FluoRok, a spin-out of the University of Oxford developing a new method for the direct synthesis of high value fluorochemicals, announced £3 million (US$3.8 million) of seed funding from Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE), an independent, billion-pound investment company that funds businesses via its unique partnership with the University of Oxford.... Read more →

Origin Materials, a carbon negative materials company (earlier post), has begun startup of Origin 1, the first commercial CMF plant, located in Sarnia, Ontario, in-line with prior guidance. The plant represents a significant scale-up of Origin’s technology platform for converting sustainable wood residues into versatile intermediate chemicals. The Origin platform... Read more →

Lotte Chemical plans to invest up to 3 trillion KRW ($2.3 billion) through 2028 to boost production of copper foil for EV batteries, the company said. In March, Lotte completed the 2.7-trillion KRW (US$2-billion) acquisition of electric foil manufacturer Iljin Materials, and changed Iljin’s name to Lotte Energy Materials, in... Read more →

SSAB and Fortum are launching a Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) study to explore the possibilities of making hydrogen-reduced sponge iron in SSAB’s Raahe steel plant. Raahe, established in 1960, is a 2.6 million tonnes per annum blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steel plant operating in Raahe, Finland; its... Read more →

The new “Pendik” bicycle bag from the pinqponq brand by baesiq GmbH (Cologne, Germany) has a significantly reduced CO2 footprint due to BASF’s Ultramid Ccycled, a mass-balanced polyamide that supports the use of alternative raw materials from chemical recycling of plastic waste. BASF feeds pyrolysis oil from end-of-life (EOL) tires... Read more →

Johnson Matthey (JM) and Diffusion Alloys, a specialist diffusion coatings producer, are partnering to scale-up production and enable the increasing demand for low-carbon hydrogen used to reduce global carbon emissions. By partnering, JM and Diffusion Alloys will share their areas of expertise and ensure a robust supply chain for the... Read more →

Imerys, a global leader in mineral-based specialty solutions, and British Lithium, a private company having developed a processing route to produce battery-grade lithium carbonate from mica in Cornish granite, (earlier post) have formed a joint venture with the objective of creating the United Kingdom’s first integrated producer of battery-grade lithium... Read more →

Stellantis N.V. and Australia-based Kuniko Ltd announced the signing of a binding offtake term sheet agreement securing a 35% future production offtake of nickel sulfate and cobalt sulfate from Kuniko’s Norwegian exploration projects for a term of nine years. Kuniko’s projects located in Norway are targeting three fundamental metals for... Read more →

Swedish sodium-ion battery developer Altris presented a pure Prussian White cathode material with a capacity of 160 mAh/g, making it the highest capacity declared to date. This marks an important milestone on Altris’ commercialization journey, as the capacity of cathode materials is crucial to increase the energy density and deployment... Read more →

BASF has opened Europe’s first co-located center of battery material production and battery recycling in Schwarzheide, Germany. The inauguration of a production facility for high-performance cathode active materials (CAM) and the unveiling ceremony for a battery recycling plant for the production of black mass represent steps toward closing the loop... Read more →

Aqua Metals, a developer of sustainable lithium-ion battery recycling, announced the successful completion of its Li AquaRefining recycling pilot; transition to 24/5 operations; and production of high-purity, saleable quantities of sustainably recycled battery materials. The company completed the pilot facility commissioning with the recovery of both cobalt and manganese dioxide,... Read more →

General Motors and Australia-based Element 25 Limited announced an agreement for Element 25 to supply up to 32,500 metric tons of manganese sulfate (MnSO4) annually to support the annual production of more than 1 million GM EVs in North America. Under the agreement, GM will provide Element 25 with a... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) announced up to $35 million in funding (DE-FOA-0003117) to support a new program to enable zero-process-emission ironmaking and ultra-low life cycle emissions steelmaking. The iron and steel industry accounts for around 7% of global greenhouse gas (GHG)... Read more →

Elcora Advanced Materials has successfully delivered its first order for 500 metric tons of 37% + high-quality manganese from Morocco. (Earlier post.) In March, Elcora began operations on the 16 km² manganese mining concession in Morocco for which it had acquired exclusive rights earlier. Already extracted Manganese (Mn) piles on... Read more →

Rio Tinto is investing in its Kennecott operation near Salt Lake City, Utah, to strengthen its supply of copper in the United States by increasing production from underground mining and improving the health of key assets. The Kennecott integrated copper mining operation includes a concentrator, smelter and refinery and tailings... Read more →

Globally, the battery industry needs to invest at least $514 billion across the whole supply chain to meet expected demand in 2030, and $920 billion by 2035, according to a new analysis by Benchmark. Demand for lithium ion batteries is forecast to grow to 3.7 terawatt-hours by 2030, up from... Read more →

