World Materials Forum
Facebook
Twitter
Newsletter 53

Dear all,

This month, we highlight some valuable progress in recovering critical minerals both from waste water in Australia (Mining.com) and from permanent magnet wastes in China (Phys.org). Also some interesting moves in global supply chains as US rare earth producer MP Materials will sell material from its separation unit now directly to Japan (the Japan Times) and Indonesia becomes the biggest source of cobalt outside Africa (BNN Bloomberg). Other top news include a call for collective intelligence to improve access to water (Nature), Microsoft pushing for an industry coalition towards ethical sourcing of cobalt (CIPS), the DRC announcing some improvement of their regulatory environment in order to attract new foreign investments in nickel (The Herald) and some hopes that India could become self sufficient in nickel and cobalt supply thanks to deep sea mining (The Economic Times)

Further on the scientific front with a wide variety of innovations such as promising cathode material for high performance magnesium rechargeable batteries at Tokyo University of Science, electrical control of a single atom quantum bit at UNSW Sydney, new green coatings for food packaging developed by MFL University and Queen Mary University, new polymers with improved tolerance for heat and electric fields towards next-generation energy storage devices and new multi metal electrolyte for better solid-state batteries both at Berkeley Lab. Last but not least, a review published in Nature on recent technologies in the field of quantum-computing.

Also we chose to highlight 7 sustainability initiatives: an analysis showing that wind and solar were EU top electricity sources for the 1st time in 2022, India's $4 billion commitment towards decarbonation, OakRidge National Lab's proposal to reuse electric car batteries in order to supply electricity during demand spikes, RMIT's novel technique to make hydrogen straight from seawater, Rice University re-engineering wood as a stronger building material with no CO2, a study on the 12 million jobs created in 2021 thanks to renewable energies and finally an out of the box proposal in Nature to transport water trapped in icebergs to regions suffering from drought.

Finally 16 of our Start Up alumni were in the news this month : a regulatory approval to start production of graphene aluminium-ion batteries (Graphene MG, Australia), some partnerships announced or ongoing (Carbios – France with PVH Corp, MOMENTUM TECHNOLOGIES Inc – USA with Lancaster, UBQ Materials – Israel with Teknor Apex, EH Group – Switzerland with Snam), one sale to a bigger group (FLUENCE ANALYTICS – USA to Yokogawa), a successful funding round (MagREEsource – France), a super podcast (Sylvatex - USA) and the usual set of great press coverage (Carbios – France, GENES'INK – France, Sepion Technologies – USA, PolySpectra – USA, FREDsense Technologies – Canada, MOMENTUM TECHNOLOGIES Inc – USA, Brimstone Energy – USA, CompPair – Switzerland, GRAPHENEMG – Australia, BeFC – France, MagREEsource – France, Noon Energy - USA).

As always, we hope that you enjoy the reading.

The WMF Editorial Team.
Victoire, Nadja & Valentin

CRITICAL RESOURCES

Nature, February 3rd:
Collective intelligence for access to water in Africa

Mining.com, February 5th:
Australian scientists to recover critical minerals from wastewater

BNN Bloomberg, February 7th:
The biggest source of cobalt outside Africa is now Indonesia

CIPS, February 9th:
Microsoft pushes for an industry coalition on ethical cobalt sourcing

The Economic Times, February 12th:
Could deep sea mining in Indian Ocean turn India self-sufficient in nickel and cobalt?

Phys.org, February 20th:
Chinese researchers realize recovery of high-value rare earth elements from permanent magnet wastes

The Japan Times, February 22nd:
Sole US rare earth producer MP Materials will sell material from its separation unit direct to Japan

The Herald, February 24th:
DRC hopes to attract new foreign investment to explore for nickel by improving the regulatory environment.

MATERIALS SCIENCES

Tokyo University of Science, February 2nd:
Promising cathode material for high performance magnesium rechargeable batteries found at Tokyo University of Science

Nature, February 6th:
New technologies are catching up in the field of Quantum

UNSW Sydney, February 13th:
Towards electrical control of a single atom quantum bit

Berkeley Lab., February 15th:
New polymers with improved tolerance for heat and electric fields could lead to next-generation energy storage devices

Materials Today, February 20th:
New green coatings for food packaging at MFL University in Thailand and Queen Mary University in London.

Berkeley Lab., February 23rd:
New multi-metal electrolyte for better solid state batteries

SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVES

Carbon Brief, January 31st:
Wind and Solar as EU top electricity source in 2022

Nature, February 3rd:
India commits 4 billion $ to Decarbonation

Oak Ridge National laboratory, February 13th:
Reusing electric car batteries to (boost energy storage)/supply electricity during demand spikes

TechXplore, February 14th:
Green Hydrogen from seawater without desalination

Rice University, February 16th:
Wood as a stronger building materials with no CO2

Cleantechnica, February 17th:
12 milions new jobs created in 2021 thanks to renewable energies

Nature, February 20th:
What about transporting water trapped in icebergs to regions suffering from drough

OUR START UPS ALUMNI ARE IN THE NEWS!

BeFC (N 2022), February 2nd:
One of the TOP 10 Renewable Energy Trends & Innovation

Brimstone Energy (Grand Prix 2020), January 30th:
Featured in the best green innovations of January 2023

Carbios (N 2017, Grand Prix Scale-Up 2021), February 7th:
4 new Board members to strengthen global expertise in brand development, business growth and scientific research

Carbios (N 2017, Grand Prix Scale-Up 2021), February 18th:
Leading fashion Cy PVH joins fiber-to-fiber consortium founded by Carbios

CompPair (N 2020), February 15th:
Extension of self-healing composite capabilities

EH Group (N 2020), February 14th:
MoU with Snam for Fuel Cell deployment

FLUENCE ANALYTICS (N 2019), February 8th:
Fluence Analytics aquired by Yokogawa

FREDsense Technologies (N 2019), February 23rd:
Rapid and accurate electrochemical biosensor solution for PFAS detection

GRAPHENEMG (N 2020), February 14th:
GMG receives significant regulatory approval

GRAPHENEMG (N 2020), February 23rd:
GMG gets approvals to build graphene battery plant at Brisbane

GENES'INK (N 2017), February 22nd:
Strong growth expected for Inks for Additive Manufacturing

MagREEsource (N 2022), February 8th:
€5 million financing and first pilot facility

MagREEsource (N 2022), February 15th:
MagREEsource to recycle rare earth magnets in France

MOMENTUM TECHNOLOGIES Inc (Special award critical materials 2019), February 22nd:
Partnership with Lancaster to demonstrate a new patented process for recovering nickel, cobalt and manganese

MOMENTUM TECHNOLOGIES Inc (N 2019), February 23rd:
Unparalleled Momentum with an 80% Increase Year-over-Year in New Customer Acquisitions Across All Key Verticals

Noon Energy (N 2022), January 30th:
Novel carbon-oxygen battery for long duration energy storage

PolySpectra (N 2018), February 3rd:
Launch of World's Most Rugged Resin for Desktop 3D Printers

Sepion Technologies (N 2017), January 29th:
Sepion Technologies, Named 1 of 10 Start-ups to Watch

SYLVATEX (Coup de coeur 2022), February 14th:
CEO Virginia Klausmeier on cathode inovation podcast

UBQ Materials (N 2021), February 2nd:
UBQ Materials collaborates with Teknor Apex to debut TPE with 35% Sustainable Content from UBQ