The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Becancour, a small Quebec town along the shores of the St. Lawrence River about midway between Montreal and Quebec City, is rapidly emerging as an epicenter for producing the advanced materials needed for lithium-ion batteries powering the electric vehicle revolution. This rural Canadian town of around 12,800 people surfaced in the battery space about a year ago when Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. announced plans to build a facility there to produce the coated spherical purified...
Electra Battery Materials Corp. is making headway on upgrades and expansions of North America's only battery-grade cobalt refinery, the centerpiece of an emerging eco-industrial park in Ontario that will supply battery materials to the lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle plants in North America. Electra's cobalt refinery is a hydrometallurgical facility that previously operated in Ontario for a decade. Since acquiring this asset, the company has been advancing a strategy...
A group of bipartisan senators and a conservation organization are urging the White House to take definitive actions to bolster domestic production of the minerals critical to clean energy and national security. In a March 11 letter to President Biden, Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska); Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), and Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) pointed out that the "lack of home-grown production...
By the end of next year, the powerful rare earth magnets vital to efficiently transform motion into electricity in wind turbines and electricity into motion in electric vehicles are expected to be rolling off the assembly line at a new 200,000-square-foot facility that MP Materials Corp. is building in Fort Worth, Texas. During a ceremony that attracted Texas lawmakers, General Motors executives, and even a GMC Hummer EV that benefits from the type of rare earth magnets that...
To support American production of graphite active anode material, the single largest ingredient in most lithium-ion batteries powering electric vehicles, the U.S. Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office has allotted $107 million to fund the expansion of Syrah Resources Ltd.'s Vidalia graphite processing facility in Louisiana. With this and further expansions to follow, Vidalia is expected to produce enough natural graphite-based active anode material, also known as coated...
With mass production of batteries that store intermittent renewable energy and power electric vehicles being a vital component of the envisioned clean energy future, the Biden administration has authorized use of the Defense Production Act to bolster American supplies of these critical battery minerals and materials. "Specifically, the DPA will be authorized to support the production and processing of minerals and materials used for large capacity batteries – such as l...
Adding to the rapidly expanding network of companies building a robust lithium battery materials supply in Ontario, Canada-based Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. and India-based Essar Group Company have forged a partnership to develop a mine and processing plant that will produce lithium that will be needed by electric vehicle and battery manufacturers in Ontario and beyond. Under the agreement, the two companies would co-own Avalon Lithium Inc., a private Avalon subsidiary that...
A research group at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands has discovered one-way superconductivity without the use of magnetic fields, something that was thought to be impossible ever since its discovery in 1911 – until now. Throughout the 20th century, many scientists, including Nobel laureates, have struggled over the nature of superconductivity. Discovered in 1911 by Dutch physicist Kamerlingh Onnes, superconductors have since been a holy grail effort by r...
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and Congressman Mike Rogers joined other state and local government officials and business leaders during the groundbreaking ceremony at the site of a $202 million processing facility being developed by Westwater Resources Inc. that will produce the high-quality graphite needed for the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles. Being built at Kellyton, which is about 50 miles north of Montgomery, this graphite refinery will transform Alabama into...
Over the course of one monumental week, Energy Fuels Inc. shipped a trifecta of mineral products critical to the production, storage, and use of low-carbon energy in the United States from its White Mesa Mill in southern Utah. "This week, our vision of Energy Fuels as 'America's Critical Mineral and Clean Energy Hub' tangibly advanced, as our White Mesa Mill in Utah sent three shipments of advanced materials containing a total of fifteen critical elements," said Energy Fuels...
With mining giant Glencore AG agreeing to buy the nickel and cobalt recycled from spent lithium-ion batteries over the next two years, Electra Battery Materials Corp.'s vision of developing an eco-industrial park in Ontario that serves as a one-stop-shop for the materials needed for the batteries powering 1.5 million electric vehicles per year is one step closer to reality. The Electra Battery Materials Park is being developed around the company's cobalt refinery about 250...
In another deal to secure the raw materials it needs to produce enough Ultium batteries to power up to 1 million electric vehicles per year by 2025, General Motors struck a multi-year agreement to purchase cobalt from Glencore's Murrin Murrin operation in Western Australia. A rare and critical metal, cobalt plays an important role in improving the energy density and longevity of the lithium-ion batteries powering EVs. "Future facing commodities like cobalt play a pivotal role...
Two research teams, one in the United States and the other in Australia – working on separate projects to improve lithium batteries – have reported significant breakthroughs recently that could make lithium-sulfur batteries a viable option. As interest grows in harnessing green, emissions-free electricity to power everything from personal devices like smartphones and laptops to electric vehicles for consumers and industry, lithium batteries are becoming an important sto...
