Posted by AGORACOM
at 8:57 AM on Thursday, March 26th, 2020
Thunder Bay, Ontario–(March 26, 2020) – ZEN Graphene Solutions Ltd. (TSXV: ZEN) (“ZEN” or the “Company“)
has commenced scale-up and engineering studies on processes for the
production of Albany Pure ™ Graphene products at the Company’s research
and development facility in Guelph, Ontario. The priority is to increase
graphene production in anticipation of future demand as the Company
launched graphene product sales in early March 2020. ZEN will also
commission the recently purchased purification autoclave to commence the
production of high-purity Albany graphene precursor material.
ZEN’s graphene products will now all have the Albany Pure ™ Seal of
Authenticity which represents that the material was sourced from unique
Albany Graphite and meets the Company’s high-quality standards. Albany
Pure ™ Graphene products can be purchased online at
https://shop.zengraphene.com/.
The Company will be working with leading university researchers to
help facilitate the GO process scale-up at its Guelph facility. The
research and engineering team will also be developing and testing custom
functionalized graphene formulations as requested by industrial
collaborators for product performance enhancement.
The Company has also reviewed operational expenses and eliminated
non-core expenditures in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic and its
global economic fallout. This will ensure that scaled up graphene
production operations can move forward while the Company remains focused
on developing industrial partnerships. ZEN has also eliminated all
business-related air travel for employees as well as in-person meetings
until further notice.
About ZEN Graphene Solutions Ltd.
ZEN is an emerging graphene technology solutions company with a focus
on the development of graphene-based nanomaterial products and
applications. The unique Albany Graphite Project provides the company
with a potential competitive advantage in the graphene market as
independent labs in Japan, UK, Israel, USA and Canada have independently
demonstrated that ZEN’s Albany PureTM Graphite is an ideal precursor
material which easily converts (exfoliates) to graphene, using a variety
of mechanical, chemical and electrochemical methods.
To find out more on ZEN Graphene Solutions Ltd., please visit our website at www.ZENGraphene.com. A copy of this news release and all material documents in respect of the Company may be obtained on ZEN’s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.ca.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 11:25 AM on Friday, March 20th, 2020
SPONSOR: Lomiko Metals is focused on the exploration and development of minerals for the new green economy such as lithium and graphite. Lomiko owns 80% of the high-grade La Loutre graphite Property, Lac Des Iles Graphite Property and the 100% owned Quatre Milles Graphite Property. Lomiko is uniquely poised to supply the growing EV battery market. Click Here For More Information
Nonprofit promotes documentary made by Tigard man, Ryan Hunter;
it’s called ‘Electrified – The Current State of Electric Vehicles’
For most college students, adding more work to their plate sounds like a nightmare.
They spend long nights and early mornings focusing on their studies.
But for University of Portland sophomore Ryan Hunter, directing his
first documentary seemed like a fun challenge.
The movie, “Electrified — The Current State of Electric Vehicles,”
brings together electric vehicle owners and industry professionals to
break down misconceptions about the specialized cars. It’s now being
promoted by nonprofits like Plug In America and Forth.
“The whole point of this movie was to explain some of the common
things that people should know when getting an electric car and tell
them some important things to consider before getting one,” said Hunter.
“My main goal is to lead people to buy an electric car based on some of
the stuff they learn from this film.”
Hunter started making the film last July. He became interested in the
topic because he was thinking about buying an electric vehicle. He
started looking into some of the high-tech features, such as Tesla’s
autopilot hardware.
Tesla is an American company that specializes in electric vehicle manufacturing and battery energy storage.
From that beginning, Hunter decided to put his self-taught filmmaking skills to good use.
“It started off with just interviewing a couple of people who I know
own electric cars,” Hunter said. “But as I started interviewing people
and talking to more people, I was able to get connections to (Forth) in
Portland. … And that kind of shifted the idea of a film from just
owners’ impressions to also having these expert opinions dragging the
narrative of the film.”
Zach Henkin, Forth’s deputy director, was happy to help Hunter once
he learned about the film. The Portland-based nonprofit consults with
cities, utilities and automakers to promote electric vehicles and shared
transportation.“We’re
seeing this as another way that we can continue to get the word out for
folks who are curious or interested and want to know what’s going on
with all these cars that don’t need gas,” Henkin said.
Forth is promoting the film through social media and newsletters. The
nonprofit is considering hosting a screening of the movie to get the
word out.
