The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Seeking an affordable and safer alternative to lithium-ion batteries for the storage of intermittent clean energy from wind and solar, a global team of researchers led by an award-winning chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a new rechargeable battery made with affordable and readily available materials – aluminum, sulfur, and molten salts. "I wanted to invent something that was better, much better, than lithium-ion batteries for small-scale s...
Without any outside forces, a sky train levitates 30 feet above the ground in China's Jiangxi Province, thanks to the powerful forces of rare earth permanent magnets. Unlike magnetic levitation trains that float on a cushion of magnetic resistivity below, the world-first air train effortlessly floats from a rail above. With permanent rare earth magnets on both the rail and an arm above the "Red Rail" train resisting each other, the train can levitate above the ground below,...
Recognizing the meteoric rise in demand for minerals and metals critical to electric vehicles, renewable energy, and the American economy at large, the U.S. Department of Energy is requesting public input on the development and implementation of a $675 million critical materials research, development, demonstration, and commercialization program. Funded by the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this program is being established to address vulnerabilities in the...
U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, is holding up the nominations of three senior Department of Defense nominees until he gets some answers on why the Biden administration pulled the permits for a road to the Ambler Mining District, a region of Alaska with deposits of copper, cobalt, zinc, and other minerals critical to the renewable energy and defense technologies. The Alaska senator made the announcement while questioning two of the nominees – Radha Plumb, nominated to b...
The White House's bold clean energy ambitions, which are intricately linked to the availability of reliable supplies of the metals needed to build electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure, are being slowed by a tug-o-war between departments within the Biden administration. While the departments of Commerce, Defense, and Energy are forging ahead with programs and investments aimed at ensuring America has the minerals and metals needed to support the clean energy...
The Inflation Reduction Act offers American car buyers a $7,500 tax credit for buying a new electric vehicle, as long as the ingredients in the battery of that automobile are mostly produced domestically, and none of the critical minerals in the EV comes from "foreign entities of concern" in China and elsewhere. The nearly decade-long process to permit a mine in the United States, however, has automakers concerned that none of the shiny electrified models they put on the...
Encouraged by the support it has received from U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, along with the clean energy battery tax credits offered up in the Inflation Reduction Act, Zinc8 Energy Solutions Inc. has decided to move forward with building its first commercial zinc-air battery production facility in New York. "It is abundantly clear that with the introduction of the IRA, US policymakers, led by Senator Schumer, are taking real action by introducing incentives...
Tech metalloid boasts superior semiconductor, optical qualities From NASA's Gateway space station that will serve as a critical outpost circling the Moon to more down-to-Earth applications such as quantum computers that are millions of times faster than their classical counterparts and fiber optic cables that send data at the speed of light, germanium is among the techiest of the tech metals. "The extensive use of germanium for military and commercial applications has made it...
CO2 scrubbing liquid-metal catalyst is tech metal's latest amazing property From making smartphones smarter to transforming troublesome carbon dioxide into useful oxygen and high-value carbon products for batteries and other advanced products, gallium is an amazing tech metal lending its incredible qualities to high-performance computers, telecommunications, national security, and the environment. A soft silvery metal that will turn to liquid in the palm of your hand due to...
Flow batteries a major potential future use of alloying metal Vanadium, a metal best known for its role in making extremely tough steel used in tools and auto parts, is emerging as a metal that could allay shortages of lithium, nickel, and other ingredients needed for the batteries powering electric vehicles. While vanadium flow batteries will not be powering EVs anytime soon, this technology could diversify energy storage by serving as an alternative to lithium-ion batteries...
A blue-collar metal that is vital to weatherizing envisioned green energy future Critical minerals are typically thought of as obscure rare earth elements cloaked in geopolitical intrigue, or exciting metals and metalloids that have risen to stardom due to the special properties they bring to cutting-edge technologies such as quantum computing, smartphones, renewable energy, and electric vehicles. Zinc – a blue-collar metal better known for galvanizing guardrails, light p...
Demonstration plant to verify simplified critical minerals recovery Looking to expand the suite of critical metals produced from a future mine at Elk Creek, NioCorp Developments Ltd. is testing a simplified process for recovering rare earth elements alongside the niobium, scandium, and titanium for which the Nebraska critical minerals project is best known. According to a feasibility study completed earlier this year, an underground mine at Elk Creek would produce an...
Major step along the path to establishing Saskatchewan as rare earths hub In another milestone along the path to establishing a major rare earths hub in Saskatchewan, the province announced that the Saskatchewan Research Council poured the first rare earth metal ingots ever in Canada at the REE processing, separations, and metals facility it is developing near the city of Saskatoon. Saskatchewan's mission to become a leader in rare earths processing and production began with...
