Polski
AI, Battery Recycling, and Smart Silos: What's Moving the Bulk Materials Industry?
September 2026 is bringing a strong wave of news to the bulk materials industry – from American conferences, through forecasts from warehousing market analysts, to hard data on the global grain silo market. The common thread? The increasingly bold entry of artificial intelligence into operations that, until recently, were associated mainly with conveyors and level sensors. We take a closer look at what exactly happened and what the Polish market can take away from it.
01 · AI and Recycling
Texas Bets on AI and a Second Life for Batteries
On September 15–16, 2026, Baytown, near Houston, hosted the Powder & Bulk Solids Texas conference [1], aimed primarily at engineers and operations managers from the chemical and petrochemical industries. The program was divided into five thematic tracks: material handling, wet processing, storage, dust control, and safety. However, two leading themes drew the most attention – integrating artificial intelligence into daily operations and recycling lithium-ion batteries, an increasingly important issue in the context of the circular economy. The organizers also highlighted something less often discussed in the industry – the role of engineering ethics in designing industrial installations, meaning responsibility for technical decisions that have a real impact on human safety and the environment.
This is a sign that the industry agenda is shifting away from purely mechanical bulk material handling issues toward topics that, just five years ago, would have been reserved for IT or energy conferences. For European trade show organizers, including Polish ones, this is a concrete source of programming inspiration.
02 · Warehouse Automation
Warehousing at a Turning Point: Four AI Trends According to Gartner
The same direction is confirmed by Gartner's latest analysis [2], published on September 16, 2026. According to analysts, the warehousing industry is reaching a tipping point in AI adoption – driven by labor shortages, cheaper investment models, and the maturing of autonomous technologies. Gartner identifies four trends that will shape warehouses in 2026: advanced traditional AI focused on process optimization, semi-autonomous agents that suggest decisions to operators rather than making them independently, generative AI supporting decision-making processes, and "physical" AI agents that combine robotics and sensors to automate packing, sorting, and material handling.
Importantly, Gartner isn't calling for a blind revolution – it advises supply chain leaders to start with proven, narrow use cases, such as forecasting shift staffing or optimal placement of goods in the warehouse. This is a natural transition from the Texan discussions on AI in chemical operations to concrete, implementation-ready recommendations for logistics and bulk material warehousing – an area where these same "physical" AI agents can, in practice, mean automating material transfer, sorting, or raw material quality control.
03 · Silo Market
Grain Silos Are Growing Alongside Temperature and Humidity Sensors
A third thread leads to a more "down-to-earth," but equally telling, market segment – grain storage silos. A market report published on September 3, 2026 [3] estimates that the global market for these structures was worth $1.8 billion in 2025 and is expected to grow to $2.7 billion by 2033. In terms of market share, flat-bottom silos and steel structures lead the way, but the most new installations are being recorded for semi-automatic systems equipped with temperature and humidity monitoring – precisely the area of quality control and industrial analytics that bridges classic storage with modern automation. The Asia-Pacific region, led by China, already accounts for more than a third of this segment's global revenue.
This is a good point of comparison for the European, including Polish, market for storing grain and other bulk materials – it shows that investment in sensors and partial warehouse automation isn't just a curiosity, but the main driver of growth for the entire equipment category.
Summary
Summary: Three Signals, One Direction
The Texas conference, Gartner's forecasts, and the silo market data all point to the same trend from three different angles: artificial intelligence and sensors are no longer an add-on – they're becoming the core of competitiveness in the bulk materials industry, from handling and storage, through logistics, to quality control. For Polish companies in this sector, now is a good time to check which of these solutions are already working in the market and how to translate them into their own installations.
That's exactly what you'll be able to discuss at SOLIDS Expo Poland – the Bulk Materials Technology Trade Fair. Stay tuned for more industry roundups, and be sure to visit the fair, where topics like AI in operations, warehouse automation, and smart silo monitoring can be seen not in a report, but live, at the exhibitors' booths.
Invitation
Artificial intelligence in operations, autonomous warehouses, and sensors monitoring raw material quality – this is no longer the future, it's today's industry agenda. See these technologies live at SOLIDS Expo Poland and talk to exhibitors who are already implementing them. Save the date and join the discussion on the future of bulk materials in Poland.
SOLIDS Expo Poland 2026Footnotes
[1] GlobeNewswire — https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/09/14/3361520/0/en/powder-bulk-solids-texas-conference-returns-with-focus-on-ai-integration-battery-recycling-and-circular-economy-solutions.html[2] Gartner Newsroom — https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-09-16-gartner-identifies-the-top-4-ai-trends-transforming-warehousing-for-supply-chain-leaders
[3] Express Press Release — https://express-press-release.net/news/2026/09/03/1770266