Dear all,
Lots of news as usual in the field of critical materials: the importance of designing EV batteries is further highlighted by MIT but all (Nature, TechXPlore and Reuters) concur that it will not be enough and propose a variety of solutions to provide enough critical materials for electrification. An interesting paper as well in Green Car Congress demonstrating that blockchain could be used to trace responsible cobalt. And last but not least, alarming news about Colorado River water shortages in the Conversation.
Further on the scientific front with a wide range of innovations: two innovative ways to produce green hydrogen, ammonia-based and aluminum-based, presented by UNIST and MIT, emerging energy-efficient electronics reviewed by Monash, a new technique to control spin qubits by UNSW Sydney, 3D-printing of coils for rare-earth free electric motors by ExOne and Maxxwell Motors, splitting hydrocarbons into hydrogen and solid carbon in order to decarbonize our economy by Rice University, new chemically recyclable polymers with optimum thermal stability and strong mechanical properties at University of Akron and finally, some new tracks for rechargeable-battery optimization at Okinawa Institute.
On the sustainability front, we picked 4 initiatives : how investors weighing 55 trillion $ are coming together to decarbonize the steel industry and how the iron ore producers answer in proposing joint projects with their customers to reduce the carbon intensity of steel making, the plan proposed by the UK for sourcing critical minerals in a responsible way, and a French initiative in extracting silver out of recycled solar panels at a competitive cost.
And finally, some good news coming from 14 of our WMF start up alumni with growth performance (Citrine Informatics – USA), progress towards the industrial scale (Carbios - France), fund raisings (Cypris Materials – USA, Fluence Analytics – USA, FREDsense Technologies – Canada, Nitricity – USA), awards & nominations (Blackleaf – France, C12 Quantum – France, EH Group – Switzerland, Inopsys – Netherlands, Lixo – France) and the latest opened positions (Aerosint – Belgium, Saratoga – South Africa, Woodoo – France).
Wishing as always that you enjoy the reading.
