Assessing materials innovation with technical-economic cost models

There is an increasing need within energy, resource, and manufacturing industries to assess the relative competitive potential of new chemical processes, materials, and technology. Techno-economic cost modeling allows for a new process, often still at the pilot or R&D stage, to be compared to incumbent processes along relevant parameters. Technological constraints and R&D objectives are incorporated into the analysis. The viability of the process for specific applications can be assessed and strategic decisions on production scale-up are informed. Thus, techno-economic cost modeling is an invaluable, direction-steering tool for process-based innovation. We discuss how applying techno-economic cost modeling in the context of a technology innovation can greatly assist in optimising efforts and investment. TCM provides cost and performance boundaries that assist in prioritizing R&D efforts. As a case study, we describe a Technical-Economic Cost model for Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (PEFCs). The model is fine-tuned to a range of materials, compositions and fabrication processes in order to inform the materials design in view of ease of fabrication, cost, integration and performance of new generation of fuel cell components.