Material Flow Innovation Research Program

• Who we are

• Future metal supply can be constrained by emissions budgets rather than by direct resource depletion.

  Research paper:
  Watari et al. (2021), Contraction and convergence of in-use metal stocks to meet climate goals, Global Environmental Change ,69, 102284.

• Energy transition may pose an ethical conundrum in which global carbon emissions are reduced at the expense of an increase in socio-environmental risks at local mining sites.

  Research paper:
  Watari et al. (2021), Sustainable energy transitions require enhanced resource governance, Journal of Cleaner Production, 312, 127698.

• Our research

• How much metal can we use in a carbon-constrained world?

  Science Animation for
  Watari et al. (2020), Global metal use targets in line with climate goals, Environmental Science & Technology, 54(19), 12476-12483.

• [フレーム]

• Publications & Media

• The carbon-reduction effect associated with the introduction of new aircraft is marginal, resulting in less cost-effective measures being implemented

  Research paper:
  Minami Kito (2021), Impact of aircraft lifetime change on lifecycle CO₂ emissions and costs in Japan, Ecological Economics, 188, 107104.

• Preemptively planned low-carbon recovery plans can offset the carbon footprint for recovery.

  Research paper:
  Hata et al. (2021), Embedding a low-carbon interregional supply chain into a recovery plan for future natural disasters, Journal of Cleaner Production, 315, 128160.

• City-specific carbon footprint reduction potentials from 65 lifestyle change options differ by as much as a factor of five, even within the same country.

  Research paper:
  Ryu Koide et al. (2021), Exploring carbon footprint reduction pathways through urban lifestyle changes: a practical approach applied to Japanese cities, Environmental Research Letters, 16, 084001.

• How can modern sewage sludge processing plants better deal with mercury emissions? - a long term study of mercury behavior and polymer-based mitigation techniques on an industrial torrefaction plant

  Research paper:
  Yingchao Cheng et al (2021) Mercury emission profile for the torrefaction of sewage sludge at a full-scale plant and application of polymer sorbent. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 127186.

• Database