Inside a $1.1B deal to reshore critical minerals refining like nickel

Good news! Extreme environmentalism made Western countries dependent on China!

"The U.S. and Europe have a nickel problem. The critical mineral is used in everything from batteries and missiles to electronics and steel. And yet, the two regions have struggled to mine and refine it largely due to permitting issues and waste concerns.

Indonesia and China dominate the refining process. Dig a little deeper, though, and it’s apparent that Chinese companies control around 75% of the nickel refining capacity in Indonesia, too, giving the country control of more than half the world’s supply. ... 

Nth Cycle ... startup has been developing an electrochemical system to refine nickel and other critical minerals, including cobalt, copper, and rare earths. Just over a year ago, the company started production at a facility in Ohio that can process up to 3,100 metric tons of scrap. Now Nth Cycle has a $1.1 billion agreement with commodity trader Trafigura to quadruple that amount. ...

Though eventually there will be a tidal wave of EV batteries that need to be recycled and their metal refined, it hasn’t materialized yet and is unlikely to before the end of the decade.  ..."

Inside a $1.1B deal to reshore critical minerals refining | TechCrunch

Solid-State Elastocaloric Cooling Hits Sub-Zero Mark

Good news!

"As the race to find alternative cooling tech heats up, researchers are exploring climate-friendly options such as elastocaloric cooling, a solid-state tech that moves heat through reversible phase transformations.

Now, researchers ... have announced the first elastocaloric device capable of reaching subzero Celsius temperatures, marking a milestone in the development of this promising refrigeration technology. The desktop prototype, described in a recent Nature paper, successfully froze 20 milliliters of water into ice within two hours, making it comparable to the performance of a domestic freezer. ..."

"... The features include:

(1)    Super-elastic alloy: employing a binary low-transition-temperature nickel-titanium (NiTi) alloy with a high nickel content (51.2 at %) and lowering its austenite finish temperature (Af) to -20.8℃. This alloy maintains excellent super-elasticity and a substantial latent heat even at -20℃, with a peak adiabatic temperature change of 16.3℃ at 0℃ and a functional temperature window of 48.5℃.

(2)    Freezing-resistant heat transfer fluid: using a 30wt% aqueous calcium chloride solution as the working fluid. Its low freezing point ensures that it remains fluid in sub-zero operation, while its good wettability on the NiTi surface enhances heat exchange efficiency.

(3)    Cascaded tubular architecture:  the regenerator operates on a compression-based active Brayton cycle and consists of eight cascaded units, each containing three thin-walled NiTi tubes. This design offers a high surface area-to-volume ratio (8.68 mm-1) and withstands a compressive stress of 900MPa without buckling, as verified by X-ray computed tomography.

..."

From the abstract:

"Elastocaloric cooling using shape-memory alloys (SMAs) is a promising greenhouse gas (GHG)-free alternative to conventional vapour-compression refrigeration that relies on high global warming potential (GWP) gas refrigerants. However, existing elastocaloric systems have not yet reached sub-zero Celsius temperatures, which restricts their application in various freezing scenarios. Here we constructed a compression-based, regenerative elastocaloric cooling device using low-transition-temperature tubular NiTi units in a cascaded configuration. The selected NiTi alloy exhibited superelasticity and substantial entropy changes down to −20 °C.

Moreover, low-freezing-point aqueous calcium chloride solution was used as the heat-transfer fluid, ensuring effective flow at low operational temperatures.

Our desktop device achieved a heat-source temperature of −12 °C from a room-temperature heat sink, paving the way for next-generation green elastocaloric freezing technologies."

Solid-State Elastocaloric Cooling Hits Sub-Zero Mark - IEEE Spectrum

HKUST Develops World’s First Sub-Zero Celsius Elastocaloric Green Freezer, Reshaping Freezing Industry with its Zero Emissions (original news release)

Sub-zero Celsius elastocaloric cooling via low-transition-temperature alloys (no public access, but article above has a link to paper)

Uncovering new physics in metals manufacturing

Amazing stuff! A surprise discovery in a well researched field like metals.

