The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Loan will support US plant capable of producing EV battery materials at the giga-scale. Toward the White House's goal of zero-emission vehicles making up half of all car sales in the U.S. by 2030, the U.S. Department of Energy has conditionally committed to lend $2 billion to Redwood Materials Inc. to support the expansion and construction of a battery recycling and manufacturing complex in Nevada. Announced on Thursday via the DOE Loan Programs Office, Redwood will use the...
As technology begins to enter the realm of 1990s-era science fiction, researchers from Soft Machines Lab at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a miniature shapeshifting robot that can liquefy itself and reform – basically a prototype of Skynet's cool but terrifying T-1000 robot in "Terminator 2". With assistance from Sun Yat-sen University and Zhejiang University, this liquid metal robot is based on gallium that has been embedded with magnetic nanoparticles. Since g...
Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions' AutoMine loading technology is the latest advancement in Sumitomo Metal Mining's long-term vision of leading the world in the non-ferrous metals industry. The Japanese company's philosophical focus on social consciousness and sustainability in business has gained a practical supporter in Sandvik, bringing Sumitomo closer to the ideal of full digitization and automation of the mine. With machine learning, remote operation software, and...
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...
RapidSX team on pace to begin commissioning REE separation plant this year Despite snarled supply chains, Ucore Rare Metals Inc. says it remains on track to begin commissioning a plant in Canada that will demonstrate the commercial viability of its RapidSX separation technology to automakers and others that are seeking an efficient and sustainable means of producing the rare earths needed for electric vehicles, renewable energy, high-tech devices, and household goods. A suite...
Jervois ramps up Idaho cobalt mine; concentrates must be shipped out of U.S. for refining. The ramping up of commercial production at Jervois Global Ltd.'s Idaho Cobalt Operations mine will provide American automakers with a domestic source of a metal critical to the performance of the lithium-ion batteries going into an increasing number of electric vehicles rolling off assembly lines. Foreseeing a sharp rise in the demand for cobalt in the United States and around the globe...
To seize upon a once-in-a-century opportunity to leverage Canada's already world-class mining sector to supply the minerals and metals needed to build the clean energy future, Ottawa has unveiled a strategy backed by a $3.8 billion (US$2.8 billion) investment to bolster the resiliency of critical mineral supply chains in the northern nation. Ottawa began positioning Canada as a major player at the front end of the emerging green energy supply chains with a 2021 list of 31...
Going against all known rules of conductivity, researchers from the University of Chicago are astonished by a strange material that can be made like plastic but conducts electricity like metal, being likened to conductive Play-Doh. Conventional electronics, whether it be an iPhone, solar panel, or television, use conductive materials; otherwise, they would be no different than the raw materials they are transformed from. Metals, such as copper, gold, and aluminum, are by far t...
Rare tellurium has emerged as vital metalloid in next-gen solar, solid-state batteries. From longer-range electric vehicle batteries to long-lasting solar panels that efficiently charge those EVs with sunshine, tellurium is quietly becoming one of the most important energy metals that most people have never heard of. "It has flown largely under the radar, even though it's essential for cadmium-telluride solar panels and new lithium-tellurium batteries that could revolutionize...
Enters deal for battery-grade nickel sulfate to be produced in Canada's new Battery Valley. In a deal that helps General Motors meet its electric vehicle ambitions and further solidifies Canada as the go-to North American source for low-carbon battery materials, the American automaker has cut a deal for the long-term supply of battery-grade nickel sulfate from a plant Vale Canada Ltd. is building in Quebec's emerging Battery Valley. "This new agreement with Vale reinforces...
Hoping to gain insights into processes that would create longer-lasting batteries and lighter vehicles, scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington are investigating the effects of physical forces on metals at the atomic level as they undergo shear deformation. Shear deformation occurs when an object changes shape when forces are applied to it but not in the way of just becoming longer or shorter. The PNNL researchers are taking a direct look at changes...
