World Materials Forum
Facebook
Twitter
Newsletter 43

Dear all,

War in Ukraine has drawn further attention on the impacts of geopolitical decisions regarding critical materials, as shown by a paper concerning fossil fuels and renewables (Nature), a column on Russian threat on EU raw materials supply chain (Egmont Institute), an article on the threat on renewable transition because of the war (TechXxplore) and an article predicting a huge rise of critical materials needs for Li-ion batteries (Mining.com). As a response, several projects are emerging in Europe and in the US, with a rare earth separation plant in Poland (European Raw Materials Alliance), a Vanadium processing facility in Finland (EIT Raw Materials) and also a rare-earth recycling in Iowa (Ames Laboratory). Finally substitution battery materials are also emerging - see enclosed review of existing and future battery materials (CIC Energigune).

Further on the scientific front with a collection of international research on nano cellulose for advanced applications seen on Journal of Materials Science, porosity used to develop metal-free catalysts at UC Madrid, a review of innovative ways to use graphene for better performing Li-ion batteries in Electrochem, optimized materials for fusion reactors at Tokyo Institute of Technology, transistor gates only one atom thick at Tsinghua University, new layered material for future electronics at RMIT in Melbourne, corrosion-free copper thin films at Pusan University, and finally plastic waste conversion for CO2 capture at Korea University and City University of Hong Kong.

In the field of sustainability, we have chosen to highlight: the Australian billionaire who tries to buy coal power plants to close them down, the RePowerEU plan to reduce Europe's dependency on Russian gas imports, Heliogen to go industrial in California with an AI enabled concentrated solar technology and progress on the European project ALG-AD to convert nitrogen in micro algae that can be used in sustainable animal feed.

Finally 16 of our WMF Start Up Alumni were in the news this month. A combination of scale-up & development announcements (Carbios - France, Citrine Informatics - USA, Demeta - France, FredSense - Canada), some exciting partnerships (C12 with French CEA, GrapheneMG with Wood, Twelve with LanzaTech, UbiQD with Canadian Heliene, UBQ Materials with Ambev), a few founders interviewed (Brimstone Energy - USA, Fluence Analytics - USA), as well as interesting press coverage (Blackleaf - France, CompPair - Switzerland, Cuberg - USA, Safi Organics - Kenya, Woodoo - France).

As always, we hope that you enjoy the reading.

The WMF Editorial Team.
Victoire de Margerie, Valentin Desbuis & Sélène Ciancioni

CRITICAL RESOURCES

Ames Laboratory, February 25th:
Green rare-earth recycling goes commercial in the US

Nature, March 11th:
The geopolitics of fossil fuels and renewables reshape the world

European Raw Materials Alliance, March 11th:
A Canada-Malawi-Poland project to support Europe's green transition

Egmont Institute, March 15th:
Putin's critical raw materials are a threat to EU economic security

TechXplore, March 15th:
Russia and Ukraine are important to the renewable transition

Mining.com, March 22nd:
Global lithium-ion battery capacity to rise five-fold by 2030

EIT Raw Materials, February 24th:
An Australia Finland project for green vanadium

CIC Energigune, March:
A thorough review of existing and future battery materials

MATERIALS SCIENCES

Electrochem, March:
Graphene in Lithium Ion batteries

Journal of Materials Science, March 3rd:
A review of advanced applications for Nano cellulose

Materials Today, March 4th:
Progress towards Critical Metal free catalysts at UC Madrid

Tokyo Institute of Technology, March 10th:
Selecting the right structural materials for fusion reactors

EurekAlert!, March 10th:
Converting plastic waste into porous carbon for capturing carbon dioxide

IEEE Spectrum, March 11th:
Transistor gates only one carbon atom thick

FLEET, March 17th:
Developing a new layered material for future electronics

Electronic Engineering Journal, March 21th:
Corrosion-free copper thin films for cheaper electronics

SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVES

Clean Technica, March 3rd:
Australian billionaire tries to buy coal power plants to close them down

European Commission, March 8th:
RePowerEU:
Joint european action for more affordable, secure and sustainable energy

CleanTechnica, March 13th:
A new dawn for concentrating solar power

TechXplore, March 16th:
Microalgae - a pioneering project to feed the world more sustainably

OUR START UPS ALUMNI ARE IN THE NEWS!

Blackleaf (N 2021), March 24th:
Blackleaf in Challenges' list of 100 startups to invest in 2022 (FR)

Brimstone Energy (Grand Prix 2020), March 14th:
Decarbonizing Cement With Brimstone Co-Founder Hugo Leandri on CleanTechnic

C12 Quantum Electronics (N 2021), March 24th:
CEA and Startup C12 Join Forces to Develop Next-Generation Quantum Computers with Multi-Qubit Chips at Wafer Scale

Carbios (N 2017 - Grand Prix Scale Up 2021), March 18th: Carbios, the promise of 100% infinitely recyclable plastic in FuturaSciences (FR)

Carbios (N 2017 - Grand Prix Scale Up 2021), March 10th: Carbios : takes textile circularity a step further with its enzymatic recycling technology

Citrine Informatics (Grand Prix 2017), March 10th:
Citrine Informatics Selected for $3.1M Award for Data-Driven Development of Safe, Efficient Nuclear Waste Storage Materials by the US DoE

Citrine Informatics (Grand Prix 2017), March 8th:
Citrine Informatics listed in the 10 Most Innovative Artificial Intelligence Companies of 2022 by Fast Company

CompPair (N 2020), March 8th:
CompPair, Self-healing composite materials highlighted on Innovaud (FR)

Cuberg (N 2018), March 22rd:
Cuberg highlighted in CNBCAfrica Article on EV battery technology

Demeta (N 2019), March 10th:
Catalysis: Demeta obtains a strategic patent in the United States

Fluence Analytics (N 2019), March 10th:
Alex Reed - Fluence Analytics co-founder and president interviewed

Fredsense (N 2019), March 8th:
FredSense joining the Xylem Accelerator

Graphene MG (N 2020), March 1st:
GMG and Wood Agree Collaboration Arrangement for Wood to Engineer and Deliver Major Graphene Manufacturing Expansion Projects

Safi Organics (N 2019), March 12th:
Safi Organics supplies farmers with organic fertiliser, at a fraction of the cost

Twelve (N 2019), March 9th:
Twelve, LanzaTech collaborate on turning CO2 into ethanol

Twelve (N 2019), March 8th:
Twelve, which turns carbon pollution into jet fuel and plastic, in the spotlight at FastCompany

UbiQD (N 2020), March 24th:
UbiQD to develop new type of greenhouse roof with Canadian company

UBQ Materials (N 2021), March 28th:
UBQ Materials Provides Technology for Ambev to Integrate Sustainable Plastic-Substitute in Brazilian Trade Products

UBQ Materials (N 2021), March 22nd:
UBQ Materials winner in the Speculative Design category at the 24th annual SXSW Innovation Awards

Woodoo (N 2017), March 23rd:
Why wood is the future of digital hardware with Woodoo