The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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A fleet of 14 autonomous surface drill rigs to be delivered to Western Australia lithium mine. Pilbara Minerals, the world's largest independent hard rock lithium producer, has ordered a fleet of surface drill rigs from Epiroc for its Pilgangoora lithium mine in Western Australia. This large order includes 14 SmartROC D65 surface drill rigs, as well as a contract for Epiroc to provide spare parts for the surface drill rigs to keep downtime to a minimum. Several giants of the...
First domestic source of cobalt and nickel to be produced in new Ohio facility. This week, Nth Cycle became the first company in the United States to produce recycled nickel and cobalt. Using its patented Oyster system to produce these battery metals at its 21,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Ohio, this system is able to upgrade black mass and nickel scrap into mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP), a key intermediate product that can be refined into nickel and cobalt...
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...
Natron plans to 40X its capacity with a 14 GW sodium-ion battery factory in Southeast U.S. Natron plans to invest nearly $1.4 billion in building a sodium-ion battery factory in North Carolina. The plant is expected to produce 14 gigawatts of sodium-ion batteries per year at full capacity, increasing Natron's production by more than 40 times its current capacity. The factory is part of Natron's strategy to leverage the growing demand for sodium-ion battery storage, according...
Funds go to 20 projects across 15 states for clean hydrogen infrastructure. The U.S. Department of Energy awarded nearly $62 million to fund 20 projects across 15 states to accelerate research, development, and deployment of next-generation clean hydrogen technologies. These selected projects aim to advance critical elements of hydrogen fueling infrastructure, hydrogen-powered container-handling equipment for use at ports, and to improve processes essential to the efficient...
Bacteria can extract lithium, cobalt, manganese, and other minerals from batteries and e-waste. Some bacteria have been proven to synthesize metal nanoparticles from their surroundings, apparently as a detox method to protect themselves from poisoning – and a team at the University of Edinburgh aims to use them to extract lithium, cobalt, manganese, and other minerals from old batteries and e-waste. Named The Horsfall Group, the researchers have proposed a method using s...
The automaker’s first with solid-state batteries. Solid-state batteries are available now, but scaling the technology up to electric vehicle production rates is still several years out. With the potential of nearly twice the energy density of lithium-ion, solid-state batteries can boost power and range while also lowering charge times. The world got its first look at the electric GT-R after Nissan unveiled the Hyper Force EV concept last October. An electric version of N...
Volkswagen's PowerCo and QuantumScape face challenges in the quest to mass-produce solid-state batteries. Solid-state battery technology is poised to revolutionize the green energy storage landscape, particularly in the electric vehicle market. In a move to advance this innovation, Volkswagen Group's battery company PowerCo and QuantumScape have entered into a groundbreaking agreement to commercialize QuantumScape's next-generation solid-state lithium-metal battery technology....
In a Fastmarkets interview, Nevada's Surge Battery Metals chairman discusses the need for transparency. Slackening growth in electric vehicle sales and an oversupply in China's battery capacity are weighing on demand for battery metals. While lithium, cobalt and nickel remain in oversupply, the response from producers cutting output will influence the long term, especially by slowing and halting the promise of U.S. lithium production. Demand will continue to increase over the...
Space mining could provide rare earths, iron, hydrogen, and other in-situ resources for lunar and Martian outposts. The most expensive aspect of space exploration comes in the form of moving payloads. Every ounce on a rocket requires a fuel increase, resupply missions are expensive, and as astronaut crews – human or robotic – become more independent of Earth, long-term missions become increasingly feasible. Future astronauts will need to collect and process ext...
Funds will take advantage of prolific rare earths and encourage domestic processing. Mineral exploration continues to play an integral role in shaping the economy of Saskatchewan, a province that hosts 27 out of 34 minerals deemed critical by the Canadian government, from potash to uranium. The Canadian Prairie province is now positioning itself as a key producer of rare earth elements (REE). In that vein, Canada Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson rece...
Benchmark forecasts that $1.6 trillion for minerals, battery materials, gigafactories, and recycling will be required by 2040. As the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) accelerates the buildout of lithium battery gigafactory capacity in the United States, battery supply chain experts at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence estimate that at least $1.6 trillion of investment into the battery supply chain is needed to meet demand by 2040 – almost triple the $571 billion estimated to meet d...
