The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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World's first manufacturing plant for rare-earth-free magnets opening in Minneapolis. Approximately 90% of the world's industrial permanent magnets are produced in China, leaving the supply chain open to significant disruption with environmental, economic, or national security risks. Permanent magnets containing neodymium and other rare earth elements are essential components in a wide variety of technologies and industries, including MRI machines, electric vehicles, wind...
California's SoHyCal project will be the largest hydrogen generator driven completely by North American renewable energy. Nearly all hydrogen refueling stations in the continental U.S. are situated in California, the only state with hydrogen infrastructure. However, a fuel-cell electric vehicle (FCEV) sales slump hit hard this year, with less than 100 hydrogen-powered cars sold countrywide in the second quarter compared to 1,094 in the same period last year – a 91% d...
Rio Tinto CEO and others urge Western governments to speed up clean energy transition, citing exemplary Chinese achievements. Though the Western world may not agree with China's political and international trade policies, Beijing saw the writing on the wall nearly two decades before the rest of the world and took major steps to be the first and greatest power in the green energy transition – both as a buyer and supplier of critical minerals and as a top maker of key energy t...
The proposed $6.7 billion purchase indicates that the global mining giant foresees a lithium market rebound. On Oct. 9, Rio Tinto announced plans to acquire lithium producer Arcadium, boosting Arcadium's value and enhancing Rio Tinto's lithium market exposure, crucial for electric vehicle growth. What does this investment say about the future outlook for the lithium market? Rio Tinto CEO Jakob Stausholm has maintained an attitude of "cautious optimism" in interviews,...
Various methods, such as using bacteria, can remove elements like selenium from water; a new test using specialized light verifies the effectiveness of these solutions. Heather Shrimpton, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Waterloo, and her team are on the hunt for selenium, a naturally occurring nutrient with a nasty habit of causing neurological problems, infertility, and death at higher concentrations. Selenium a...
Building and powering the infrastructure AI requires to operate has already consumed double the gigawatts and may soon tax copper resources exponentially. The need for copper is steadily growing as worldwide urbanization spreads and global superpowers rush to electrify their transportation and energy industries. In addition to physical expansion, the world is also invisibly run on data centers that require vast amounts of copper for both their construction and operation. Hospi...
BHP projects copper demand to rise by 1 million tons annually, lining pockets with high prices, but will a short-term deficit hurt mining in the long run? Copper has enjoyed rising prices since 2020, all while miners face rising operating costs and declining ore quality. With new mine construction requiring at minimum a capital-intensive ten-year commitment and existing operations in key copper-producing countries – Latin America, Australia, and Africa – aging, the gre...
H2020 SOLiDIFY consortium manufactures a powerful, inexpensive solid-state lithium battery. As the coordinator of the H2020 SOLiDIFY consortium, imec, together with 13 European partners, has announced the successful development of a high-performance lithium solid-state battery using a manufacturing process that is both cost-effective and compatible with existing lithium-ion production lines, making it a contender for commercial use – meaning prospective client manufacturers w...
Underground mineral source coupled with environmentally responsible processing presents sustainable solution for domestic rare earth production. NioCorp Developments Ltd. plans to recycle post-consumer rare earth permanent magnets and produce commercial-grade magnetic rare earth oxides at its proposed Elk Creek critical minerals project in Nebraska. All of the minerals to be produced at Elk Creek are officially designated as critical to the United States and are essential to...
Emerging tech addresses limitations in conventional brine evaporation method for increased domestic lithium production in North America. Direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies promise incredibly fast processing times (hours instead of months) and higher yields, broadening the range of usable brine resources across diverse geographical locations in North America. DLE methods can vary widely, with some being more energy-intensive while others require higher amounts of...
Federal grant and state support Inflation Reduction Act-compliant EV battery material production. Mitra Chem, a leading innovator in battery materials, has been selected by the state of Michigan's Competitiveness Fund and U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) for up to $125 million in awarded funds to establish a cutting-edge manufacturing facility in Muskegon, Michigan. MESC plays a critical role in catalyzing investments...
U.S. lithium production is ready to tap a massive aquifer that crosses six southern state lines. Global lithium consumption reached 180,000 metric tons in 2023, according to the United States Geological Survey, but the U.S. produces less than 1% of the world's supply. While most of the world's lithium still comes from countries like Australia, Chile, and China, the future of lithium production in the U.S. is ramping up in California, Nevada, and now Arkansas as companies like...
