Industry

This cohort is working toward the Accelerator's target for industry. The ambition, or "flagship destination," is to reduce gigatons per year of greenhouse gas emissions from industry by 2035 by launching solutions that are market-competitive, sustainable, and scalable.

Industrial manufacturing accounts for more than 20 percent of the global carbon footprint, and it is a challenging sector to decarbonize. The transition to sustainable industries requires reinventing how everything is made, from steel and concrete to plastics and chemicals. This flagship destination aims to seed innovation and develop partnerships to scale technologies that will transform industries of the future.

Accelerator contacts

 

Albert Chan
Managing Director

 

Mana Iwata
Sustainability Technology and Business Analyst

2026 Request for Proposals
The Sustainability Accelerator is accepting proposals from Stanford faculty in areas of: Biological Solutions, Climate Adaptation, Electricity and Grid Systems, Food and Agriculture, Greenhouse Gas Removal, Industry, Planetary Intelligence and Water. 

Timeline
September 23, 2026 -  Request for Proposal issued                         
October 30, 2026, 11:59 pm -  Letters of Intent due
November 11, 2026  - Teams invited to submit proposals
December 15, 2026, 11:59 pm - Proposals due                           
February - March 2027 - Panel review meetings (if required)
By June 2027 - Target start date for projects

See Full RFP and Application

Projects

Projects in the industry cohort focus on process and material innovations that promise to boost industrial productivity while significantly reducing emissions. These projects span critical industrial segments, including, but not limited to, steel, chemicals, and cement. They will also seed innovations that are needed to scale sustainable industries and reduce gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions per year. 

Status: Graduated

Catalyst technology for scalable and high-efficiency power-to-liquid fuel systems
Status: Active

Advancing durable solid oxide electrolysis cells for sustainable fuel production
Status: Active

Building a Sustainable Global Masonry Industry Using Engineered Biopolymer Composites
Status: Active

Closed-loop electrochemical regeneration of sodium sulfate waste streams into sulfuric acid and caustic soda
Status: Active

Designing battery circularity: Co-design of pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy processes
Status: Active

Digitally designed, micro-architected carbon- and ceramic-based materials for sustainable systems
Status: Active

Electrification of steam cracking reactors with high-frequency inductive heating
Status: Active

Elucidating the multiphysical properties of mycelium biocomposite foams for scalable, energy-efficient thermal insulation
Status: Active

Industrial decarbonization action partnership (IDAP)
Status: Active

Low-emissions hydrogen and low-cost performance cement via methane pyrolysis
Status: Active

Making sustainable plastics more competitive by improving their performance
Status: Active

Phlego cement: Sustainable innovation, seamless integration
Status: Active

Process intensified syngas production with selective field-enhanced heating
Status: Active

Refining a technology to reduce black carbon emissions from South Asian brick kilns
Status: Active

Stanford’s role de-risking zero-emissions steel production
Status: Active

Techno-economic assessment and performance optimization of electrochemical lithium extraction from brines
Status: Active

Transforming materials processing with atmospheric pressure plasmas: A path to sustainability

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