World Materials Forum
Newsletter #26

Dear all

A heavy « double month » issue especially in the field of critical materials: this time more with business deals (Tesla signing cobalt contract with Glencore and urging miners to « get nickel », BMW signing battery contract with Northvolt, MP Materials going public...) but also some urge for new technology to ease the future constraint on critical resources (AM acknowledging the need for electronic components to be more energy efficient or the US Army funding research for easily accessing potable water with a new aluminum panel).

Food for thought as well coming from Marc Andreessen pushing for customer friendly innovation rather than investor friendly buy back ... confirmed by a Forbes article describing the long story of Japanese research and industry delivering on customer led materials innovations.

Further on the scientific front, good progress in the field of composites - be a new recycling technology for thermoset at MIT or the new 3D Fab Lab at Swinburne University - as well as on the road to renewable hydrogen for fuel cells - be a new gold/platinum/MOF catalyst for water electrolysis at Tomsk University or graphene being used to make more durable fuel cells for cars at Queen Mary University of London.

On the sustainability front, we picked 3 examples: the World 1st certification of a full electric aircraft by EASA, the MasterCard initiative to help payment card issuers to transition away from first use PVC to 28 alternative sustainable materials, and the standard for nature based solutions unveiled by IUCN last week.

And finally some good news (be deals, awards, fundings, new product launches or papers) coming from our WMF start up alumni with Carbios (France), Cuberg (USA), Genes’Ink (France), Kebotix (USA), Materials Zone (Israel), Membrasenz (Switzerland), Mosaic Materials (USA), Nawa Technologies (France), Opus 12 (USA) and Saratoga Energy (USA).

Wishing as always that you enjoy the reading.

Victoire de Margerie & Philippe Varin

CRITICAL RESOURCES

Mining, June 23rd:
Tesla signs long term cobalt supply contract with Glencore

Phys. Org, July 13th:
The US Army develops a new aluminium panel that efficiently concentrates solar energy to evaporate and purify contaminated water

Reuters, July 15th:
Rare earth miner MP Materials going public to finance further investment at Mountain Pass

Bloomberg, July 16th:
BMW signs long term batteries supply contract with Northvolt

Tesla's earnings call, July 21st:
Elon Musk’s message to mining companies. « It’s all about nickel » - from 42.20 on

Bloomberg, July 21st:
Need for electronic components to be more energy efficient as development of AI creates explosion of electricity use

MATERIALS SCIENCES

Marc Andreessen, April 13th:
« It is Time to Build » pushing for customer friendly innovation rather than investor friendly buy back for enhanced longer term value creation

Composite World, July 7th:
Test Lab for composite additive manufacturing at Swinburne and CSIROS

Forbes, July 17th:
A long story of Japanese research and industry delivering on customer led materials innovations

Phys. Org, July 22nd:
New material (multi layer of gold, platinum and MOF) could generate hydrogen from salt and polluted water according to Tomsk University

Science Daily, July 22nd:
Graphene could be used to make more durable fuel cells for cars according to Queen Mary University of London

Phys. Org, July 24th:
MIT chemists make thermoset plastics recyclable

SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVES

EASA News, June 10th:
World 1st certification of a fully electric aircraft

Environmental Leader, July 24th:
MasterCard to help payment card issuers to transition away from first use PVC to 28 alternative materials including PETG, HDPE, wood and PLA

The Himalayan Times, July 25th:
New standard for nature based solutions unveiled by IUCN

OUR START UPS ALUMNI ARE IN THE NEWS!

Carbios (N 2017), July 23rd:
Carbios raises 27M with L'Oréal and Michelin

Cuberg (Grand Prix 2018), June 17th:
US DOE validates performance of Cuberg’s battery technology

Genes'ink (N 2017), June 4th:
Genes’Ink opens an office in Taiwan

Kebotix (N 2019), July 15th:
Jill Becker nominated at the 2nd Women in AI Award

Materials Zone (N 2019), June 4th:
Materials Zone selected by Microsoft's AI for Good Accelerator

Membrasenz (Grand Prix 2019), June 25th:
1er Prix PERL 2020 for Membrasenz

Mosaic Materials (N 2019), July 23rd:
New tech for capturing CO2 in gas power plants developed with and at Berkeley University

Nawa Technologies (N 2019):
Nawa Racer highlighted as one of the World Top 5 Electric bikes in the world

Opus 12 (N 2019), June 29th:
Further progress on developing technology that converts CO2 in Renewable Natural Gas

Saratoga Energy (N 2017), July 10th:
Saratoga Energy semi finalist in NY clean energy competition