployment CCS in Europe and beyond.
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Carbon dioxide (CO2) conversion and use
Long-promised technologies for the capture and underground sequestration of carbon dioxide have yet to be proven commercially viable, even at the scale of a single large power station. New technologies that convert the unwanted CO2 into saleable goods can potentially address both the economic and energetic shortcomings of conventional CCS strategies. One of the most promising approaches uses biologically engineered photosynthetic bacteria to turn waste CO2 into liquid fuels or chemicals, in low-cost, modular solar converter systems. Individual systems are expected to reach hundreds of acres within two years. Being 10 to 100 times as productive per unit of land area, these systems address one of the main environmental constraints on biofuels from agricultural or algal feedstock, and could supply lower carbon fuels for automobiles, aviation or other big liquid-fuel users.
2013
The top 10 emerging technologies for 2013
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Capital Flows
The volume of cross-border capital flows, both net and gross, is likely to increase, maintaining a high-level of financial interdependence between states. Gross capital flows have increased markedly over the last 30 years. For example, turnover on the foreign exchange markets generates flows of several hundred trillions of dollars per year. However, the majority of these trades represent short term speculative flows rather than longer-term investments, and net international flows, as a proportion of global output, are smaller than at the turn of the 20th century.226 The tension between the interdependency created by capital flows, and the instability that can be generated by capital flight, will continue. Financial instability may be one trigger by which protectionist- minded populations force de-globalising policies onto reluctant governments.
2010
Global strategic trends - out to 2040
UK, Ministry of Defence
Capability Clouds
The cloud market evolves from capacity to capabilities For the past few years, the IT crowd has been enamored by “as-a-service” concepts and the potential to unleash the power of distributed computing, virtualization and ubiquitous networking. The message being spread is one of capacity and cost – the ability to tap into a nearly unlimited scale of computing power, storage, platforms and software with the hope of lower overall technology spending1 . Cheaper and faster are interesting terms to the bottom line, but better is a term that business can really get excited about
2011
Tech Trends 2011 The natural convergence of business and IT
Deloitte
Cancer Screening
A move toward a more personalized approach
2017
Top 50 Emerging Technologies 2017
Frost & Sullivan
Cancer bio marker analysis technology
The technology that analyzes bio markers representing the characteristics of various cancers from clinical samples, to provide the information on the existence, type, onset of disease path, and progress of the cancer. If the multiple cancer diagnosis kit using the cancer bio marker technology is developed and used for clinical tests, social and economic loss from cancer could be reduced significantly, because the incidence of cancer and death rate from cancer can be decreased.
2012
KISTEP 10 Emerging Technologies 2012
South Korea, Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP)
Can Esports Actually Make it into the Mainstream?
Esports is well on its way to becoming a household name. Almost 70% of internet users in the UK and U.S. alone have now heard of the term “esports”, with as many as half of those aged 55-64 also being aware of these competitive video game tournaments. Sell-out stadiums and prize pools of $100 million dollars have increased esports’ exposure and shored up any reservations over its longevity, providing a powerful reminder of how much the genre has grown since the first official tournaments took place in the 1990s. A significant chunk of this growth has been in the last year. Among those who say they watch esports content in the UK and U.S., more than 60% watch it at least once a week, with 3 in 10 saying they hadn’t even heard of esports more than a year ago. 2018 has witnessed major structural developments in esports, with franchised leagues bringing it closer to the model of traditional sports. This is making esports a more cohesive and accessible genre of entertainment among new audiences, and helping to win over potential investors and sponsors anxious for signs of strong revenue generating potential. With these structural tweaks all working in harmony, 2019 is the year esports is approaching its tipping point.
2019
Trends 19
GlobalWebIndex