The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Metal 3D printing tech developed for fusion energy gains popularity. Metal 3D printing company Seurat Technologies has received orders for 25 tons of metal printed parts. In addition to surpassing the capacity of its pilot facility, the company says this level of interest demonstrates a historic shift for a metal printing technology born from the quest for fusion energy. Founded in 2015, Seurat Technologies was the product of the development of a new kind of metal 3D printing...
Critical minerals can be recycled from decades of e-waste The necessity of reclaiming waste as a means to curb the seemingly impossible material requirements of a renewable future is fostering a different kind of industry – urban mining. "When you're in the renewable energy space, you've got to think through the whole lifecycle – where will EV and lithium-ion batteries go when they are no longer useful? It can't be to a landfill. That's not responsible," said Graphite One Pres...
Recycling hub will offer supply of critical battery materials in US After advocating for Zinc8 Energy Solutions Inc. to develop its zinc-air energy storage systems manufacturing plant in New York, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, paid a visit to Li-Cycle Holdings Corp.'s Rochester lithium-ion battery recycling facility in his home state. You can read about Sen. Schumer and Zinc8 at NY Sen. Schumer calls Zinc8 with an offer in the July 11, 2022, edition of...
Following the current trend of carbon emission mitigation, researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are endeavoring to subvert gaseous carbon dioxide by turning it into stone that cannot enter the atmosphere and warm our planet more. "As global temperatures increase, so does the urgency to find ways to store carbon," said Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Lab Fellow Kevin Rosso, who co-authored a scientific article on converting CO2 to carbon minerals. "By...
From its X-MAT subsidiary that turns coal into clean and efficient building materials to its X-BATT subsidiary that recycles spent lithium into new batteries, Semplastics has made a name for itself by reimagining waste streams as useful products. Now, this Florida-based company has added to its ranks an approach that benefits everything across the board. DioQuest, the latest Semplastics enterprise, will employ a patent-pending process aimed at sequestering carbon dioxide and...
Going against all known rules of conductivity, researchers from the University of Chicago are astonished by a strange material that can be made like plastic but conducts electricity like metal, being likened to conductive Play-Doh. Conventional electronics, whether it be an iPhone, solar panel, or television, use conductive materials; otherwise, they would be no different than the raw materials they are transformed from. Metals, such as copper, gold, and aluminum, are by far t...
To encourage greater transparency in the inevitable battery-powered world, Ford Motor Company has partnered with Everledger to deliver the world's first passport pilot for the responsible recycling of electric vehicle batteries. Founded in 2015, Everledger is an independent technology company that aims to help businesses monitor asset information with various security technologies, such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, smart labeling with near field communication (NFC)...
Seeking to unearth the future of smart mining, Swedish telecom giant Ericsson has partnered with Becker Mining Systems AG to distribute private 5G networks at global operations. According to a recent report by Ericsson, the successful implementation of digitalization into the mining sector could potentially triple productivity growth in the industry by 2025 – shining a light on the value of creating data-driven mines. With the apparent necessity mining will play in the o...
Branching into the edge field of quantum computing, Volkswagen Group has partnered with Canadian quantum technology company Xanadu to answer a single question: can quantum computers help design batteries? As the known world and its elemental makeup have been thoroughly dissected, humanity has reached the point where it is slightly cumbersome to discover new ways to utilize the elements on the periodic table. Existing classical methods have been the cornerstone of...
To help spur the introduction of metal 3D printing, metal filament manufacturer The Virtual Foundry introduced a new method of debinding and sintering printed components – with a microwave. Still in a developmental stage, Virtual Foundry's Metal Microwave Sintering technology is among the first of its kind involving the use of a commercial microwave instead of a kiln or furnace to heat prints inside of a crucible. Though only tested on the company's own Aluminum 6061 F...
Much like lead can protect even Superman from the effects of kryptonite, researchers at Drexel University's College of Engineering may have engineered a vanadium-based MXene shield that could render electronic devices impermeable to electromagnetic waves, essentially protecting them from the multitude of frequencies whizzing about our heads every day. Buzzing, feedback or static are some of the most noticeable manifestations of electromagnetic interference. This is...
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory have found a way to add a dash of boron to a tungsten tokamak fusion reactor to keep its plasma clean during operations. Because of its high melting point, tungsten is a metal of choice for helping tokamak components withstand the intense heat of the fusion process – often upwards of 150 million degrees Kelvin, or ten times the temperature at the core of the Sun. While it is not new to use boron...
