In this issue: Vulcan advances German lithium brine project, MOF LEDs pave the way for more advanced applications, Covid-19 produces African cobalt price spikes, and more.
Medallion signs memorandum of understanding with Talaxis
Vancouver’s Medallion Resources has inked a preliminary service agreement with Singapore’s Talaxis Limited for rare earth element sourcing and logistics, Power Materials learns from a Medallion release.
Talaxis is a subsidiary of Noble Group Holdings Limited.
The agreement concerns monazite sourcing and marketing of finished products from Medallion’s planned rare earth element extraction facility.
“This MoU is another important development for Talaxis, which will further strengthen our position as the supply chain partner of choice in the technology metals industry,” says Talaxis executive director Daniel Mamadou. “The North American focus of this MoU will bring added capability to all market participants while the short cycle supply chain will provide significant cost efficiencies.”
Advano names Trinch new chief business officer
Silicon anode tech developer Advano has named a new chief business officer responsible for managing the company’s US, Asia, and Europe business development, Power Materials understands.
Sam Trinch formerly served as chief commercial officer of A123 Systems. A123 is a subsidiary of Chinese automotive components manufacturer Wanxiang Group.
"Advano is uniquely positioned to bring a li-ion scalable Si-anode solution, one of the major bottlenecks in energy density advancement, to manufacturing production using innovative material made right here in the United States," Trinch said in a company release. "We are changing the industry landscape with a material that can be used as both an additive and a replacement for graphite which leads to very real energy density gains.”
Vulcan advances lithium brine extraction project in Germany
Zero-carbon lithium producer Vulcan Energy Resources is moving forward with its pre-feasibility study for zero-carbon lithium production, Power Materials learns from a company update.
The company has completed bench-tests for lithium extraction from the company’s Upper Rhine Valley project in Germany.
“We’re very pleased with these excellent initial lithium extraction results which are a credit to the expertise of the Vulcan technical team, who were able to quickly identify the best process options for our geothermal brine during the scoping study,” says managing director Dr. Francis Wedin. “With process development we are already working on further optimising the performance of the lithium extraction and will continue to do so throughout our feasibility studies. We are successfully proving that geothermal brines in Europe can be both a major source of lithium hydroxide for batteries, as well as providing the renewable energy to power the extraction process.”
Frontier Lithium records CAD 2 million from private placement
Ontario-based Frontier Lithium has secured more than CAD 2 million in financing as the result of a non-brokered private placement, Power Materials reports.
The offering consisted of a total of 10.077 million units at CAD 0.20 per unit. Each unit was made up of a common share of the company and a one-half share purchase warrant.
The proceeds from the financing will be directed toward Frontier’s PAK Lithium Project in northwest Ontario, according to a company release.
Russo-German team studies sodium as lithium alternative
A joint Russian-German university team is touting the benefits of a long-term switch to sodium-based batteries as a replacement for aging lithium technology, Power Materials learns from a release.
A team from NUST MISIS and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf found that stacked sodium atoms outperform lithium atoms for battery applications and have the potential to be far cheaper due to sodium’s relative abundance.
"Our simulation shows that lithium atoms bind much more strongly to graphene, but increasing the number of layers of lithium leads to less stability,” said NUST MISIS senior researcher Zakhar Popov. “The opposite trend is observed in the case of sodium – as the number of layers of sodium increases, the stability of such structures increases, so we hope that such materials will be obtained in the experiment.”
The researchers will next create an experimental sample at the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart, Germany.
“If successful, one can talk about creating a new generation of Na batteries that will be significantly cheaper and equivalently or even more capacious than Li-ion ones,” the team stated.
Australian researchers aim to use graphene directly in supercapacitors
Researchers at Sydney, Australia’s UTS are investigating methods of applying graphene directly to silicon chips to improve supercapacitor performance, Power Materials finds.
In a release, UTS summarises a paper published by Dr. Mojtaba Amjadipour, Professor Francesca Iacopi, and Dr Dawei Su detailed in the journal Batteries and Supercaps.