The application of antimicrobial copper patches on high-touch surfaces at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Applied Science will help reduce the spread of infection as researchers inside the protected buildings investigate more advanced copper coatings that are even more lethal to viruses and bacteria. Funded through Teck Resources Ltd.'s Copper and Health program, more than 400 Health Canada-registered copper patches have been installed on door handles, railings,...
Ontario has developed a mines-to-market critical minerals strategy that leverages rich stores of critical minerals in the northern reaches of the Canadian province, the already well-established mining sector found there, and the robust manufacturing sector that has been developed in the south. "The Critical Minerals Strategy is our government's blueprint to connect industries, resources and workers in our province's north to the future of manufacturing in the south as we...
Rising demand, tight supply, war, and a short squeeze on a China-based stainless steel titan came into perfect alignment to rocket the price of nickel to historic heights. The price for a pound of nickel soared nearly 250% over two days to a brief altitude above US$100,000 per metric ton, or US$45 per pound, on March 7. This prompted the London Metal Exchange to halt trading of the battery metal to deal with the aftermath of the largest move in the price of a metal in LME's...
Adding to a growing list of deals to source the materials and components needed for its vision to get everybody in on its transition to an all-electric future, General Motors is working with POSCO Chemical to develop a roughly $400 million plant in Quebec to produce cathode active material for Ultium batteries that will power GM electric vehicles such as the Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC HUMMER EV, and Cadillac LYRIQ. Planning to have the capacity to build 1 million electric...
Scientists at the United States Department of Energy Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have designed a new type of magnet made from niobium and tin that could aid devices ranging from tokamaks to x-ray machines. In a recent experiment that shattered its old record, researchers at the Joint European Torus (JET) facility reported producing 59 megajoules of energy over five seconds with the holy grail of energy, fusion – more than doubling the facility's previous r...
While hailing President Joe Biden's use of the Defense Production Act to bolster domestic supplies of battery minerals and materials as a win for rebuilding United States supply chains, the bipartisan group of senators that urged this action say more needs to be done to curb America's heavy dependence on oft adversarial countries for the minerals and metals critical to the nation's security and economic wellbeing. "While I am heartened that President Biden is heeding our...
Lars Carlstrom, who has already founded two companies building lithium-ion battery gigafactories in Europe, has launched a third enterprise that plans to build a 54-gigawatt-hour battery facility in Southern California that will be supplied with geothermal power and lithium from Controlled Thermal Resources' Hell's Kitchen project in Imperial Valley. Carlstrom is a pioneering industrialist in the automotive sector who founded Britishvolt, which is developing a 30 GWh battery g...
Dubbed GRX-810, a new metal alloy developed by NASA using a 3D printing process that dramatically improves the strength and durability of components and parts for aviation and space exploration – resulting in better and longer-lasting performance. Although it is currently unknown exactly what mix of metals goes into GRX-810, it is described as an oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) alloy – a metal that contains nanoscale oxide particles – that can endure temperatures over...
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has thus far focused the automaker's efforts on manufacturing electric vehicles and the lithium-ion batteries that power them. This could change as a shortage of the minerals and metals critical to lithium batteries threatens to slow production and drive up the costs of EVs. "Price of lithium has gone to insane levels!" Musk tweeted on April 8. "Tesla might actually have to get into the mining & refining directly at scale, unless costs improve." In a...
Since its invention nearly 140 years ago, the modern steam turbine has represented the apex of efficiency when it comes to converting thermal energy into electricity. Now, engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and National Renewable Energy Laboratory have created a heat engine with no moving parts that exceeds the efficiency of the turbines used in today's coal, natural gas, and nuclear power plants. Reminiscent of the photovoltaic solar cells that convert...
In a breakthrough that could lower the energy needs for computing, University of California, Berkeley engineers have created zirconium-hafnium crystal structures that could make anything that uses advanced transistors more energy efficient. "We have been able to show that our gate-oxide technology is better than available transistors: What the trillion-dollar semiconductor industry can do today – we can essentially beat them," said study senior author Sayeef Salahuddin, a dist...
Graphite One Inc.'s plans to establish a complete domestic supply chain for the advanced graphite materials for electric vehicle batteries was bolstered by President Joe Biden's decision to use the Defense Production Act to boost American supplies of critical battery materials. On March 31, the President signed a memorandum that orders the Pentagon to utilize Defense Production Act Title III funding to establish and expand upon sustainable and responsible production of the...