"For decades, it’s been known that subtle chemical patterns exist in metal alloys, but researchers thought they were too minor to matter — or that they got erased during manufacturing.

However, recent studies have shown that in laboratory settings, these patterns can change a metal’s properties, including its mechanical strength, durability, heat capacity, radiation tolerance, and more.

Now, researchers ... have found that these chemical patterns also exist in conventionally manufactured metals. The surprising finding revealed a new physical phenomenon that explains the persistent patterns.

In a paper ... the researchers describe how they tracked the patterns and discovered the physics that explains them. The authors also developed a simple model to predict chemical patterns in metals, and they show how engineers could use the model to tune the effect of such patterns on metallic properties, for use in aerospace, semiconductors, nuclear reactors, and more. ...

findings offer vindication for exploring a crowded field that he says few believed would lead to unique or broadly impactful results. ..."

From the abstract:

"Metallic alloys are routinely subjected to nonequilibrium processes during manufacturing, such as rapid solidification and thermomechanical processing.

It has been suggested in the high-entropy alloy literature that chemical short-range order (SRO) could offer a new knob to tailor materials properties. While evidence of the effect of SRO on materials properties accumulates, the state of SRO evolution during alloy manufacturing remains obscure.

Here, we employ high-fidelity atomistic simulations to track SRO evolution during the solidification and thermomechanical processing of alloys.

Our investigation reveals that alloy processing can lead to nonequilibrium steady-states of SRO that are different from any equilibrium state. The mechanism behind nonequilibrium SRO formation is shown to be an inherent ordering bias present in nonequilibrium events.

These results demonstrate that conventional manufacturing processes provide pathways for tuning SRO that lead to a broad nonequilibrium spectrum of SRO states beyond the equilibrium design space of alloys."

Uncovering new physics in metals manufacturing | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology "MIT researchers discovered a hidden atomic order that persists in metals even after extreme processing."

Nonequilibrium chemical short-range order in metallic alloys (open access)

Fig. 1: Remnant SRO after nonequilibrium materials processing.

Fig. 3: Physical framework for nonequilibrium SRO.

New Process Produces Critical Battery Metals from olivine

Good news!

Olivine "the most abundant mineral in Earth's upper mantle".

“... Aspiring Materials has developed a patented chemical process that produces multiple valuable minerals from olivine ...  nickel-manganese-cobalt hydroxide that is increasingly required for lithium-ion battery production …

About 50 percent of what the process makes is silica that can be a partial replacement for Portland cement, the most common variety of cement in the world. About 40 percent is a magnesium product suitable for use in carbon sequestration, wastewater treatment, and alloy manufacturing, among other things.

The final 10 percent is a mixed metal product—iron combined with small quantities of a nickel-manganese-cobalt hydroxide. The battery industry calls it NMC ...”

"... Aspiring’s pilot plant, which opened in February ..."

"... Aspiring is not the only company looking to extract more value from already-mined materials. Canadian company Atlas Materials is currently commercializing a similar closed-loop process that produces a similar set of products, but the starting point differs—rather than olivine, it focuses on serpentine. ..."

New Process Produces Critical Battery Metals with No Waste - Human Progress

Chemical Process Produces Critical Battery Metals With No Waste "Aspiring Materials is turning olivine into several useful materials"

Aspiring Materials

Aspiring Minerals, based in New Zealand, is operating a pilot plant to break apart olivine into more useful materials.

A new platform for developing advanced metals at scale using solid-state metallurgy technology

Good news! When theory meets application! This new platform appears to predate machine learning & AI.

"... producing a new class of ultra-high-performance metal alloys using a novel production process that doesn’t rely on melting raw materials. The company’s solid-state metallurgy technology, which simplifies development and manufacturing of next-generation alloys, was developed over many years of research ...

metal alloys can be made twice as strong as traditional metals, with 10 times faster product development, allowing companies to test, iterate, and deploy new metals into products in months instead of years. ...

starts with its customers’ material requirements and decides on a precise mixture of the powdered raw materials that every metal starts out as. From there, it uses a specialized industrial mixer ... to create a metal powder that is homogenous down to the atomic level. ...

