Newsletter #19

Dear all

This month we would like to draw your attention to our 2020 WMF Start Up Challenge as we are calling all Start Ups dedicated to developing solutions in Using Materials Smarter, Less and Longer to apply by February 16th 2020. Nominees will meet and connect in Nancy with game changing professionals, have the opportunity to grow their business and to compete for above €100 k in equity free prizes.

The general news of the month is obviously the chemistry Nobel Prize for the development of the lithium ion battery - see Science News, October 9th.

Also this month 2 very interesting reports one from the EU analyzing the role of raw materials in reaching sustainable development goals and one by Queensland University raising the risk for bulk materials to become also critical if no innovation in the mining industry.

Some great news from research as well with the biggest 3D printed boat at University of Maine, a prototype ultra thin & flexible battery at ETH Zurich, some cheap catalyst for producing hydrogen at at SLAC and Stanford and some new material for capturing CO2 and transforming it in polyurethane at University of Kyoto.

Not to forget a variety of sustainability initiatives with the no1 of a Berlin monthly series of posts with initiatives going on in a Smart City to engage inhabitants in a more sustainable life and with the Alliance to End Plastic Waste partnering with Plug & Play to create a start up accelerator.

Finally some good news coming from our WMF start ups with Aerosint "again" (Belgium), Imagine "again" (Australia), Opus 12 "again" (USA), and also BComp (Switzerland), Carbios (France), Citrine (our Grand Prix 2017, USA), FredSense (Canada) and Mosaic Materials (USA).

And for the 1st time one of our below 25 is in the news with Cecile Floer receiving the Young Talent Award from the L'Oreal UNESCO Foundation.

As always, we wish you a great reading and we will welcome any feedback.

Victoire de Margerie & Philippe Varin

CRITICAL RESOURCES

EU Report, October 10th:
Mapping the role of Raw Materials in Sustainable Development Goals

Green Car Congress, October 16th:
A report from Queensland University raising the risk of criticality for bulk materials if no innovation in the mining industry

MATERIALS SCIENCES

ETH Zurich, September 24th:
A prototype thin film flexible battery thanks to a water based gel electrolyte

ICEMS Kyoto University, October 10th:
New material to capture CO2 and convert it in Polyuréthane

AZO Materials, October 15th:
Some cheap catalyst to produce hydrogen at lower cost thanks to SLAC and Stanford research teams

DESIGN & DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

University of Maine, October 10th:
The world's largest 3D printer produced the largest solid 3D printed object and the largest 3D printed boat - 25 feet long and 5,000 pounds

SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVES

The no1 of Green Buzz Berlin, October 1st

Alliance to End Plastic Waste, October 23rd:
Partnership with California based Plug & Play to create a start up accelerator program

OUR START UPS ARE IN THE NEWS!

Aerosint (N 2017), October 25th:
Grant received for a project to leverage the geometrical freedom of LPBF with the fine details and surface finish quality possible from laser ablation

BComp (N 2018), October 25th:
BComp nominated in the BioComposite competition organized by Composites World

Carbios (N 2017), October 8th:
New patents granted in Europe and Japan

Citrine (Grand Prix 2017), October 10th:
Citrine Informatics just raised 20 M$

FredSense (N 2019):
Accepted in Elemental Excelerator program

Imagine (N 2018), October 16th

Mosaic Materials (N 2019), October 11th:
Cooperation with major airline to push for zero carbon emissions

Opus 12 (N 2019), October 16th