The Elements of Innovation Discovered

Articles written by K. Warner


Sorted by date  Results 1 - 25 of 152

  • Rendering of Vantaan Energia’s cavern thermal energy storage facility.

    Grid batteries might not all be mechanical

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated May 15, 2024

    Thermal energy storage cavern twice the size of Madison Square Garden could heat Finland's fourth-most-populous city of Vantaa all year. Engineering advancements have recently made strides in sustainability by imitating nature as opposed to conquering it. In the case of storage, the global energy transition demands more powerful and efficient batteries as well as earth-friendly processes to get the technology where it needs to be, and one city in Finland is building the...

  • Artist’s rendering of a flexible band of complex electronics.

    Wearable electrode gives 33x energy boost

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated May 15, 2024

    New nanofiber electrode material increases energy storage. The next generation of wearable and flexible devices will necessitate the development of more robust, lightweight energy storage systems and researchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) have answered the call – developing modified carbon nanotube fibers in an electrode-like material that can offer 3.3 times the strength and 1.3 times the conductivity over regular carbon nanotubes. Technology c...

  • Artist’s rendering of a translucent body with 2D symbolism.

    Borophene beats graphene for biotech

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated May 14, 2024

    Boron 2D material may surpass graphene in improving a variety of next-gen technologies. Graphene has been this decade's star of materials development, lending itself to everything from cancer detection to stronger concrete. But a new and improved two-dimensional material is making its presence known in the world of nanomaterials – borophene. First synthesized in 2015, borophene is the nano-thin 2D version of boron that is more conductive, lighter, stronger, and more f...

  • A man surveys a tidal habitat in Australian wilderness.

    AU targets critical minerals in hunt

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated May 14, 2024

    Latest budget's resource search focuses on battery metals and rare earth elements. Over the coming decade, Australia is prepared to spend A$566 million (US$373 million) to map out deposits of minerals critical to high-tech manufacturing and the green energy transition. "The critical minerals space is one of the reasons why there is so much attention from global and domestic investors, but we need to make sure we can attract and deploy that," Australia Treasurer Jim Chalmers...

  • The interior of WEST, a donut-shaped fusion reactor in France.

    Fusion reactors switch to tungsten

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated May 14, 2024

    Materials breakthrough improves the timeline of plasma stability, brings endless energy closer. This month in France, a donut-shaped fusion reactor the size of an eight-foot box called WEST has upgraded from a carbon interior to one made of tungsten, an improvement which successfully contained plasma hotter and longer than ever. Compared to this latest result, our own sun burns at temperatures 30% less while still powering grid-scale systems running on solar panels whose...

  • Overhead view of International Battery Metals DLE plant.

    Mobile, modular direct lithium extraction

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated May 14, 2024

    International Battery Metals and US Magnesium agree to install world's first modular DLE plant. This May, International Battery Metals (IBAT) and US Magnesium announced their partnership to install a first-of-its-kind modular direct lithium extraction (DLE) plant that can rapidly be deployed to a site and efficiently extract lithium from a variety of brine resources. The portable, modular design provides both a smaller footprint and scalability. The mobile facility is...

  • Aerial view of phosphor-gypsum stacks at the Phalaborwa project.

    Billions in rare earths for U.S. at risk

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated May 13, 2024

    Without investors, the future of South Africa's rare earth elements enriched Phalaborwa site may depend on Washington support. Bordering South Africa's renowned Kruger National Park stands Phalaborwa, a mine sporting two rare earths-enriched phospho-gypsum waste piles that could mean over a billion in critical minerals for the U.S. – if the project can get enough support to run. To challenge China's near monopoly on rare earths, Washington has committed funds to a little-known...

  • Collection of black lithium cells printed with recycling symbols.

    Just a dash of lithium for these batteries

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated May 8, 2024

    A cheaper and more sustainable LiDFOB electrolyte reduces lithium salts while maintaining battery performance. An international research team has developed an electrolyte with a very low concentration of lithium salt for a cheaper, safer alternative to conventional lithium batteries. According to the report, battery cells using these LiDFOB – lithium difluoro (oxalato) borate – electrolytes in batteries with standard electrodes have demonstrated outstanding performance, pro...

  • Close-up of pyrite formation, otherwise known as fool's gold.

