The sustainability imperative
Global industries are at a crucial point in addressing climate change. Achieving net-zero goals requires a fundamental rethinking of design and manufacturing processes. Engineers are tasked with developing solutions that cost-effectively minimize waste, optimize energy use, and facilitate the adoption of sustainable technologies.
The physics of flow dynamics is the most complex to solve, but it is crucial for accelerating the energy transition. However, traditional design tools and workflows often fail to meet these demands. They depend on iterative processes that are time-consuming, resource-intensive, and limited by human intuition and experience.
ToffeeX: pioneering sustainable generative design
ToffeeX is transforming the way industries approach sustainability, tackling some of the most complex challenges in design and manufacturing. Our physics-driven generative design platform empowers engineers to innovate more quickly and with greater precision, enabling them to meet environmental objectives.
Whether creating cooling components for aerospace applications or designing energy-efficient systems for carbon capture, ToffeeX is reshaping how industries approach sustainability.
Our mission is to empower engineers to design not just for performance but for a sustainable future. Achieving net zero requires rethinking everything—from materials to manufacturing—and physics-driven design enables us to tackle the most complex challenges, like flow dynamics and thermal management, that are critical for this transition.
Marco Pietropaoli, Chief Executive Officer at ToffeeX.
Rethinking Engineering with ToffeeX
The challenges of traditional design
Modern engineering faces several significant obstacles:
- Slow innovation cycles: Iterative design processes can delay the development and implementation of green solutions, hindering progress toward net-zero goals.
- Limited design exploration: Reliance on human intuition can restrict the exploration of innovative solutions, leaving potential optimizations undiscovered.
- Excessive material waste: Over-engineering often results in unused materials, which increases costs and environmental impact.
- Energy inefficiency: Many designs overlook operational energy consumption, resulting in unsustainable products.
ToffeeX addresses these issues by automating optimization through generative design grounded in first principles of physics. This approach enables engineers to explore a broader design space, resulting in reduced waste, increased energy conservation, and a faster time-to-market.
The physics-driven advantage
Unlike purely data-driven methods that depend on existing training data, ToffeeX integrates physics-based optimization with data-driven artificial intelligence.
This hybrid approach enables the modeling of complex phenomena such as fluid dynamics, heat transfer, and chemical reactions, which are critical in various sustainable technologies.
Neural networks and purely data-driven methods are fast but lack the flexibility to solve radically different problems. By integrating physics-based optimization, ToffeeX handles the complexity of multi-physics challenges, allowing engineers to explore and balance trade-offs between objectives like cost, weight, and efficiency—all crucial for energy transition technologies.
Marco Pietropaoli, Chief Executive Officer at ToffeeX.
Physics vs. Neural Networks:
Unlike neural networks trained for specific problems, which often fail with slight deviations, ToffeeX’s physics-driven approach guarantees generality and robustness.
This ensures reliable solutions for complex multi-physics challenges. By leveraging the principles of physics, ToffeeX provides engineers with solutions that are optimized for speed and adaptable to a wide range of radically different scenarios.
Technical insights: How ToffeeX works
ToffeeX utilizes high-fidelity physics simulations to optimize designs following real-world physical laws. Our cloud-based platform combines advanced algorithms with AI-enhanced generative design to iteratively refine design parameters.
By automating the exploration of a vast design space, ToffeeX empowers engineers to develop structures in a matter of hours. The software supports both additive and traditional manufacturing methods, enabling the creation of innovative designs that balance functionality, cost, and environmental responsibility.
Flow dynamics and heat transfer
Flow dynamics and heat transfer are foundational to sustainable engineering, underpinning emerging technologies like hydrogen storage systems and carbon capture devices. These areas are inherently complex, involving intricate interactions between various physical processes.
Internal flow dynamics, including heat exchange and chemical reactions, are among the most complex problems engineers face—and they’re fundamental to achieving net zero. Human intuition often falls short in these areas, but advanced tools can excel by simulating and optimizing these systems far beyond human capability.
Balancing sustainability trade-offs
Sustainable design often requires balancing multiple factors. For instance, creating a lightweight structure might increase manufacturing complexity, while enhancing energy efficiency could raise initial costs. ToffeeX’s multi-objective optimization framework navigates these trade-offs by considering various performance criteria simultaneously.
Transforming manufacturing for sustainability
Minimizing material waste
Designs created in ToffeeX can significantly reduce material waste by strategically placing material only where necessary. For example:
- Additive manufacturing: Designs incorporate self-supporting structures and manage overhangs to eliminate the need for excess support material.
- Traditional manufacturing compatibility: Constraints such as tool paths are integrated into designs, ensuring compatibility with milling, stamping, or injection molding processes.
Sustainable generative design in action
Here are real-world examples of how ToffeeX is driving sustainability across key industries:
Aerospace: Optimizing for weight and efficiency
- Challenge: Reducing fuel consumption requires lighter components that maintain structural integrity and thermal performance.
- Solution: Rolls-Royce partnered with ToffeeX to optimize a battery coolant plate, resulting in a 65% reduction in pressure losses and a two-thirds reduction in energy consumption. ToffeeX’s platform also ensured the design was manufacturable using traditional milling techniques, balancing innovation with practicality.
- Impact: These lighter, energy-efficient components support the aerospace industry’s journey toward net-zero emissions by reducing fuel consumption during flight.
Energy: Scaling carbon capture technologies
- Challenge: Scaling carbon capture systems to industrial levels requires reducing their energy demands without compromising efficiency.
- Solution: Using ToffeeX, engineers designed advanced CO₂ absorption devices that cut energy requirements by 70%. The platform optimized fluid flow and chemical interactions, addressing the critical scalability issue of carbon capture systems.
- Impact: By making carbon capture more energy-efficient and cost-effective, ToffeeX is enabling broader industrial adoption, accelerating global decarbonization efforts.
Electronics: Advancing CPU cooling solutions
- Challenge: Increasing demands for processing power generate significant heat, requiring more efficient cooling solutions.
- Solution: ToffeeX enabled a 31% improvement in heat extraction efficiency for a CPU heat exchanger by optimizing internal flow paths and minimizing pressure losses. This breakthrough was achieved while maintaining manufacturability for aluminum binder jetting.
- Impact: These advanced cooling designs ensure high-performance electronics operate efficiently, reducing energy consumption and enabling greener technology.
The human-centric approach to sustainability
Generative design is not about replacing human intuition but augmenting it. Engineers provide the creativity and context; ToffeeX handles the optimization.
This collaborative approach ensures that sustainability goals are met without compromising practical considerations such as cost-effectiveness and manufacturability. Engineers can focus on creative problem-solving while leveraging ToffeeX’s capabilities to explore a wider array of design possibilities.
Combining physics, artificial intelligence, and human ingenuity, ToffeeX empowers engineers to redefine what’s possible, leading the transition to a greener, more innovative future.