Vitesco Technologies has secured strategically important capacities in energy-efficient silicon carbide power semiconductors through a long-term supply partnership with ROHM – worth more than one billion US dollars until 2030. The development partnership with the manufacturer ROHM, which began in 2020, created the basis for the supply partnership. Vitesco Technologies’... Read more →

Constellium SE and TARMAC Aerosave, a company dedicated to storage, maintenance and recycling of aicraft and engines (CFM56 & Leap), will explore the development of technologies and processes to recover aluminum from end-of-life aircraft, and reutilize it within the aerospace value chain, while maintaining material properties and performance. The footprint... Read more →

Nordic energy company Fortum and battery chemicals producer Terrafame have signed an agreement for an experimental project in which metals recovered from the black mass of EV batteries by Fortum will be utilized in Terrafame’s battery chemical production. Under the agreement, Fortum will supply nickel and cobalt recovered from the... Read more →

Lithium Power International Limited has entered into a binding agreement to sell its wholly-owned Australian subsidiary, Western Lithium Ltd (WLI) (100% owner of a number of tenements, including through its subsidiary, CMC Lithium Pty Ltd, in Western Australia) to Albemarle Lithium Pty Ltd (an Australian subsidiary of Albemarle Corporation). WLI... Read more →

A research team led by Dr. Minah Lee of the Energy Storage Research Center at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has developed a chemical activation strategy of magnesium metal that enables efficient operation of magnesium batteries in common electrolytes that are free of corrosive additives and... Read more →

Controlled Thermal Resources Holdings Inc. (CTR) has engaged Aquatech as its technology partner to deliver the engineering and process plants for the conversion of lithium chloride intermediate product to battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate at the CTR’s Stage 1 Lithium Hydroxide Facility. (Earlier post.) Aquatech will utilize a high-purity lithium chloride... Read more →

In a discovery that could reduce or even eliminate the use of cobalt—which is often mined using child labor—in the batteries that power electric cars and other products, scientists at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) have developed a long-lasting alternative made with nickel. In a paper published in the... Read more →

IperionX Limited has agreed a Scope of Work (SoW) for the supply of titanium metal components for Ford Motor Company using IperionX’s 100% recycled, low-carbon titanium metal. Ford and IperionX have been actively collaborating to design, test and additively manufacture a series of high-quality titanium components for future Ford Performance... Read more →

Aisin Corporation is developing an ultrahigh-efficiency motor using NANOMET jointly with Tohoku Magnet Institute (TMI), in which Aisin invested in June last year. A prototype was exhibited at the Automotive Engineering Exposition 2023, in Yokohama in May. NANOMET is a nanocrystalline soft magnetic alloy that achieves both high saturation magnetic... Read more →

Nanoscale Components, a developer of electrochemical prelithiation technology, is tripling its existing space and preparing for testing its latest equipment, which is designed for gigawatt-hour scale deployment. Prelithiation involves preloading the anode material with lithium prior to assembling the battery, as opposed to the conventional process of intercalating Li ions... Read more →

Volkswagen, Stellantis and Glencore are supporting the purchase of the Atlantic Nickel nickel sulfide and the Mineraçao Vale Verde copper mine in Brazil by ACG, a London-listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), for US$ 1 billion. Critical minerals mined at the Brazilian sites will be refined in Europe and North... Read more →

thyssenkrupp Steel and Mercedes-Benz have agreed to expand their existing cooperation to include CO2-reduced steel, and signed a memorandum of understanding to this effect. It is intended for Mercedes-Benz to receive CO2-reduced products from thyssenkrupp Steel for integrating into its own fleet of new passenger cars from the second half... Read more →

Rio Tinto will invest $1.1 billion (CAN$1.4 billion) to expand its AP60 (earlier post) aluminum smelter equipped with low-carbon technology at Complexe Jonquière in Canada. The total investment includes up to $113 million (CAN$150 million) of financial support from the Québec government. This expansion, which will coincide with the gradual... Read more →

In a new report, the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC) announced its support for a moratorium on deep-sea mining. The report, which assesses evidence on future critical minerals needs, the potential for recycling and technology innovation, and the environmental impact of deep-sea mining finds that there is much uncertainty... Read more →

Mercedes-Benz has signed a supply agreement with Swedish start-up H2 Green Steel (H2GS) (earlier post) over approximately 50,000 tonnes almost CO₂-free steel per year for its European press shops and deepened its partnership through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the aim to establish a sustainable steel supply chain in... Read more →

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) researchers have developed a new pressing method, that produces a more uniform solid electrolyte than the traditionally processed material with more voids. The material can be integrated into a battery system for improved stability and rate performance. When a solid-state battery charges or operates, ions... Read more →

Scientists from Tokyo Tech have discovered Ba2LuAlO5 as a promising proton conductor for protonic ceramic fuel cells. The oxide exhibits proton conductivities of 10−2 S cm−1 at 487 °C and 1.5 × 10−3 S cm−1 at 232 °C, high diffusivity and high chemical stability without chemical doping. These new insights may pave the way... Read more →