From there, the company’s material can be solidified using traditional methods like metal injection molding, pressing, or 3D printing. The final step is sintering in a furnace. ...

“We also do a lot of work around how the metal reacts in the sintering furnace,” ... “Our materials are specifically designed to sinter at relatively low temperatures, relatively quickly, and all the way to full density.”

The advanced sintering process uses an order of magnitude less heat, saving on costs while allowing the company to forego secondary processes for quality control. It also gives ... more control over the microstructure of the final parts. ..."

A new platform for developing advanced metals at scale | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology "Foundation Alloy, founded by a team from MIT, uses solid-state metallurgy technology to create a new class of high-performance metals."

Foundation Alloy - The 21st century metals company

Inside Europe’s biggest rare earth facility outside of China

Good news, but way too late! It will still take years for this new facility to be fully operational! Better late, than never!

Metallurgy’s surprisingly ancient origins dating to about 8800 BCE

Amazing stuff! Maybe the Stone Age was not so stony at all. Give our ancestors some credit! They were experimenting and getting ready for the next stage. 😊

"Guinness World Records recognizes as the world’s oldest written customer complaint a 3700-year-old clay tablet accusing the Mesopotamian trader Ea-nāṣir of peddling crappy copper. No complaints about the copper from the Anatolian archaeological site known as Gre Filla, though. Here, a team of scientists reports evidence of what may be some of the earliest experiments with smelting copper.

In a sedimentary layer dating to around 8800 B.C.E., archaeologists unearthed an amorphous, glasslike lump of soil with a greenish yellow sheen and a ruddy bottom. Weighing about half a kilogram, it looked like it had melted on one side. In the same layer, they found a copper bar. When the researchers analyzed the artifacts’ chemical composition, they found evidence that the copper-flecked soil had been heated at high temperatures, then rapidly cooled—a sign of smelting. The copper bar had a porous structure that suggested it may have been formed from smelted metal.

While the scientists can’t say for sure if the people here were smelting copper—they haven’t found smoking-gun evidence like slag or a furnace—other experts say it’s a definite possibility. And it would suggest the hunter-gatherers who lived in the region were experimenting with metallurgy long before they adopted agriculture and built cities—and long before Ea-nāṣir received his historic one-star review."

"... In Europe, the oldest definitive evidence of smelting comes from Serbia around 5000 B.C.E. ..."

From the highlights and abstract:

"Highlights

• Gre Fılla appears to have been a location where key metallurgical principles—such as controlled heating, casting, and potential ore processing—were actively explored.

• Vitrified material (GRE-VRF) shows signs of high-temperature exposure, as evidenced by high-temperature mineral phases, FTIR/XRD transformations, and microstructural features indicating rapid cooling.

• Chromite grains and copper droplets in GRE-VRF support its relation to copper processing.

• Chromite inclusions and porosity in the bar-shaped copper object (GRE-C-002) strengthen the link to copper production at Gre Fılla.

• Lead isotope analysis of the GRE-C-002 reveals long-distance connections, with Trabzon as the source.

Abstract

The “Neolithic transformation” is characterized by major changes in human history, including advancements in cognitive skills, technological knowledge, social organization, and the establishment of permanent settlements with elaborate architecture.

Around 12,000 years ago, Anatolia became a key region as hunter-gatherer communities transitioned to a settled lifestyle. Its rich natural resources, including lithic raw materials and metal ores, played a crucial role in supporting early human settlement and technological advancements.

The origins of metallurgy have generally been classified following a sequence of technological development influenced by social and cultural organization.

The artifacts related to copper production at Gre Fılla were examined using a multi-analytical approach, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (SEM–EDS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS), inductively coupled mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS), and handheld X-ray fluorescence (pXRF).