One of the biggest challenges is letting people know the benefits of electric vehicles, Henkin said.
“These cars are just simply better cars,” he said. “You can get tax
credits from the (federal government), and you can get cash from the
state. They’re also inexpensive, and you don’t have to pay gas.”
Henkin appreciates Hunter taking the time to research and inform
others through a documentary. At the time of the interview, Henkin
didn’t know Hunter’s age, and he was surprised to discover that the
young director had an interest in the topic.
“It’s really telling about what we’re seeing with younger
generations,” Henkin added. “They’re latching on to topics that are
important (and) might not be getting the amount of attention that they
could be.”
He concluded, “It makes me wonder how maybe older generations, myself
included, are approaching similar things and maybe missing stuff.”
Henkin hopes Hunter can leverage the documentary to bigger and better things. As for Hunter, he has other dreams.
“Computer science is kind of more of a thing I’d like to make a
career out of,” he said. “But filmmaking is definitely something I like
to do in my free time.”
Hunter remembers making short videos at 13 and having an overall interest in the craft.
“I took a filmmaking class in high school, but (it) was very basic,
so it wasn’t a lot that contributed to my knowledge,” said Hunter, who
graduated from Southridge High School in Beaverton two years ago.
“Everything I know has been self-taught.”
Hunter doesn’t know if he’ll continue making films in the future, but
he already is thinking about a possible sequel to his first
documentary.
“People said that they’d love to see a follow-up to this where I look
to see where electric cars are in a couple of years, because there are
more changes that are coming,” Hunter said.
He expects the price of electric vehicles to continue going down. A
market once dominated by Tesla and other luxury brands is now
increasingly populated with somewhat less expensive models, like the
Nissan Leaf and the Fiat 500e. As more and cheaper electric cars are
introduced, Hunter said, that growing market will make owning an
electric vehicle “more accessible to much more people than it currently
is now.”
Despite having no intentions for his film to “make it big,” Hunter is glad his movie is helping others make informed decisions.
“If just one person gets an electric vehicle based on this movie, I
would say that’s a win,” Hunter said. “Any change that I can help make
with the environment is good.”
As for what Hunter learned from the film, he’s planning on getting a
Tesla Model 3 — the automaker’s most popular (and affordable) car — in a
couple of months.
“Electrified — The Current State of Electric Vehicles” is available to watch on YouTube and Amazon Prime Video
Posted by AGORACOM
at 10:37 AM on Thursday, March 19th, 2020
SPONSOR: Lomiko Metals is focused on the exploration and development
of minerals for the new green economy such as lithium and
graphite. Lomiko owns 80% of the high-grade La Loutre graphite
Property, Lac Des Iles Graphite Property and the 100% owned Quatre
Milles Graphite Property. Lomiko is uniquely poised to supply the
growing EV battery market. Click Here For More Information
Fermata’s bidirectional charger (pictured) has been the first to attain UL 9741 certification. Image: Fermata Energy.
An electric vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging system which allows for
bi-directional flows of power created by US maker Fermata Energy, has
become the first to receive certification under a new standard
introduced by UL.
UL 9741, ‘Investigation for bidirectional electric vehicle charging
system equipment’, was first published on 18 March 2014. Almost six
years to the day later Fermata – which has previously partnered with
automakers including Nissan and received investment from backers such as
Japanese utility company TEPCO – became certified under the North
American safety standard.
Vehicle-to-grid, allowing parked cars to discharge as well as charge
energy to and from the grid from their batteries means they can be used
as a grid-balancing resource. Fermata Energy’s website states that the
company was founded for two purposes: to accelerate the adoption of EVs
and to accelerate the transition to renewable energy. By acting as
stationary energy storage systems (ESS), EVs can provide services such
as frequency regulation.
Thus far, while V2G technology has existed at least since the early
2000s, and been trialled on a commercial basis in the last five years or
so, various barriers exist to widespread adoption. Last year, a
research note from consultancy Apricum pointed some of these out,
including potential reluctance of owners to allow aggregators access to
their batteries, which may have an impact on battery lifetime through
causing accelerated degradation of battery cells. Another possible
barrier is that trials have only shown very limited commercial revenues
being possible for using EV batteries for frequency regulation under
most existing market structures.
From the carmakers’ point of view, only a few have given serious
thought to enabling the function due to possible impact on warranties,
with Nissan being the first to allow its Leaf EV to be used in this way.