Techno-clothing company utilizes graphene to make jacket invisible to infrared cameras. Thanks to the "wonder material" graphene, the invisibility cloak often seen in fantasy and science fiction will likely soon be a thing of reality, as Vollebak unveils the world's first thermal camouflage jacket that brings us one step closer to disappearing into thin air. Home to the initial discovery of graphene and two researchers that won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their pioneering...
RecycLiCo Battery Materials Inc. announced it has successfully closed the lithium-ion battery supply chain loop with its patented recycling and upcycling process. Closed-loop battery recycling is a method of recycling that aims to re-use all materials from an original discharged battery and re-purpose them into a new version of the same battery. This method also represents an important shift from a linear economy to a circular economy. Using the company's battery-ready...
Continuing a trend of supporting mineral exploration with its cutting-edge artificial intelligence and machine learning software, Minerva Intelligence Inc. has carried out a case study on the Lone Star gold zone on Klondike Gold Corp.'s Eldorado property in the Dawson Creek Mining District of Yukon, Canada. Evaluated using Minerva's DRIVER software, Klondike Gold says it was extremely impressed with the results. "The close agreement between DRIVER's model extents and...
Washington State researchers add to out-of-this-world 3D printer materials Scientists from Washington State University have discovered that a small amount of simulated crushed Martian dirt mixed with a titanium alloy made for a stronger, high-performance material for 3D printing that could help build a future on the Red Planet. "In space, 3D printing is something that has to happen if we want to think of a manned mission because we really cannot carry everything from here,"...
Playing the long game, General Motors Co. announced a strategic investment with Quebec-based Lithion Recycling Inc. to support the automaker's pursuit of an eventual circular battery ecosystem using Lithion's advanced battery recycling technology. Touting a battery recovery rate of over 95% and utilizing the clean and green infrastructure already established in Quebec, Lithion's operations will supply GM with recycled materials that have little environmental impact – s...
Researchers from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and University of Washington have dicovered a simple way to extract what could be considered one of the most critical minerals to the United States and European Union, magnesium. Since ancient times, Mankind has extracted salts from the ocean. While table salt is the easiest to obtain, seawater is a rich source of different minerals, and scientists have long been exploring the possibility of isolating specific...
Monash University researchers discover durable microstructure makes stronger titanium A world-first study led by Monash University engineers in Australia has demonstrated how cutting-edge 3D printing techniques can be used to produce ultra-strong titanium alloy – a significant leap forward for the aerospace, space, defense, and biomedical industries. "Titanium alloys require complex casting and thermomechanical processing to achieve the high strengths required for some c...
Zentek Ltd., the company that has been advancing its ZenGuard technology of antimicrobial graphene surface coatings, has placed its latest innovation – icephobic coatings – under rigorous testing with sand and rain erosion assessments, demonstrating that the technology is durable in adverse conditions for both turbine and drone industries. As a mining company that began its technology journey amid the COVID-19 pandemic to develop solutions to prevent the spread of the vir...
The U.S. Department of Energy announced $156 million in funding for a first-of-a-kind facility to extract and separate rare earth elements and critical minerals from unconventional sources like mining waste. As rare earths and other critical minerals are key to manufacturing clean energy technologies here in America – such as solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and hydrogen fuel cells – industries from all ends of the supply chain have been seeking to fulfill the...
Building on a full year of industry deployment and testing, Minerva Intelligence Inc. has revamped its previously released DRIVER software, to improve its functionality and user experience, and ultimately improve the overall capabilities of this artificial intelligence-powered mineral exploration system. "We are thrilled to be able to release the updated version of the DRIVER software pushing the boundaries of web and cloud-based 3D artificial intelligence modelling...
The Inflation Reduction Act aims to lower energy bills for U.S. consumers, among many other financial and climate benefits. Nuclear energy is among the benefactors of this landmark legislation. According to the Office of Nuclear Energy, the law entails a production tax credit to help preserve the existing fleet of nuclear plants. "This is a huge priority for our office," the federal nuclear office penned in a statement. The zero-emission nuclear power production credit...
A liquid metal being explored for use in shapeshifting soft robots and enhancing carbon-capturing properties of platinum, gallium is proving to be the missing link to many questions materials scientists have been attempting to answer for years. Now, when the need for clean alternative energy is at its peak, University of California Santa Cruz researchers have found that gallium could unlock the doors to cheap hydrogen production. Researchers have tried to find efficient and...
Shining a light on a metal used in nearly all today's economic sectors Used in everything from beer cans to spacecraft, aluminum is a metal most people interact with nearly every day. What many people don't know is this lightweight metal is also a candidate for next-generation rechargeable batteries with the potential to outperform the lithium-ion cells in use today. The major uses for aluminum metal are generally found in: • Transportation – automobiles, aircraft, tru...