Tested on the racetrack, this clean-burning fuel offers an alternative to EVs for zero-carbon emissions transportation. With the automotive industry headed toward greener transportation, electric vehicles have been the face of the shift. Meanwhile, another promising clean technology is quietly coming to the fore – hydrogen. A future in which hydrogen vehicles share the road seems increasingly possible as numerous established automakers such as BMW, Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, a...
Florida State University scientists study quantum properties of cesium-vanadium-antimonide. In quantum physics, the name Kagome, an ancient design seen in traditional Japanese basket-weaving, has been borrowed by scientists to describe a class of ferromagnetic quantum materials with an atomic structure closely resembling this distinctive lattice pattern. A new Florida State University (FSU) study published in Nature Communications focuses on how a particular Kagome metal...
Based on new simulations, a team of geoscientists suspects Mercury may have a 10-mile-thick layer of diamonds buried beneath its graphite grey surface. While we can't yet go digging to prove it, a new study reveals the likely presence of a layer of diamond nearly ten miles thick at the boundary between Mercury's core and mantle. When viewed by spacecraft from 2011 to 2015, Mercury appeared exceptionally grey due to the high concentrations of graphite, which is pure carbon, on...
Bronze Age firebricks may present an inexpensive solution to energy storage for modern industrial processes. Scientists and early man have something in common when it comes to energy storage: the heat-absorbing bricks used to line primitive kilns and iron-making furnaces thousands of years ago may help store intermittent power from renewables to switch over to green energy sooner – and for a trillion dollars less – according to recent Stanford-led research published in PNA...
NASA rovers looking for evidence of life make surprising revelations for the future of space mining as well. In the last two months of an ongoing search for signs of ancient life on Mars, NASA's Perseverance and Curiosity have been wheeling around the red planet looking for rocks that may have been created or modified long ago by the presence of water and microbial life. Meanwhile, a rich volcanic history may produce other treasures as well. A vein of spotted rocks nicknamed...
Scientists have already found several revelations studying material from the asteroid sample brought back to Earth by the OSIRIS-REx mission. Launched back in 2016, a spacecraft traveled to near-Earth asteroid Bennu and collected a large sample of rocks and dust from the surface. This first U.S. mission to collect a sample directly from an asteroid delivered its payload back to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023. At last, early analysis of the sample of asteroid Bennu returned by NASA's...
Deep sea mining has a new discovery to contend with. Deep sea mining has brought many abyssal research theories to light, including the vibrancy and delicacy of the sunless seafloor ecosystem, the amazing accretion of desirable minerals over millions of years into priceless little nodules that have been suggested could nearly eliminate land-based battery mineral mining in its entirety, and a new mystery – dark oxygen – defying previous theories about the origins of life on...
University of Adelaide's copper consortium has lasting impact on industry and will continue collaborations after concluding. Copper is the leading commodity produced in South Australia. Capitalizing on this over the last seven years is the Adelaide-based Integrated Mining Consortium of universities. Teaming up with Mining Equipment, Technology and Services (METS) partners, mining companies and key stakeholders, this group has unlocked significant economic potential worth...
Talon plans to use Circulor's solution to trace the responsibly produced nickel and other critical minerals it mines and processes in the U.S. Poor worker safety, environmental impacts, and human rights violations at Chinese-run nickel mines and refineries in Indonesia have been the subject of a great deal of negative media attention, driving battery manufacturers and electric vehicle makers to seek out stronger assurances of environmental, social and governance (ESG) complian...
Westwater will deliver graphite anode material to Fiat Chrystler Automobiles' battery partners. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), a leading electric vehicle manufacturer and part of the Stellantis group of companies, has entered into an offtake agreement for battery-grade graphite produced by Westwater Resources Inc. in Alabama. Stellantis – the world's fourth-largest automaker by sales in 2023, behind Toyota, Volkswagen Group, and Hyundai Motor Group – designs, man...
Safety concerns after recent battery fires encourage transparency from automakers. Following several recent publicized incidents of electric vehicles catching fire in South Korea, Hyundai Motors will be the first to reveal a list of the battery makers used in its 13 EV models, with Kia to follow suit. At the top of these headline-grabbing stories was a parked Mercedes-Benz EV that caught fire below a residential building in Incheon, South Korea. The fire caused a prolonged...
Researchers develop scalable, reusable filter that removes 75% of forever chemicals from water. A team from the University of Bath in the United Kingdom has developed 3D-printed indium oxide lattice filters that remove up to 75% of one of the most common persistent chemical contaminants on the planet from water – PFAS. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of manmade chemicals developed in the 1940s to make products that resist water, oil and grease, heat a...