The results support the hypothesis that prehistoric experimentation likely played a role in leading to different pathways of development in each region. Our findings suggest a multifaceted picture of the early Neolithic period in Eurasia, including the spread of innovation packages, local traditions, and adaptations."

ScienceAdviser

This lump of melted soil may push back the origin of metallurgy by thousands of years (no public access)

Early copper production by the last hunter-gatherers (no public access)

The Gre Filla site in Anatolia in Turkey Gre Fılla excavation archive 2018–2023

This misshapen lump of molten soil may represent the earliest evidence yet of copper smelting.  Gre Fılla excavation archive 2018–2023

New flash Ironmaking Breakthrough Achieves Huge Productivity Boost

Good news!

Caveat: I was not able to find the research article by Zhang Wenhai! The mentioned journal does not even seem to exist or the name of the journal is incorrect.

"“After more than a decade of intensive research in China, a new ironmaking technology is poised to revolutionise the global steel manufacturing industry.

The method involves injecting finely ground iron ore powder into an extremely hot furnace, triggering an ‘explosive chemical reaction’, according to the engineers involved in the project.

The result is a display of bright red, glowing liquid iron droplets that rain down and collect at the bottom of the furnace, forming a stream of high-purity iron that can be directly used for casting or ‘one-step steelmaking’.

Known as flash ironmaking, the method ‘can complete the ironmaking process in just three to six seconds, compared to the five to six hours required by traditional blast furnaces’, wrote the project team led by Professor Zhang Wenhai, an academician of the prestigious Chinese Academy of Engineering, in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Nonferrous Metals in November.

This equates to a 3,600-fold or more increase in the speed of ironmaking. The new method also works exceptionally well for low or medium-yield ores that are abundant in China, according to the researchers.”"

New Ironmaking Breakthrough Achieves Huge Productivity Boost - Human Progress

China’s ‘explosive’ ironmaking breakthrough achieves 3,600-fold productivity boost "A new method for making iron is not only faster and cheaper, but also better for the environment, according to Chinese researchers"

A Novel Flash Ironmaking Process (by the US Department of Energy, 2019)

There is even a recent book about this subject (2023) Source

Laser-powered bullets reveal surprising metal hardness

Recommendable!

Nuclear Small Modular Reactor welding breakthrough: A year's work now takes a day

Good news! This seems to be huge improvement! Nuclear power to the people! 😊

"... UK company Sheffield Forgemasters welds a full-size nuclear reactor vessel in under 24 hours instead of the usual 12 months. ...

Modular reactors have the potential to revolutionize the nuclear power industry by turning nuclear generating plants from major civil engineering projects to factory-produced commodities. Instead of being essentially one-offs, modular reactors have a standardized design, can be mass produced, installed in any number required to serve local needs, and don't require the incredibly expensive buildings conventional reactors depend upon. ...

using what is called Local Electron-Beam Welding (LEBW) to complete four thick, nuclear-grade welds.

LEBW is a revolutionary method to weld two pieces of metal together using a high-energy density fusion process centered on a high-powered electron gun operating in a local vacuum. This melts and fuses components to one another and allows for an efficiency of 95%, deep penetration, and a high depth-to-width ratio. ...
Now, the UK government is looking toward a nuclear renaissance, with new plants planned – including 15 modular reactors to be constructed by Rolls-Royce. ..."

Nuclear SMR welding breakthrough: A year's work now takes a day

Sheffield Forgemasters makes global leap in nuclear welding technology (original news release by company)

MIT: Researchers demonstrate rapid 3D liquid meta printing with aluminum

Amazing stuff!

"MIT researchers have developed an additive manufacturing technique that can print rapidly with liquid metal, producing large-scale parts like table legs and chair frames in a matter of minutes.

Their technique, called liquid metal printing (LMP), involves depositing molten aluminum along a predefined path into a bed of tiny glass beads. The aluminum quickly hardens into a 3D structure. ...

LMP, on the other hand, keeps the material molten throughout the process, avoiding some of the structural issues caused by remelting.

