Efficient and sustainable recycling of lithium-ion batteries is a crucial element in electrifying transportation. Black mass is a mixture of cathode and anode materials remaining after disassembly and shredding of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Many valuable materials, including lithium and…
A dual process strategy bridging fermentation and electrochemistry is enabling the production of mid-chain carboxylic acids (MCCAs) — important and valuable precursors to a number of products — using inexpensive organic waste streams from breweries, distilleries and dairies. Developed by…
The extraction of alumina from bauxite is significantly impacted by the silica content of the ore — specifically the presence of silica in kaolinite (Al2Si2O5(OH)4). This is because traditional bauxite-beneficiation methods, such as washing, flotation and particle-size separation, also typically…
Aggregate — solid materials like sand, gravel and crushed stone — is combined with cement to make concrete, the world’s most widely used human-made material. But sand is in short supply, so there is a need for alternate materials to…
A new facility in Texas to manufacture high-purity graphene powder from acetylene has been announced by HydroGraph Clean Power Inc. (Vancouver, B.C.; www.hydrograph.com). At capacity, the facility will generate thousands of metric tons per year of sp2-bonded powdered graphene with…
Construction is planned for a pilot plant that will demonstrate a modular electrochemical technology for extracting rare-earth elements (REEs) and nickel from industrial wastes, such as coal ash. The startup Blueshift (Boston, Mass.; www.buildblueshift.com) recently announced venture capital funds that…
A pilot project completed at the end of last year demonstrated the ability of a technology to convert a range of feedstocks into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at lower cost than current ethanol-to-jet (ETJ) processes. Universal Fuel Technologies (UniFuel; Los…
Wärtsilä Gas Solutions, part of technology group Wärtsilä, and Höegh Evi, a global leader in marine energy infrastructure, have successfully completed development of the world’s first floating ammonia-to-hydrogen cracker. This breakthrough technology enables floating import terminals to produce hydrogen at…
Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. (Tokyo) and Hokkaido University (Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan) have developed a new system for the production of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) that incorporates a microfluidic device (devices with small channels ranging from a few micrometers to several hundred micrometers…
Element Six (Oxford, U.K.) and Bosch GmbH (Gerlingen, Germany) are establishing a joint venture (JV), to be known as Bosch Quantum Sensing. The joint venture will be based on Bosch's in-house start-up of the same name, which Bosch set up…