Earlier this month, Energy-Storage.news reported on a successful V2G ‘showcase’ project where Leaf EV batteries were used for storing locally generated renewable energy.
Despite the barriers that exist, V2G technology is likely to have a
“bright future,†Apricum experts Florian Mayr and Stephanie Adam, who
co-authored that earlier mentioned piece on the consultancy’s website,
said. While acknowledging a survey held in Germany by digital
association Bitkom that found only 37% of EV owners would be willing to
allow their cars to be used for V2G participation, if one large electric
mobility market such as China went for it, others might follow quickly.
“With increasing demand for the required components, standardization
will improve and economies of scale will kick in. Due to falling costs
for hardware, the economic case for a car owner participating in V2G
will improve, increasingly outweighing potential disadvantages of a
reduced battery lifetime or limitations in car availability,†the Apricum note said.
Meanwhile, Fermata Energy CEO and founder David Slutzky said that
bidirectional energy solutions “play an important role in reducing
energy costs, improving grid resilience and combating climate change.
We’re excited to be the first company to receive UL 9741 certification
and look forward to partnering with other organisations to advance V2G
applications.â€
Posted by AGORACOM
at 5:12 PM on Tuesday, March 17th, 2020
SPONSOR: Lomiko Metals is focused on the exploration and development of minerals for the new green economy such as lithium and graphite. Lomiko owns 80% of the high-grade La Loutre graphite Property, Lac Des Iles Graphite Property and the 100% owned Quatre Milles Graphite Property. Lomiko is uniquely poised to supply the growing EV battery market. Click Here For More Information
Volkswagen plans to have millions of electric vehicles on the road by the end of the decade and that opens up new opportunities for the automaker.
According to Reuters,
Volkswagen’s chief strategist revealed the company is exploring new
business opportunities related to the energy stored in electric
vehicles.
As Michael Jost explained, “By 2025, we will have 350 gigawatt hours
worth of energy storage at our disposal through our electric car fleet.â€
He went on to say that number will increase to 1 terawatt hours by the
end of 2030.
That’s a massive amount of electricity and Jost noted it’s “more
energy than is currently generated by all the hydroelectric power
stations in the world.†This opens up a new opportunity for the
automaker as Volkswagen can tap into this energy using vehicle-to-grid technology.
Essentially the opposite of charging, vehicle-to-grid technology
allows electric vehicles to send energy back to the electrical grid.
This would typically occur during times of high demand.
This represents an interesting opportunity for Volkswagen as they
could become a makeshift energy company. While Jost didn’t go into too
many specifics, it’s not hard to imagine how such a service would work.
In theory, electric vehicles
would be charged at night when demand for electricity is low and so are
energy rates. When demand and rates increase, Volkswagen vehicles could
sell some of that energy back to the grid. Consumers would likely be
paid for this, but Volkswagen could potentially take a cut of the
profits.
It remains unclear if that is what Volkswagen is thinking, but it
could be a potential win-win situation. Consumers would get paid, while
energy companies could tap into affordable electricity. Likewise,
Volkswagen could get a slice of the action.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 11:07 AM on Thursday, March 12th, 2020
SPONSOR: ZEN Graphene Solutions: An emerging advanced materials and graphene development company with a focus on new solutions using pure graphene and other two-dimensional materials. Our competitive advantage relies on the unique qualities of our multi-decade supply of precursor materials in the Albany Graphite Deposit. Independent labs in Japan, UK, Israel, USA and Canada confirm this. Click here for more information
The first demonstration of graphene double quantum dots in which it
is possible to control the number of electrons down to zero has been
reported in Nano Letters. Far from an abstract academic stunt,
the results could prove key to future implementations of quantum
computing based on graphene. “Having exact information and control over
the number of electrons in the dots is essential for spin based quantum
information technology,” says Luca Banszerus, a researcher at RWTH
Aachen University in Germany and the first author of the paper reporting
these results.
Although this level of control has been demonstrated in single quantum dots, this is the first demonstration in graphene double quantum dots,
which are particularly useful as spin qubits. “Using a double dot
heavily facilitates the readout of the electron’s spin state and the
implementation of quantum gates,” Banszerus adds.
Less edgy quantum dots
The idea of using graphene in quantum dots dates back almost as far
as the first reports of the material’s isolation in 2004. Graphene has
almost no spin-orbit interaction and very little hyperfine coupling,
which would suggest that spin lifetimes can be extremely high.