    From fool's gold to white gold

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated May 8, 2024

    Findings reveal high concentrations of lithium in pyrite. The golden glitter of a faceted nugget of pyrite has earned it the moniker "fool's gold" for its abundance, showy false promise and low value as a common sulfide – until recently. Lithium, on the other hand, has been the modern day's elusive "white gold" prize in many searches, from hard rock mines to brines and more experimental sources such as mine tailings and drill cuttings. Recent research led by a team from W...

  • Rendering of Urban Vibro truck.

    Pounding pavement: trucks sense geophysics

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated May 8, 2024

    Trucks send seismic waves beneath cities to explore the terrain for oil, gas, faults and geothermal. In 2017, two fleets of massive trucks crossed from Long Beach into Orange County in southern California, sending literal shock waves through the streets. And now, in Germany, they're going to be at it again. The vehicle used to create these vibrations is a seismic vibrator truck or thumper. These trucks use a large weight to thump the ground's surface while sophisticated...

  • A broken hourglass surrounded by pennies and glittering dirt

    Mineral demand surges as mines struggle

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated May 8, 2024

    Despite rising EV sales, miners are unable to finance projects for battery metals. Amidst a green tech boom, fierce global competition is pushing down company margins, and a surprising number of mining industry leaders, like Albemarle, First Quantum Minerals, Glencore, and BHP, are cutting budgets, lowering dividends, and laying off workers. In the U.S., where the Biden administration is pushing to develop a domestic mineral supply but has halted many projects that would meet...

  • AI-generated rendering of a futuristic computer capacitor.

    Nano-thin ferroelectric power breakthrough

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated May 7, 2024

    New capacitors are layered with 2D and 3D materials whose architecture promises higher energy and unprecedented efficiency. A group of researchers from the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, have developed a new metamaterial designed to advance the capabilities of ferroelectric capacitors, a discovery that could open the door for the widespread adoption of this elusive electrical storage solution across many technologies....

  • Couple in hard hats in a cave with a carved stone car.

    OEMs move upstream in metals supply chain

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated May 3, 2024

    Car and battery manufacturers are getting in on the critical minerals mining business. There has been an increasing trend of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for electric vehicles, and the batteries that power them are moving upstream in the global metals supply chain to secure deals for their own feedstocks of critical minerals – entering into mineral offtake agreements directly with mining companies, investing in mining projects, and joint mining ventures. Until r...

  • Illustration of Little Miss Muffet in front of e-waste with a bowl of gold.

    Gold's latest big cheese in urban mining

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated May 3, 2024
    1

    An efficient e-waste recycling process is made possible by whey, a byproduct of cheesemaking. Scientists in Switzerland have recovered high-purity gold through a scalable process using food scrap-derived sponges that efficiently adsorb the precious metal from tricky e-waste. The final result is 450 milligrams of 22-carat gold recovered from 20 discarded motherboards. Because the method utilizes industry byproducts, it is doubly sustainable and cost-effective as well. Gold...

  • A circular pile of blue nickel sulfate retrieved from the seafloor.

    World's first nickel sulfate from deep sea

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated May 3, 2024

    The Metals Company and SGS have produced nickel from harvested polymetallic nodules. As part of The Metals Company's (TMC) pilot-scale processing, the world's first nickel sulfate has been produced from polymetallic nodules harvested from the seabed, further solidifying the resource's promise for battery markets. "The production of the world's first nickel sulfate from deep-seafloor nodules is an important milestone, confirming that our custom flowsheet configuration can be de...

  • The globe showing the Pacific Ocean overlaid by statistics.

    Impossible Metals top-rated in green tech

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated May 3, 2024

    You won't find many miners on TIME and Statista's inaugural list of 250 companies reducing environmental impact, but one green mining tech company has arrived. Sailing in alongside several hydrogen producers as one of America's top green-tech companies of 2024, deep-sea mining firm Impossible Metals is one of the rare few resource-related organizations to be granted the honor. This year, TIME launched its inaugural list of America's Top GreenTech Companies from an intensive...

  • Artist’s rendering of electrical discharge between materials.

    Fast-charging sodium hybrid battery

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 29, 2024

    Korean researchers present a high-power sodium-ion battery that can be charged in seconds. Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed a high-energy and high-power hybrid sodium-ion battery capable of charging within seconds. Interest in developing batteries based on sodium has taken off due to concerns over the sustainability of lithium, as well as safety concerns due to the combustibility of lithium-ion batteries....