Xcel Energy eyes Ambri antimony batteries for clean energy storage Xcel Energy, a utility company that generates enough electricity to power roughly 23 million homes across eight states, has selected the liquid-metal batteries produced by Amri Inc. as a potential long-term clean energy storage solution. "Partnering with a progressive and innovative utility such as Xcel Energy is an exciting opportunity for Ambri as their clean energy vision is directly aligned with our...
The University of Adelaide launches Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Resources The global transition to electric vehicles plugged into low-carbon-emissions power sources is requiring enormous quantities of lithium-ion battery materials, copper, rare earths, and a long list of other mined commodities. This creates a dual challenge for mining companies – ramping up production quickly enough to supply the materials to build the envisioned clean energy future while also m...
At a time when American automakers are looking for potential domestic supplies of the graphite that makes up nearly half of all the materials that go into the lithium-ion batteries powering electric vehicles, Graphite One Inc. offers up details of its plans to develop a mine at its Graphite Creek project in Alaska and processing facility in Washington that would produce roughly 75,000 metric tons of advanced graphite products per year. Earlier this year, S&P Global Platts...
Food, water, breathable air, shelter, and clothing – these fundamental elements of human survival here on Earth will be even more critical for early Mars colonists. With delivery fees measured in millions of dollars and wait times for rush orders being at least six months, Red Planet pioneers are going to need to be able to produce their own survival goods. Researchers at the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia are developing a process that co-produces two of t...
Launches $20M consortium to boost American-made CdTe cells Increasing federal backing of American-made thin-film solar technologies is likely to increase the demand for tellurium, a key ingredient of cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells. Tellurium is a metalloid, one of seven elements with properties that fall between metals like aluminum and tin and non-metals like carbon and phosphorus. These semimetals, which also include silicon and germanium, have natural semiconductive...
Japanese industrial giant Mitsubishi Corp. has entered into a deal to gain a foothold in a potential nickel-cobalt mine at Giga Metals Corp.'s Turnagain project in Northern British Columbia, Canada. Best known for manufacturing automobiles, Mitsubishi is involved with a broad spectrum of businesses including industrial materials and mineral resources. The Turnagain project offers this diversified company a potential carbon-neutral source of the nickel and cobalt that are in...
CO2 reduction path for mines is difficult but not impossible Aligned with global climate goals agreed upon in international pacts such as the Paris Agreement, most of the major mining companies that will supply the raw materials required to build the low-carbon future have declared their own targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 30 to 40% by 2030 and net-zero by 2050. How likely is it that this industrial sector known for its enormous diesel-powered digging and hauling...
Fleet Space launches avant-garde satellite geophysics tech As many space exploration companies begin to investigate the vast mineral potential of asteroids, moons, and planets within our solar system, Fleet Space Technologies is leveraging the vantage of space to explore Earth for the $13 trillion worth of minerals and metals that are estimated to be needed over the next two decades to build the clean energy future. To accomplish this, Fleet's ExoSphere system utilizes a...
Vital Metals Ltd. has received an AU$45 million (US$31.6 million) infusion of cash to fund its expanding rare earths business in Canada. "Vital Metals is on the threshold of becoming North America's only company capable of producing a refined rare earth product from its own mine, completing our transition from exploration and development to production and operations," said Vital Metals Managing Director Geoff Atkins. "This is an important milestone, not only in the development...
Toward its goal of building its inventory of the cobalt needed for the lithium-ion batteries powering electric vehicles, Electra Battery Materials Corp. has drilled a new zone of mineralization at its Iron Creek cobalt-copper project within the Idaho Cobalt Belt about 135 miles northeast of Boise. "Idaho could play an important role in the onshoring of the EV battery supply chain by providing a domestic supply of cobalt in America," said Electra Battery Materials CEO Trent Mel...
Looking to secure the materials required for the lithium batteries that will deliver power to more than 2 million electric vehicles per year by 2026, Ford Motor Company is adding the clout of its Blue Oval emblem to mining companies and projects that can offer low-carbon supplies of the aluminum, battery materials, and copper needed to build its envisioned e-mobility future. "Ford's new electric vehicle lineup has generated huge enthusiasm and demand, and now we are putting...
To bolster supplies of the lithium-ion battery materials needed for America's transition to electric vehicles, the U.S. Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office is loaning Syrah Resources Ltd. $102.1 million to expand Vidalia, a processing facility in Louisiana that upgrades mined graphite into a material needed in the lithium-ion batteries powering electric vehicles and modern electronics. "Securing critical materials, such as lithium and graphite, is essential to...