Unfortunately, quantum dots physically etched from larger graphene
flakes run into problems due to the disorder at the dot’s edges
disrupting the material’s behavior. As a result, the transport behavior
of these quantum dots is dominated by localized states at the edges.
“This leads to an unknown effective quantum dot size and an occupation
of typically many electrons,” says Banszerus.
Instead, Banszerus and colleagues at RWTH Aachen and the National Institute of Materials Science in Japan work with bilayer graphene,
which can be tuned to be a semiconductor. A voltage applied to specific
regions of a bilayer graphene flake can switch those regions to behave
as insulators, electrostatically defining a quantum dot that has no edge
states nearby.
The Aachen researchers strip single flakes of bilayer graphene from
graphite (mechanical exfoliation) and handle it using a dry pick-up
technique that hinges on van der Waals interactions. They encapsulate
the bilayer graphene in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) crystal. They then
place the structure on a graphite flake, which acts as the bottom
electrode, and add chromium and gold split gates and finger gates
separated from the split gates by a 30-nm-thick layer of atomic layer
deposited Al2O3.
They were able to control the number of electrons on the quantum dots
by applying a voltage, which also affected the tunneling coupling
between the dots. As a result, once the total occupation of the two
quantum dots exceeds eight electrons, they begin to behave as one single
quantum dot, rather than a double quantum dot. Transport measurements
also revealed that the number of electrons loaded on the quantum dot
could be controlled down to zero electrons.
The idea of defining quantum dots in bilayer graphene
electrostatically in this way is not new. However, although different
groups have attempted this approach since 2010, the process required
recently discovered tricks of the trade, such as better encapsulation in
hBN and the use of graphite flakes as gates to get a clean band gap.
Banszerus says these developments came as quite a surprise and revived
interest in graphene quantum dots in 2018. He hopes the capabilities
they have now demonstrated will further spark activity in this field.
Coupling control
“Even though being able to control the number of charges in a
graphene double dot is a huge step forward, there are still many
problems to be solved on the road toward spin-based quantum information technology in graphene,” says Banszerus. Next, he hopes to tackle the problem of controlling the coupling between the quantum dots and the reservoir, which he hopes to achieve by adding an additional layer of interdigitated finger gates on top.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 10:42 AM on Thursday, March 12th, 2020
SPONSOR: Lomiko Metals is focused on the exploration and development of minerals for the new green economy such as lithium and graphite. Lomiko owns 80% of the high-grade La Loutre graphite Property, Lac Des Iles Graphite Property and the 100% owned Quatre Milles Graphite Property. Lomiko is uniquely poised to supply the growing EV battery market. Click Here For More Information
Automaker plans to launch several electric vehicles with lower-cost batteries within the next three years.
“Accepted the challenge to transform product development at GM and position our company for an all-electric future”
Detroit, Michigan – General Motors (GM) is promising a wide array of
less-expensive electric vehicles (EVs) thanks to battery technologies it
is developing, improved product design processes, and plans to scale EV production to the size of its truck business.
“Our team accepted the challenge to transform product development at
GM and position our company for an all-electric future,†said GM
Chairman and CEO Mary Barra. “What we have done is build a multi-brand,
multi-segment EV strategy with economies of scale that rival our
full-size truck business with much less complexity and even more
flexibility.â€
The heart of GM’s strategy
is a modular propulsion system and a highly flexible, third-generation
global EV platform powered by proprietary Ultium batteries.
“Thousands of GM scientists, engineers, and designers are working to
execute an historic reinvention of the company,†GM President Mark Reuss
said. “They are on the cusp of delivering a profitable EV business that can satisfy millions of customers.â€
Ultium batteries use large-format, pouch-style cells that can be
stacked vertically or horizontally inside the battery pack. By avoiding
rigid, cylindrical cells, GM engineers can optimize pack shapes and
layouts for each vehicle.
Energy options range from 50kWh to 200kWh – enough for 400 miles of
range on the larger battery side. Motors designed in-house will support
front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, all-wheel drive, and performance
all-wheel drive applications.
Ultium-powered EVs are designed for Level 2 and DC fast charging.
Most will have 400V battery packs and up to 200kW fast-charging
capability. Trucks will get 800V battery packs and 350kW fast-charging
capability.
Developed with LG Chem, GM’s joint venture partner on a battery cell plant in Ohio,
upcoming cells reduce use of expensive cobalt, a development the
companies believe will drive cell cost to less than $100/kWh. At
$100/kWh, GM’s 200kWh batteries would cost $20,000, before considering
the cost of the rest of the vehicle, so lowering cell costs is critical
to affordable EVs.
