Innovating differently: The role of R&D in a net-zero future

As the clock ticks down to the net-zero deadline, R&D teams face complex challenges in meeting the demands of decarbonization. When polled about their biggest hurdles during our recent Sustainability in Action webinar, most participants cited aligning R&D strategies with regulatory and market pressures and managing a combination of challenges, including talent, tools and team development.

“As an R&D community, what can we do differently to try to develop, qualify and scale up new chemistry and materials in a more appropriate way to make future decarbonization achievable in the timescales set out by governments?” asked Dr David Hatrick, VP of Strategic Marketing and Innovation at Huntsman Advanced Materials.

He goes on to share key concerns and strategies in our newest Sustainability in Action webinar: Changing talent and capability requirements for R&D organizations to address the challenges of decarbonization opens in new tab/window. His presentation explores the roadblocks to decarbonization in the chemical sector and how R&D teams can reshape their approach to lead the transition.

Decades of innovation

Huntsman Corp opens in new tab/window, established in 1970 by Jon M Huntsman, began as Huntsman Container Corporation in Fullerton, California. Four years later, the company created the “clamshell” container used by major fast-food companies, including McDonald’s.

Decades of innovation later, Huntsman is now a global manufacturing leader in specialty components and formulations for consumer and industrial sectors, with a broad portfolio that includes polyurethanes, performance products and advanced materials. In its Advanced Materials division, Huntsman works with 2,000 customers in over 30 countries to develop tailored solutions for complex industry needs.

“We have a portfolio of chemistry which puts us in two different parts of the value chain,” Dr Hatrick explains. Huntsman’s portfolio of advanced materials revolves around two key areas:

• Specialty components: Resins, tougheners, curing agents, additives and carbon materials

• Formulations: Composites, adhesives, electrical insulation and thermal insulation

Huntsman’s focus on creating valuable effects across various industries, along with its ability to innovate and evolve its technology, has positioned the company as a key player in advancing next-generation materials and sustainability.

On the clock and under pressure

In his presentation, Dr Hatrick sums up the challenge his industry is taking on: “A big reduction in emissions and the end goal, at some point in the future, of net zero.” But despite clear objectives, current methods and traditional approaches won’t get us there in time.

Dr Hatrick points out that while climate change is the biggest driver of innovation today, the chemical industry still requires rapid, transformational reforms. The lack of technological maturity is a major barrier slowing down the race to net zero.

According to the IEA Tracking Clean Energy Innovation Policies opens in new tab/window, just 66% of the technology required to reach net-zero targets currently exists — the rest still needs to be developed. Key drivers for innovation include:

• Biomaterials

• Circularity

• Emissions reduction

• Hydrogen

• Carbon capture

• E-fuels

• CO2 to chemicals

“This provides a very rich environment for innovation,” says Dr Hatrick. “The challenge, however, is if we think we’re going to get to net zero by 2050, it’s pretty much unachievable with [...] the technologies we have today — and certainly at the level of expense that is beyond what most companies have to invest.”

Lack of innovative technology is not the only challenge: Timelines are another roadblock on the race to net zero.

“If we look at the standard timeline for new materials to go from the lab to large-scale deployment, it’s too slow,” Dr Hatrick says. He cites multifunctional epoxy chemistry as an example. While new epoxies were originally synthesized in the 1980s, they weren’t used in the mass production of aircraft until the 2010s.

“If it’s taking us 20 to 30 years to develop an emission-reduction technology, there is absolutely no way we will get to net zero if we take the same approach as we’ve always done,” he says.

Another challenge faced by the chemical industry is a shrinking talent pool and aging population. Dr Hatrick touches on how the number of chemists in the US chemical industry has rapidly declined in recent years, down to 11,110 in 2023 from 13,050 in 2018. Furthermore, organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to attract and hire the right talent, shrinking the talent pool even further.

“The average age of somebody in the industry is 45.9 years, so we’ve got an aging population — very experienced, but we’re not refreshing the talent pool enough,” he says.

Three strategic approaches to fast-track R&D innovation

Traditional R&D models are no longer enough as they deliver incremental progress at a time when rapid change is needed. To meet the urgency of net-zero goals, organizations must adopt a more transformational approach to innovation.

“The chemist is still at the center of this [approach], but it’s a much more complex team structure,” explains Dr Hatrick. This transformational approach involves collaborative leadership styles, a multidomain skilled talent pool and automation paired with AI for peak productivity.

1. Communicative and collaborative leadership

“I’m not suggesting we move away from having chemistry and its fundamentals — that is the bedrock of the industry. But what we need [...] is to improve our communication leadership skills,” says Dr Hatrick. “It’s no longer enough to be the very efficient manager of laboratory activities.”

Forward-thinking organizations must emphasize communication skills as leaders must now liaise with a wider pool of partners, from stakeholders to experts to regulators and customers.

“If we aren’t able to communicate where the challenges lie and what we’re going to do, as leaders, we’re not going to be successful,” he adds. Beyond external communication, leaders must also guide teams with diverse skills across organizational boundaries.

“It’s really about making sure we’ve got the leadership skills within our R&D to be able to drive these programs forward at pace,” he says.

2. Diverse, multidisciplinary talent pool

“From our experience at Huntsman, we’re now running multidisciplinary teams in many industries,” says Dr Hatrick. The company has brought together chemists, physicists, material scientists and increasingly data scientists to form interdisciplinary teams with professionals who have both science and technology backgrounds.

Recruiting and leading these teams can often be challenging. At Huntsman, a key element involves “strengthening our engagement as an industry with the science and technology community in academia,” Dr Hatrick says. “Academia is the biggest source of talent we have.”

In practice, this means influencing the need for current students to build knowledge in new technologies, like AI and automation, while ensuring current associates at any level in the organization also possess these skills.

3. Advanced tools for increased productivity

Dr Hatrick went on to answer three key questions:

• How do we simplify the tasks we have in our R&D?

• How do we reduce the number of tasks

• How do we increase speed and give our teams the ability to be more creative to find the answers we’re looking for?

The answer involves investing more in cutting-edge technology and automation, such as digital twins and AI, to boost laboratory productivity.

“I’m not suggesting that AI is going to be the innovator of the future. AI is a tool that allows our teams to be more creative, to look at different structures in a much more focused way than trial and error,” he explains.

At Huntsman, R&D teams have created a roadmap to put this approach into practice:

• Laboratory digitization: Storing all R&D literature, including experimental data, reports, presentations and patents in electronic lab notebooks, as well as digitizing historical data and literature.

• Laboratory automation: Increasing productivity while speeding up timelines of synthesis, formulation and testing through automation.

• Material informatics: Leveraging existing data to predict outcomes and minimize experimental cycles.

• AI-driven innovation: Using AI models to synthesize historic, current and external data to reduce development time.

“We need to be able to try out, deploy, learn and improve,” Dr Hatrick says. “The way software is developed these days — we should [...] do that in the way that we’re deploying these kinds of tools ourselves.”