The paper establishes that graphene and related materials can be used as an alternative to liquid electrolytes, offering “significant potential for on-chip supercapacitors that can be embedded into integrated systems,” UTS noted. “The research insights indicate a simple path to significantly enhance the performance of supercapacitors using gel-based electrolytes, which are key to the fabrication of quasi-solid-(gel) supercapacitors, Dr Iacopi said.”
UK supermarket chain adopts hydrogen fuel cells for fleet
UK supermarket chain Asda has partnered with hydrogen engine and fueling solution provider Plug Power Inc to power its lift truck fleet, Power Materials learns from a Plug Power release.
The partnership consists of a purchase agreement for the company’s full-service GenKey solution, which will be implemented first at Skelmersdale.
The solution includes “fuel cells, hydrogen fueling equipment, hydrogen and service,” Plug Power noted.
“Each new opportunity to expand the adoption of hydrogen fuel cells is an important step to building the hydrogen economy,” said Plug Power CEO Andy Marsh. “We’re especially excited to be partnering with an organization like Asda, which has such a proud heritage and sterling reputation. Their focus on making their organization more environmentally-friendly makes Asda an ideal partner, and we’re optimistic that this deployment is just the start of a long and fruitful relationship.”
Auroch Minerals makes new nickel sulphide strike
Australian miner and developer Auroch Minerals has struck a nickel deposit as predicted by preliminary surveying within its Saints Nickel Project in Western Australia, Power Materials gleans from a company release.
Following DHEM conductors leads, drill-hole SNDD013 intersected more than two meters of nickel-bearing massive sulphides.
“The fact that the sulphide intersection was coincident with our modeled DHEM conductor really reinforces our geological model at Saints and the ability of DHEM to vector in on nickel sulphide mineralization,” says Auroch managing director Aidan Platel. “The drill programme is continuing with another two diamond holes planned for the Saint Andrews target area. All holes will then be surveyed with modern high-powered DHEM in order to vector in on further potential massive nickel sulphides within this channel.”
American Manganese upgrades pilot plant equipment
American Manganese has received the equipment necessary to continue its pilot plant optimization tests for recycling lithium-ion batteries, the company says in a release.
In June, the company saw a processing capacity increase from 64 kg per day to 160 kg per day associated with an engineering upgrade, Power Materials notes.
“Given the initial and encouraging optimization results, we believe that continued testing is critical to American Manganese’s go-to market strategy and a major differentiating factor amongst competitors in the growing recycling industry,” said CEO Larry Reaugh. “It is important that we go the extra mile on optimization testing, while costs are relatively low, so that we may put our best foot forward when it comes to the commercial recycling plant. We estimate that optimization results could subsequently improve commercial plant design and process capacity while lowering capital expenditures and the annual operating costs.”
Following equipment installation, the pilot plant is slated to return to operation in August.
African logistics, Chinese demand produce cobalt price spike
News agency Reuters is reporting that logistic constrictions in South Africa, combined with a spike in demand from China, are pushing cobalt prices to nigh-historic highs.
Reuters attributes the South African constraints to Covid-19 lockdowns, which are throttling imports from Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The two countries together make up about 70% of the world’s supply of cobalt, which is heavily utilized in electric vehicle batteries, Power Materials learns from Reuters.
Japanese team crafts MOF LEDs, works toward organic polymer solar cells
A Japanese research team is advancing research on metal organic frameworks (MOF) as a basis for the next generation of batteries, LEDs, fuel cells, and more.
The MOFs, also known as porous coordination polymers (PCP), are made up of metal cations and organic ligands, according to the Green Science Alliance.
The alliance’s latest application for MOFs comes from Dr. Tsutomu Koninata and Dr. Ryohei Mori, who developed an MOF that produces photocatalytic effects under metal halide illumination.
This particular MOF has potential in the LED market, though similar chemistries show promise in the solar cell arena, the alliance stated.
“Green Science Alliance will keep making an effort to create MOFs with high photocatalytic activity which responses to visible light, for real practical application in the near future,” Power Materials learns from an alliance release.