Reuss said engineers are designing future vehicles and propulsion
systems together to minimize complexity and part counts compared to
adapting gasoline-powered vehicles for electric drive. GM plans 19
different battery and drive unit configurations initially, compared with
550 internal combustion powertrain combinations.
GM’s technology can be scaled to meet customer demand much higher
than the more than 1 million global sales the company expects
mid-decade.
Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, and Buick will all be launching new EVs starting this year.
2021 Bolt EV, launching in late 2020, updating GM’s first mass-market all-electric
2022 Bolt EUV, launching summer 2021, larger crossover version of
the Volt will be the first non-Cadillac GM to get Super Cruise
semi-autonomous driving
Cruise Origin, self-driving, electric shared vehicle, debuted at shows but no production plans announced
Cadillac Lyriq SUV unveiling set for April 2020
GMC HUMMER EV debuted in Super Bowl ads, more details coming May 20, production to begin fall 2021
Posted by AGORACOM
at 3:36 PM on Wednesday, March 11th, 2020
SPONSOR: Lomiko Metals is focused on the exploration and development of minerals for the new green economy such as lithium and graphite. Lomiko owns 80% of the high-grade La Loutre graphite Property, Lac Des Iles Graphite Property and the 100% owned Quatre Milles Graphite Property. Lomiko is uniquely poised to supply the growing EV battery market. Click Here For More Information
Tesla shares dropped by over 13% yesterday, amid continuing concerns
about the coronavirus outbreak and a steep drop in oil prices.
Musk’s announcement comes at a time when several large automakers are making moves into the electric vehicle sector.
Tesla has
produced 1 million electric vehicles, according to the firm’s CEO Elon
Musk, who congratulated the “Tesla team†on the milestone via a tweet.
News of the landmark figure came after Tesla shares dropped by over 13% yesterday,
amid continuing concerns about the coronavirus outbreak and a steep
drop in oil prices. The Nasdaq Composite index, on which Tesla is
listed, fell 7.3 percent on the day. In extended hours trading Tuesday,
Tesla shares were over 10% higher
Currently, Tesla offers four models of electric vehicle: the Model 3
and Model S, which are sedans, and the Model Y and Model X, which are
types of SUV. Deliveries of the Model Y are due to start by the end of
this quarter.
Musk’s announcement comes at a time when several large automakers are making moves into the electric vehicle sector.
Towards the end of last year, the German company announced that 500,000 of its electrified cars had been sold.
At the time, CEO Oliver Zipse said that the business “was stepping up
the pace significantly†and aiming to have one million electric vehicles
on the road “within two years.â€
China’s electric car market is the biggest on the planet: a little
over one million electric cars were sold there in 2018, according to the
IEA, with Europe and the U.S. following behind.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 2:34 PM on Thursday, March 5th, 2020
SPONSOR: Lomiko Metals is focused on the exploration and development of minerals for the new green economy such as lithium and graphite. Lomiko owns 80% of the high-grade La Loutre graphite Property, Lac Des Iles Graphite Property and the 100% owned Quatre Milles Graphite Property. Lomiko is uniquely poised to supply the growing EV battery market. Click Here For More Information
The value of metals used in batteries for the nascent electric vehicle industry measured for the first time
It is worth remembering that the first all-electric vehicle to use a
lithium-ion battery – the Tesla roadster – only rolled off assembly
lines in 2008.
And the blue-sky scenarios and exuberant forecasts for electric
vehicle demand and mining only really started to make headlines three or
four years ago.
And those headlines came just at the right time for an industry at
the bottom of a brutal business cycle and in desperate need of a
feelgood news story.
Not that the feeling lasted all that long.
All of mining is mercifully free of the ravages of price stability, but even tulip bulbs took longer from boom to bust than EV metals.
But how does falling prices for lithium, cobalt, graphite and nickel
square with demand forecasts that all start in the bottom left corner
and end in the top right?
Pedal to the metal
To get a better grip on the nascent sector, MINING.COM combined two sets of data:
First, prices paid for the mined minerals at the point of entry into the global battery supply chain.
London-based Benchmark Mineral Intelligence,
a global battery supply chain, megafactory tracker and market
forecaster, provides MINING.COM with monthly sales-weighted price data.