Furthering its climate goals and hoping to continue strengthening the nation's battery supply chain, the Biden administration has allotted $74 million to advance technologies and processes for the recycling and reuse of electric vehicle batteries. The number of EVs on the road since Biden moved into the Oval Office has tripled and the demand for critical battery minerals, such as lithium and graphite, is projected to increase by as much as 4,000% in the coming decades....
Canada's Mining Innovation Commercialization Accelerator has awarded EnviroMetal Technologies Inc. up to C$1.74 million toward the commercialization of a much more environmentally sound alternative to cyanide for leaching gold from ore, concentrates, and other feedstocks. EnviroMetal's potentially game-changing metals recovery technology is based on a proprietary blend of five ingredients that are FDA approved for human consumption that can dissolve gold contained in ores,...
Rio Tinto, Ottawa to invest C$737M in lowering GHG emissions, upping critical minerals output in Quebec. Mining giant Rio Tinto and the Canadian government have committed to investing up to C$737 million (US$537 million) into significantly reducing the greenhouse gas emissions at Rio Tinto Fer et Titane (RTFT), a metallurgical complex in Quebec that produces titanium, scandium, steel, and other metal products critical to electric vehicles, 3D printing, and aerospace. "Rio...
US invests heavily into developing domestic rare earth element processing plants Despite what their name suggests, rare earths are not all that scarce. An efficient and environmentally sound technology capable of separating this tightly bonded group into the 15 individual elements of innovation, however, is truly unique and the key to establishing a rare earths supply chain in North America. There are currently no commercial-scale rare earths separation facilities in North...
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...
Develops strategy to be the world's critical minerals supplier of choice Understanding that the renewable energy and electric vehicle revolution offers a "generational opportunity for Canada and its world-class mining sector," Ottawa is leveraging the nation's wealth of critical minerals to become a powerhouse that feeds raw materials into resource-hungry clean energy and technology supply chains. "Canada's Critical Minerals Strategy will position Canada as the global supplier...
Coming together to build North America's clean energy and e-mobility future The shift away from the fossil fuels that powered the Industrial Revolution and transported humankind through the 20th century, and toward the clean energy technologies that will propel us into the future, has the world at an inflection point – the decisions we make on how to supply, use, and recycle the minerals and metals that are the basic building blocks of the Renewable Energy Revolution will s...
Magnet rare earths transform motion to energy; and energy to motion and music While all 15 of the rare earths have special properties that have been called magical, alchemistical, and futuristic, seven of these elements are imbued with a powerful magnetism that is hard to resist when it comes to creating a high-tech future powered by clean energy. The magnetic qualities of these rare earths – praseodymium, neodymium, samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, and holmium – are...
While renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar have become significantly cheaper and more available in recent years, many challenges still need to be overcome to achieve decarbonization in most industries. To help supplement energy needs, researchers from the University of Cambridge have designed an ultrathin, flexible device intended to mimic nature's best energy convertor – leaves! For several years, Professor Erwin Reisner's research group at Cambridge has been...
RecycLiCo Battery Materials Inc., in partnership with Kemetco Research Inc., has announced over 99% lithium recovery from its lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery cathode materials process during bench-scale tests. Since 2016, RecycLiCo has facilitated up to 100% extraction of valuable battery materials from nickel-rich, manganese-rich, cobalt-rich, and now LFP cathode chemistries. As all these battery chemistries contain lithium, which has seen a more than 350% increase in pr...
A major breakthrough in nuclear fusion has been confirmed by the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, little over a year since the lab successfully achieved 1.3 megajoules of energy for a fraction of a second. After a year of painstaking work, the NIF has published its work in three peer-review papers. Nuclear fusion is the process that powers the Sun and other stars. Heavy hydrogen atoms collide with enough force that they fuse...
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...
For years, researchers have sought a viable method for making the common zinc alkaline battery rechargeable. Now, a team of international researchers has developed a technique for doing just that. Prolonged research led the scientists to develop a new electrode design that is set to enable the rechargeability of alkaline zinc, one of the most common types of non-rechargeable batteries used in our daily lives. The technique also sheds light on a potentially wider application of...
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...
