Dear all

The momentum is still high for this month of February.

Critical materials are at the center of geopolitical attention with first decisions announced by Joe Biden, a statutory speech by Ursula von der Leyden, 2 solid papers on battery materials by the Wall Street Journal and the Mobilist, a comprehensive review on copper by analyst firm Alpine Macro and a change of order in the last Fraser mining survey with Nevada and Arizona now ranked 1st in terms of investment attractiveness - before Australia and Canada. 

Further on the scientific front with a variety of innovations such as new biopolymers easy to depolymerize at Universities of Groningen and Shanghai, more energy efficient chemical recycling of polyethylene at University of Konstanz, fine tuning of electrode surface and resulting optimization of solar fuel production thanks to a cooperation between 3 US universities, a full review of technology and processes of lithium extraction from geothermal brines by Berkeley Scientists, progress towards sodium solid state batteries at UC San Diego... and a 2D model developed at Rice University that could accelerate push for more energy efficient spintronic devices. 

On the sustainability front, we picked 3 examples: Rio Tinto partnering with Paul Wurth and SHS to develop low carbon iron feedstock for steel, Hydro and Northvolt starting the construction of their joint batteries recycling plant... and the largest US green hydrogen facility to be built by Plug Power in New York.

Finally 18 (!) of our great Start Up Alumni are also in the news this month with nominations (EH Group - Switzerland, Opus 12 - USA, Radical Plastics - USA, Spin Ion - France ), grants (Cuberg - USA, Sepion Technologies - USA), acceptance in accelerator program (Momentum Technologies - USA), new cooperations with major partner (Citrine - USA, Polystyvert - Canada), or media coverage (Carbios - France, CompPair - Switzerland, Cypris Materials - USA, Kebotix - USA, Mosaic Materials - USA, Nawa Technologies - France, Safi Organics - Kenya, UbiQd - USA, Vaporsens - USA). 

As always, we hope that you enjoy the reading.

Victoire de Margerie & Philippe Varin

Wall Street Journal, February 5th: 
The Battery is Ready to Power the World

The Mobilist, February 5th: 
Who Will win the Age of Battery Nationalism

Alpine Macro, February 10th:
A comprehensive review on copper

EU, February 23rd: 
Opening Speech by President von Der Leyden at EU Industry Days

White House, February 24th: 
Executive order on Americas supply chains

Mining News North, February 26th: 
Nevada and Arizona before Australia and Canada when it comes to investment attractiveness in the last edition of the Fraser mining survey

Science Daily, February 4th: 
New polymers from lipid acid jointly developed by the Universities of Groningen and Shanghai. These polymers are easily depolymerized under mild conditions. Some 87 percent of the monomers can be recovered in their pure form and re-used to make new polymers of virgin quality.

Pangea, February 15th: 
A review of technology and processes of lithium extraction from geothermal brines by Berkeley Scientists 

Eurekalert, February 17th: 
More energy efficient chemical recycling of polyethylene at University of Konstanz

Green Car Congress, February 20th: 
Cooperation between 3 US Universities results in fine tuning of electrode surface and resulting optimization of solar fuel production

SciTechDaily, February 23rd: 
Progress on sodium solid state batteries at UC San Diego

Eurekalert, February 25th: 
2D model developed at Rice University could accelerate push for more energy efficient spintronic devices

Green Car Congress, February 17th: 
Rio Tinto, Paul Wurth & SHS partner on low carbon iron feedstock for steel

Energy Storage, February 1st: 
Hydro and Northvolt start building their joint batteries recycling plant

H2 View, February 26th: 
Largest US green hydrogen facility to be built by Plug Power ... in New York

Carbios (N 2017), January 27th: 
Carbios highlighted as one of the most promising technologies to progress on plastics recycling in Science News 

Citrine Informatics (Grand Prix 2017), February 25th: 
Citrine partners with Siemens to unlock agility and development speed for new materials 

CompPair (N 2020), February 5th: 
CompPair highlighted in a review of EPFL start ups

Cuberg (Grand Prix 2018) and Sepion (N 2017) receive awards from California Energy Commission (CEC) as part of its Bringing Rapid Innovation Development to Green Energy (BRIDGE) grant:

• $3.5M to Cuberg to support its battery cell maturation and battery module developments for electric aviation  
• $1.4M to Sepion Technologies for extending cycle life and boosting safety of lithium-metal batteries for electric transportation

Cypris Materials (N 2020), February 15th: 
Cypris highlighted in a review of start ups that mimick nature at the nanoscale to improve environmental footprint 

EH Group (N 2020), February 18th: 
EH Group included in a list of Top 10 European Start ups for sustainable energy 

Kebotix (N 2019), January 11th: 
Kebotix technology and method highlighted in MIT Sloan Review

Momentum Technologies (Coup de Cœur 2019), February 9th: Momentum joins Halliburton Labs accelerator program

Mosaic Materials (N 2019), February 22nd: 
Mosaic and their MOF to capture CO2 explained in an interview of Prof. Jeffrey 

Nawa Technologies (N 2019), February 27th:
Pascal Boulanger confident that Nawa technology will make it possible for batteries to reach 800-1000 km range and take 80% of their charge in 5 mns 

Opus 12 (N 2019), February 19th: 
Opus 12, one of the 25 world start ups nominated at the World Tourism Organization Awards 

Polystyvert (Coup de Cœur 2018), February 9th: 
Polystyvert partners with Ineos to develop recycled resin for food and drink packaging 

Radical Plastics (N 2020), February 15th: 
CEO Kristin Taylor nominated as one of Forbes 2021 next 1000

Safi Organics (N 2019), February 18th: 
Safi technology that converts food waste into fertilizers is highlighted by BBC news 

Spin Ion (N 2020), February 12th: 
Spin Ion one of the 6 Paris region (Ile de France) nominees of the 2021 La Tribune Awards

UbiQd (N 2020), February 22nd: 
Growing vegetables on Moon or Mars could get a significant boost thanks to Quantum dots

Vaporsens (N 2017), January 29th: 
News about Vaporsens during the Gentex Corp. results earnings call

worldmaterialsforum.com