Second, the sales weighted volume of the raw materials in electric and hybrid passenger car batteries sold around the world.
Toronto-based Adamas Intelligence,
which tracks demand for EV batteries by chemistry, cell supplier and
capacity in over 90 countries provides the data for the raw materials
deployed.
Benchmark has been tracking megafactory construction since Tesla
broke ground on the first of its kind in June 2014. Adamas completes the
chain, recording all that battery power hitting the road.
That makes the MINING.COM EV Metals index more than a mine to market measure. More like mine to, er, garage.
The inaugural MINING.COM EV Metals Index shows an industry in better
shape than what tanking prices and dismal headlines would suggest.
In fact, the nickel sub-index is at a record high and cobalt bulls
would be happy to know that the metal feeding the battery supply chain
had its biggest month in nine.
If you take Tesla’s stock price as a guide (and I know a bunch of
short sellers who would rather pluck their own eyes out than do that)
the essential ingredients of muskmobiles should not be languishing at multi-year lows.
Last year, Elon Musk said getting more Teslas on the road is
dependent on scaling battery production and to scale at the fastest rate
possible it may be necessary to get into mining, “at least a little bit.â€
The last auto exec to venture into mining was Henry Ford
The last auto exec to venture into mining was Henry Ford. When the
equivalent of an over the air update was a hand crank and cars could
only be had in black and not four (wow!) other colours like the Model
S.
Crucially, at the time the cost of raw materials had a much bigger
bearing on the final price of a car. In EV production the battery can be
up to 50% of the cost of production and raw materials the bulk of
that.
A seminal study on EVs by UBS showed the only commodity your average
EV (Chevy Bolt) and ICE car (VW Golf) have in equal amounts, is rubber.
(Ford, btw, also owned a rubber plantation in Brazil.)
That’s how much of a change the switch to electric vehicles represents in the auto industry’s raw material supply chain.
Rocks down to electric avenue
Yet here we are.
Newbie investors are taking a crash course in surviving a sector that can turn on a dime.
Juniors are being scared off. Bodies are piling up among developers.
Producers’ grand ambitions have been thwarted. Contracts have been
reneged on.
It’s difficult to see the disconnect on fundamentals lasting that
much longer – governments’ green demands and emissions strictures are
only intensifying and carmakers’ programs are only becoming more
lavish.
Volkswagen promises 80 all electric models across its brands by 2025. Three hundred by the end of the decade.
While miners are encountering the pitfalls of vertical integration,
the global auto industry is getting a crash course in mining lead times
A year ago already, Wolfsburg said it was allocating $48 billion for EV development.
And then you also read that Audi (a VW brand) and Mercedes Benz had
to suspend production due to a battery shortage (long before
coronavirus).
While miners are encountering the pitfalls of vertical integration,
the global auto industry is getting a crash course in mining lead times
and how tiny markets (annual global cobalt mining revenue is less than
what VW collects in a week) can impact giant industries.
In total, the world’s automakers have committed $300 billion for
making rides you have to plug into a wall, Benchmark estimates. Or to
use the car industry term, $300 billion for ushering in a new epoch of
sustainable mobility.
Neither is there a shortage of government support for the transition. Unlike AOC’s,
the EU’s $1 trillion green new deal may actually get off the starting
grid, and Beijing has ordered 25% of cars sold must be EVs within five
short years.
Lithium nirvana
MINING.COM compiled the data for lithium prices from Benchmark and lithium deployment from Adamas going back eleven years.
It just shows again that the EV raw materials industry is in its infancy.
For calendar year 2009, the electric and hybrid cars sold around the
world contained a paltry 31 tonnes of lithium in their batteries worth a
combined $182K (that’s a K not an m).
Eleven years later, the industry had grown 3,330-fold for a value of
$609m. Ok, that’s just having fun with the base effect, but measured
just over the last five years the annualized value of lithium in EVs are
up more than 1,000%.
And that’s despite a contraction in 2019. Lithium price tripled
between April 2015 and peaked three years later, only to tumble by 60%
in value since then.
Graphite was the first to peak in early 2012, but has since halved.
The value of graphite deployed in EVs is up 370% in three years. And as a
percentage of the index, graphite has in fact steadily increased its
share.
The bigger picture is one of an industry that is still expanding. And at a breakneck pace.
Cobalts from the blue
Given its tricky fundamentals, cobalt is always going to be a conundrum for investors and a headache for carmakers.
It’s the priciest component and the most volatile.