  • Quino Energy co-founders Eugene Beh and Meisam Bahari.

    Building a better water-based battery

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 25, 2024

    Cheap and safe, water-based organic redox flow batteries are coming – an interview with Quino Energy's founder Eugene Beh. Quino Energy CEO and co-founder Eugene Beh is a chemist and physicist with an impressive history of accolades from Harvard to Stanford and back again and deep expertise in electrochemical systems, be it a postdoctoral fellowship working on aqueous organic flow batteries at Harvard University or inventing and commercializing a redox flow desalination t...

  • Rendering of a geophysical scanning micro-satellite over Earth.

    Graphite composite stabilizes maglev tech

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 25, 2024

    New material bridges anti-gravity tech and super-sensitive instruments. Flying cars and personal jetpacks notwithstanding, a new carbon-based material is bringing us closer to stable levitation technologies with no need for mechanical or electrical assists. Today's levitation uses electrically manipulated magnetic fields, superconductors or diamagnetic (magnetically repelled) materials to float above magnets. The primary use for this is in developing super-sensitive...

  • The original Beta Research team posing for picture in from of truck.

    Jump-starting a 50-year-old battery tech

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 25, 2024

    Inlyte Energy's endeavors to bring back sodium-metal-halide batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are today's most common energy storage technology, with uses large and small, ranging from smartphones and other electronic devices to electric cars and stationary. But science is far from resting on this standard – battery efficiency and durability are still in high demand. With sodium easier to source and exponentially cheaper than lithium, a redesigned sodium-metal-halide battery m...

  • Overhead view of the Karuizawa house surrounded by trees.

    Building green with CO2-absorbing concrete

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 25, 2024

    Japan's Kajima Corp. is well on its way to supplying the world with carbon-negative concrete. A little over an hour from Tokyo, nestled in the mountains near Nagano, a house has been built in Karuizawa with the world's first carbon dioxide-removing concrete walls produced by replacing a percentage of the cement content with an industrial byproduct and adding a CO2-absorbing admixture of dicalcium silicate. Karuizawa is one of Japan's oldest and most famous forested mountain re...

  • Union Jack flag flying in front of an old building.

    UK critical minerals policy still vulnerable

    K. Warner|Updated Apr 22, 2024

    Dods’ “Vital but Vulnerable: UK Critical Minerals Policy” report cautions that more needs to be done. Dods Political Intelligence, an advisory service, has published a report to provide context and evaluation of current critical mineral policies in the United Kingdom. These are increasingly crucial for contemporary defense manufacturing, which acts as a deterrent against conflict. Meanwhile, global economies in a rush to transition to green industries are going to colle...

  • Computer grapic of charger being plugged into EV on a photo of wind turbines.

    DOE puts $75M into domestic minerals

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 9, 2024

    U.S. Department of Energy is funding a Critical Materials Supply Chain Research Facility support a resilient and secure domestic supply chain. The Department of Energy is funding a Critical Materials Supply Chain Research Facility that will help support a secure domestic supply of minerals and materials critical to economic prosperity, national security, and the green energy transition in the U.S. This week, the DOE's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM)...

  • A globe-shaped balloon centered over North America.

    American helium shortage at turning point

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 8, 2024

    Pulsar's timely discovery of a massive helium deposit in Minnesota may keep our medical scanners, rockets, and nuclear reactors going. Despite being the second most abundant gas in the universe, there is a definite helium shortage in America, risking the operation of everything from medical diagnostics to cooling nuclear reactors. But the U.S. might finally be in luck – a recently discovered reservoir in Minnesota boasts concentrations pushing 13.8%, the highest the i...

  • Blue-gloved hand holding a solar cell prototype.

    Selenium solar may hit 40% efficiency

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated Apr 8, 2024

    Researchers in Denmark are experimenting with a selenium–silicon tandem solar cell. While an increasingly common clean energy resource for individual homes and grid-scale production alike, solar cells are shockingly inefficient – at best capturing less than 30% of the energy from the sunlight that strikes them. Rasmus Nielsen and his team of physicists and engineers at the Technical University of Denmark have found a possible method to boost that efficiency to 40% by cre...

Page Down