Drawing on the group’s previous work on rapid liquid printing with rubber, the researchers built a machine that melts aluminum, holds the molten metal, and deposits it through a nozzle at high speeds. Large-scale parts can be printed in just a few seconds, and then the molten aluminum cools in several minutes. ..."

Researchers demonstrate rapid 3D printing with liquid metal | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Liquid Metal In New 3D Printing Technique By MIT

IKEA furniture? Looks a little rough!

Archaeologists stunned by 2,900-year-old steel tools in Portugal

Amazing stuff! However, we learn little on how they produced this steel 

"... The study shows that steel tools were already in use in Europe around 2,900 years ago, during the Final Bronze Age. ...
The researchers conducted geochemical analyses on ancient Iberian stelaes -- upright monuments typically inscribed with information in the form of text, images, or a combination of the two -- and found these were made of silicated quartz sandstone.

“Just like quartzite, this is an extremely hard rock that cannot be worked with bronze or stone tools, but only with tempered steel,” ...
To confirm their hunch that these monuments were etched with steel tools, the researchers analyzed an iron chisel found in Rocha do Vigio, Portugal, which also dates back to the Final Bronze Age. They discovered that the chisel was made of heterogeneous yet astonishingly carbon-rich steel ...
The earliest known production of steel is seen in pieces of ironware excavated from an archaeological site in Anatolia (Kaman-Kalehöyük), which are nearly 4,000 years old, dating from 1800 BC. However, iron and steel didn't become abundant materials until around 500 BC when most Bronze Age civilizations collapsed, paving the way for the huge empires of Rome and Han China."

From the highlights and abstract:

"Highlights

• Protohistoric south-western Iberian stelae were often made from extremely hard rocks.

• The silicate quartz-sandstone stelae from Capilla could only be carved with hardened steel.

• Analyses of a Final Bronze Age iron chisel from Portugal revealed surprisingly high quality steel.

• The introduction of iron metallurgy represents a terminus post quem for stelae with this lithology.

Abstract

The south-western Iberian stelae from the Final Bronze Age (FBA) and Early Iron Age (EIA) have long been the centre of archaeological interest. These monuments show representations of human and animal figures, objects such as weapons, ornaments and chariots. Moreover, they provide insights into prehistoric stone working and sculpting techniques. On the downside, petrological studies of the rocks and consequent reflections on suitable tools are still the exception. Due to the lack of analysis and technological studies, this research will put emphasis on a multidisciplinary approach involving petrographic and metallurgic analyses, complemented by experimental archaeology.

Firstly, an accurate lithological determination of stelae from Capilla (Spain) has been established with petrographic methods. According to the results, two slabs for replications of stelae were obtained from the identified mono-mineral quartz-sandstone (“quartzite”) outcrop. The experiment involved the trial of chisels made from all expedient materials that were available in the FBA-EIA by a professional stonemason. Considering that such extremely hard rocks require robust tools for carving, a long ignored iron chisel from the FBA site of Rocha do Vigio (Portugal) was studied with metallography and exposed heterogeneous, however surprisingly high-carbon steel. The analysed rocks are amongst the hardest that can be used for sculpting, and in the course of the experiment, bronze and lithic tools could be discarded. The only tool that showed an effect was the replication of the steel chisel from Rocha do Vigio with a hardened edge. The distinct work traces were compared to the original monuments. We hypothesize that the production of carbon steel as well as its hardening were possibly already known at the FBA-EIA transition in Iberia. Hence, only the access to iron technology allowed for the making of stelae from the lithotypes that were frequently used in the Zújar basin around the municipality of Capilla."

"... The chisel is astoundingly well preserved and the corrosion layer is mainly superficial (Fig. 9, Fig. 11), with very little inter-granular corrosion into the sample ..."

Archaeologists stunned by 2,900-year-old steel tools in Portugal Steel tools were employed in Europe centuries before they became widespread during the Roman Republic era.

Stone-working and the earliest steel in Iberia: Scientific analyses and experimental replications of final bronze age stelae and tools

Fig. 9. The chisel from Rocha do Vigio, length ca. 18 cm