At its peak, Co made up as much as 55% of the cost of raw materials for
batteries. Despite a plummeting price and ongoing thrifting, it still
makes up a third of the input cost.
Given that almost two-thirds primary supply is from the Congo and
more than 80% of processing capacity is located in China, cobalt’s spike
to just shy of $110,000 a tonne in April 2018 was understandable.
That 15 months later it was below $26,000, less so.
At the stroke of a pen, Beijing can change market dynamics
completely. Its subsidy cuts last year crumpled a market growing at more
than 60% the year before.
In February, Tesla – which in good months sells more battery capacity than its three nearest rivals combined – surprised cobalt and nickel bulls by opting for batteries at its Shanghai plant that forego both.
At the time of writing, the impact of the four Cs –
cobalt-Congo-China-coronavirus – is far from clear. But as the graph
shows, cobalt bulls had something to celebrate in the second half of last year.
Better than the devil’s copper you know
Batteries account for only 6% of global nickel demand today, meaning
investors buying into the sulphates story also take a hit when Jakarta
convulses the nickel pig iron trade.
MINING.COM’s inaugural index shows nickel setting a new monthly record at the end of last year, despite the sharp retreat in prices since September.
The increasing use of nickel rich cathodes also means its
contribution to the value mix has almost doubled in a year to more than
18%.
As nickel-rich chemistries increasingly dominate the EV market, the
average sales weighted value of nickel on a per vehicle basis is rising
sharply – to over $100 in December from $67 a year earlier or from less
than a quarter of the cost of the cathode’s cobalt to half that.
The combined value of lithium, graphite, cobalt and nickel based on sales weighted average deployed per vehicle was under $600.
When prices were peaking in early 2018 those raw materials cost more
than $1,500 per vehicle. Not the battery, just the raw materials.
In the longer run, nickel for batteries could be as big a market as
for stainless steel, which would be equivalent to gold’s use in
electronics, becoming a $100 billion industry, from an afterthought
today.
Kalahari thirst
Adamas data shows that NCM (nickel-cobalt-manganese) and NCA
(nickel-cobalt-aluminum) cathodes had a 94% market share in December,
based on total battery capacity deployed globally.
MINING.COM is not tracking manganese as EV dynamics have almost no bearing on its price.
High-purity manganese sulphate usually sells at a healthy premium,
but as a component of NCM batteries, no auto exec is losing sleep over
manganese costs or supply.
Likewise aluminum, despite significantly higher use in EVs.
That said, in an all-EV world battery-grade manganese demand could
make the Kalahari desert, home to the oldest population of humans on
earth and 70% of global reserves, a point of contention not unlike
cobalt and the Congo (minus the child labour and ongoing violent
conflict).
We lose money on every sale, but make it up on volume
Call them giga or mega, your average battery manufacturing plant is huge.
There are more than 100 megafactories in the pipeline around the world – 14 of them in Europe.
MINING.COM’s prediction is that 2019 wasn’t only the first annual fall in the index, but also the last
Last year battery power deployed rose 30% globally. In Europe, gigawatt hours hitting the road grew 89%.
To feed those factories to power those cars requires the extraction
of lithium, graphite, cobalt and nickel to increase by magnitudes.
The MINING.COM EV Metals Index shows that the gap between future supply and future demand has become a chasm.
MINING.COM’s prediction is that 2019 wasn’t only the first annual fall in the index, but also the last.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 12:09 PM on Thursday, March 5th, 2020
SPONSOR: ZEN Graphene Solutions: An emerging advanced materials and graphene development company with a focus on new solutions using pure graphene and other two-dimensional materials. Our competitive advantage relies on the unique qualities of our multi-decade supply of precursor materials in the Albany Graphite Deposit. Independent labs in Japan, UK, Israel, USA and Canada confirm this. Click here for more information
An optical image of the graphene device (shown above as a square gold pad) on a silicon dioxide/silicon chip. Shining metal wires are connected to gold electrodes for electrical measurement. The tiny graphene device has a length and width of just one-tenth of a millimeter. (Credit: Guorui Chen/Berkeley Lab)
Berkeley Lab scientists tap into graphene’s hidden talent as an electrically tunable superconductor, insulator, and magnetic device for the advancement of quantum information science
Ever since graphene’s discovery
in 2004, scientists have looked for ways to put this talented,
atomically thin 2D material to work. Thinner than a single strand of DNA
yet 200 times stronger than steel, graphene is an excellent conductor
of electricity and heat, and it can conform to any number of shapes,
from an ultrathin 2D sheet, to an electronic circuit.