Li-Metal Corp., a developer of lithium metal and lithium metal anode technologies for next-generation batteries (earlier post), has been awarded more than C$1.4 million in grant funding from various programs sponsored by the Government of Ontario to develop and commercialize its lithium metal production technology. The funding consists of a... Read more →

The Yongsoo wave energy power plant, installed at berth 1 in the Korean Institute KRISO-Wave Energy Test Site (WETS), is preparing to produce green hydrogen from next year, according to a report from Ocean Energy Systems. Ocean Energy Systems (OES) is the short name for the Technology Collaboration Programme on... Read more →

Aclara Resources, a development-stage company that focuses on heavy rare earth mineral resources, has started the continuous operation of its newly constructed pilot plant for the Penco Module near Concepcion, Chile. The company produced the first sample of high purity Heavy Rare Earth Elements (HREE) concentrate after a successful commissioning... Read more →

Green Battery Minerals (GEM) and Volt Carbon Technologies (VCT) have signed a preliminary mineral processing agreement. GEM had provided Volt Carbon with a single 5 kilogram sample of crushed feedstock that was obtained from GEM’s 100%-owned Berkwood Graphite project in Québec, Canada. Volt Carbon processed the sample using its proprietary... Read more →

Researchers from Tokyo Tech have developed a tin-based metal–organic framework (MOF) that can photocatalytically reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) into formate under visible light. The tin-based MOF exhibited a high apparent quantum yield of 9.8% and carried out extremely selective photoreduction without needing an additional photosensitizer. This could prove extremely useful,... Read more →

Fuel cell systems company Advent Technologies Holdings signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Safran Power Units, a leader in auxiliary power systems and turbojet engines. Leveraging Advent’s proprietary Ion Pair Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) technology, and Safran Aerospace knowledge and capabilities, this new collaboration will seek to advance the... Read more →

PPG has inaugurated a battery pack application center (BPAC) in Tianjin, China. The $30-million facility features a full range of capabilities to test the application of PPG coatings technologies, materials and systems for electric vehicle (EV) battery packs, allowing customers to accelerate the development of new EV technologies. The new... Read more →

Russia-based Nornickel, the world’s largest producer of palladium and high-grade nickel and a major producer of platinum and copper, presented its eleventh review of the nickel and platinum group metals (PGM) markets based on the fundamental analysis of world economic and industry data. Nickel. In early 2023, nickel has been... Read more →

General Motors and POSCO Future M announced the second phase of their Ultium CAM joint venture, an investment projected to exceed US$1 billion to increase production capacity of cathode active materials (CAM) in North America and integrate precursor materials production. pCAM is a specifically engineered combination of processed raw materials... Read more →

Australia-based European Lithium Limited signed a binding term sheet for the joint development and operation of a lithium hydroxide processing plant in Saudi Arabia with Obeikan Group to convert lithium concentrate into lithium hydroxide. Tony Sage, Chairman of European Lithium, said the new facility, once operational, was expected to significantly... Read more →

The growing adoption of electric cars in Europe is leading to an increase in the use of the critical metals required for components such as electric motors and electronics. With the current raw material production levels there will not be enough of these metals in future—not even if recycling increases,... Read more →

The Government of Canada announced support for the latest cathode active materials (CAM) facility to be operational in Canada, to be built by a joint venture between General Motors (GM) and POSCO Future M in Bécancour, Québec (earlier post). CAM are key battery materials that consist of components such as... Read more →

Stellantis N.V. and Vulcan Energy Resources Limited have signed a binding term sheet for the first phase of a multiphase project to develop new geothermal projects aimed at decarbonizing the energy mix of Stellantis’ Mulhouse industrial site in France, which is home to the DS 7, Peugeot 308 and 308... Read more →

The US Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) announced up to $10 million in funding to develop novel manufacturing technologies for superconducting tapes. (DE-FOA-0002784 Modification 06) Enabling widely available low-cost, high-performance superconducting (HTS) tapes could help enable the market growth and proliferation of nuclear fusion, superconducting... Read more →

A study led by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) examines the causes behind the ordering, or pattern formation, of ions that carry a positive charge, also called cations, in double perovskite oxides, a type of metal considered promising as a potential source of cleaner,... Read more →

Cirba Solutions, a battery materials and management processor for end-of-life batteries and gigafactory manufacturing scrap, has agreed to partner with Volta Energy Technologies, a venture capital firm backed by some of the biggest names in energy and energy storage materials. Cirba Solutions and Volta will be collaborating in numerous strategic... Read more →

A group of industrial stakeholders, including the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, have sent President Biden a letter urging “your administration to make it clear that electrical steel is critical to the national and economic security of the United States and to prioritize actions that will create a sustainable supply.” Electrical... Read more →