Automakers sign agreement to collaborate on vehicles, supply chain and clean energy tech. Two leading automotive companies have joined forces to target improved efficiencies and increased competitiveness through collaboration along lines of manufacturing and clean energy technologies. General Motors and Hyundai Motor Company have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to explore future collaboration across these key strategic areas as leading global OEMs – leveraging t...
Computer simulations quickly discover an alloy of ruthenium, chromium, and titanium as a more durable, efficient, and greener catalyst. Researchers at the University of Toronto are using artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific breakthroughs in the search for sustainable energy – by using the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan to confirm an AI-generated formula for a new catalyst could potentially produce hydrogen fuel more efficiently. G...
Develops panels that borrow solar electricity to generate hydrogen from moisture in the air. The first "hydrogen solar panel" ever created merges the two most powerful, clean and renewable sources and is ready for real-world trials. A team of bioscience engineers from the University of Leuven in Belgium – Johan Martens Tom Bosserez, Jan Rongé and Christos Trompoukis – has been working for over a decade on Solhyd, an idealistic plan to develop a panel that can create hydr...
"Investing in America" agenda is expected to generate $16 billion for onshoring critical minerals, processing and battery tech. As part of the Biden-Harris Administration's Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it will be funding over $3 billion to 25 selected projects across 14 states to boost domestic production of batteries and battery materials. The portfolio of selected projects is intended to support projections of over 12,000 battery...
Four-year project to improve price, safety, and domestic production of materials for lithium iron phosphate batteries. As part of efforts to improve electric vehicle battery safety, performance, and overall cost reduction, Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Corp. announced a four-year project to pioneer an eco-friendly lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cathode manufacturing technology together with Hyundai Steel and EcoPro BM, a battery materials research and development...
The USGS has developed tools to help companies and researchers find them all. United States Global Survey (USGS) reports have long demonstrated that while there is technically plenty of lithium found in the Earth's crust to meet demand, extracting this battery metal in the usual fashion (hard rock mining and brine evaporation) hasn't been very sustainable or cost-effective, requiring large amounts of energy, water, or infrastructure. The highest concentrations of lithium are...
Redox flow batteries are just beginning to hit their stride. Although vanadium is an abundant element, it is quite rare in its metallic form. That fact, combined with its position as a strategic metal for industry, national defense, and the green energy transition, has put it squarely on the list of critical minerals. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), "Estimated U.S. apparent consumption of vanadium in 2023 increased by 27% from that in 2022....
Nickel's continuing journey toward clean processes and domestic production. Nickel has a complex relationship with the ongoing energy transition: It provides relatively inexpensive energy density and greater capacity to the lithium-ion batteries powering electric vehicles and storing clean energy, helping to lower the cost of each kilowatt hour. Its properties have been instrumental in untethering the portable electronics we use every day and incorporating clean power...
Indispensable, expensive, and rare – PGMs get a green upgrade. Back in 1950, the first catalytic converter in the United States was a box bolted onto a car's undercarriage to reduce tailpipe emissions. It was patented by French mechanical engineer Eugene Houdry, who was concerned about the effects of automobile exhaust on the good people of Los Angeles. And it would have worked if it had not been for the octane-boosting lead then being added to fuel, which could choke any c...
Will the controversial metal find its place in green tech? About 30 years ago, nobody thought much about cobalt. Today, this metal, with myriads of uses, is one of those elements that gets dragged into the spotlight due to the role it plays in electric vehicle batteries, with critics citing the disparity between the environmental and social costs of producing cobalt and the green tech solutions this critical metal enables. But we can't build a clean energy future without...
AI-driven assessment estimates that 75% of the global lithium-ion battery supply chain is tainted by human rights violations. An AI-driven supply chain risk assessment platform by Infyos has discovered evidence that many of the world's largest automotive, energy storage, consumer electronics, and heavy industry companies are using lithium-ion batteries tainted by human rights abuses in one or more areas of their supply chain. Infyos has been working with some of the world's...
Sibanye-Stillwater gives notice to hundreds of Montana miners as palladium prices collapse. Sibanye-Stillwater, the only platinum and palladium mine in the United States, gave employees a 60-day notice of upcoming layoffs – blaming a loss of more than $350 million since the beginning of 2023 and plummeting metal pricing due to predatory Russian price dumping. The South Africa-based miner expanded in the U.S. through the purchase of Stillwater Mining Company in 2017 for $2.2 b...
Incalculable riches, delicate ecosystem, and the green energy future. Deep-sea mining has captured the world's attention as a uniquely promising source of the metals needed for lithium-ion batteries powering the green energy future and a bitterly controversial topic of debate. Undersea deposits contain quantities of nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese sufficient to replace every U.S. car on the road today with an electric vehicle. They also host some of the most diverse, lit...