Last year, a team of researchers led by Feng Wang, a faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division and a professor of physics at UC Berkeley, developed a multitasking graphene device
that switches from a superconductor that efficiently conducts
electricity, to an insulator that resists the flow of electric current,
and back again to a superconductor.
Now, as reported in Nature today,
the researchers have tapped into their graphene system’s talent for
juggling not just two properties, but three: superconducting,
insulating, and a type of magnetism called ferromagnetism. The
multitasking device could make possible new physics experiments, such as
research in the pursuit of an electric circuit for faster,
next-generation electronics like quantum computing technologies.
Optical image of a trilayer graphene material sandwiched between
boron nitride layers during the nanofabrication process (left); and the
trilayer graphene/boron nitride device with gold electrodes (right).
(Credit: Guorui Chen/Berkeley Lab)
“So far, materials simultaneously showing superconducting,
insulating, and magnetic properties have been very rare. And most people
believed that it would be difficult to induce magnetism in graphene,
because it’s typically not magnetic. Our graphene system is the first to
combine all three properties in a single sample,†said Guorui Chen, a
postdoctoral researcher in Wang’s Ultrafast Nano-Optics Group at UC
Berkeley, and the study’s lead author.
Using electricity to turn on graphene’s hidden potential
Graphene has a lot of potential in the world of electronics. Its
atomically thin structure, combined with its robust electronic and
thermal conductivity, “could offer a unique advantage in the development
of next-generation electronics and memory storage devices,†said Chen,
who also worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Berkeley Lab’s Materials
Sciences Division at the time of the study.
The problem is that the magnetic materials used in electronics today
are made of ferromagnetic metals, such as iron or cobalt alloys.
Ferromagnetic materials, like the common bar magnet, have a north and a
south pole. When ferromagnetic materials are used to store data on a
computer’s hard disk, these poles point either up or down, representing
zeros and ones – called bits.
Graphene, however, is not made of a magnetic metal – it’s made of carbon.
So the scientists came up with a creative workaround.
By applying electrical voltages through the graphene device’s gates,
the force from the electricity prodded electrons in the device to circle
in the same direction, like tiny cars racing around a track. This
generated a forceful momentum that transformed the graphene device into a
ferromagnetic system.
More measurements revealed an astonishing new set of properties: The
graphene system’s interior had not only become magnetic but also
insulating; and despite the magnetism, its outer edges morphed into
channels of electronic current that move without resistance. Such
properties characterize a rare class of insulators known as Chern
insulators, the researchers said.
Even more surprising, calculations by co-author Ya-Hui Zhang of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology revealed that the graphene device
has not just one, but two conductive edges, making it the first observed
“high-order Chern insulator,†a consequence of the strong
electron-electron interactions in the trilayer graphene.
Scientists have been in hot pursuit of Chern insulators in a field of
research known as topology, which investigates exotic states of matter.
Chern insulators offer potential new ways to manipulate information in a
quantum computer, where data is stored in quantum bits, or qubits. A
qubit can represent a one, a zero, or a state in which it is both a one
and a zero at the same time.
“Our discovery demonstrates that graphene is an ideal platform for
studying different physics, ranging from single-particle physics, to
superconductivity, and now topological physics to study quantum phases
of matter in 2D materials,†Chen said. “It’s exciting that we can now
explore new physics in a tiny device just 1 millionth of a millimeter
thick.â€
The researchers hope to conduct more experiments with their graphene
device to have a better understanding of how the Chern insulator/magnet
emerged, and the mechanics behind its unusual properties.
Researchers from Berkeley Lab; UC Berkeley; Stanford University; SLAC
National Accelerator Laboratory; Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Collaborative Innovation Center
of Advanced Microstructures, and Fudan University; and Japan’s National
Institute for Materials Science participated in the work.
Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest scientific challenges are best addressed by teams, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
and its scientists have been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. Today,
Berkeley Lab researchers develop sustainable energy and environmental
solutions, create useful new materials, advance the frontiers of
computing, and probe the mysteries of life, matter, and the universe.
Scientists from around the world rely on the Lab’s facilities for their
own discovery science. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national
laboratory, managed by the University of California for the U.S.
Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic
research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working
to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more
information, please visit energy.gov/science.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 9:53 AM on Monday, March 2nd, 2020
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ZEN
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