This is how old batteries will help power tomorrow’s EVs
MIT Technology Review
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Welcome back to What’s Next in Tech with MIT Technology Review. In this edition, find out how recycling old lithium-ion batteries could help the transition to renewable energy. Then, learn about the first national park to run a Bitcoin mine, and meet the entrepreneur dreaming of a factory of unlimited organs.
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Recycling lithium-ion batteries could help the transition to renewable energy.
To Redwood Materials, the rows of cardboard boxes in the parking lot of its new battery recycling site just outside Reno, Nevada, represent both the past and the future of electric vehicles.
Far from trash, the battery materials in the wireless keyboards, discarded toys and chunks of used Honda Civic batteries are treasure—the metals are valuable ingredients that could be critical to meeting exploding demand for electric vehicles.
Redwood Materials is just one of several new recycling ventures that are not only preventing the metals from being buried in landfills, but also spurring a booming market for electric vehicles. The ever-growing number of EVs will require far more metals than are currently available. While recycling can’t address material shortages alone, it has a significant role to play. Read the story.
Battery recycling is one of our 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2023. This is your last chance to get the 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2023 issue delivered — become a Digital + Print subscriber for only $99/year from now through January 21.
Why Congo’s most famous national park is betting big on crypto
In eastern Congo, a guard carrying a heavy AK-47 is a rare authority figure in a largely lawless region—a ranger who usually patrols Virunga National Park, a place famous for endangered mountain gorillas.
Today, though, his job is different. In Luviro, a hamlet just outside the park, he is guarding the world’s first known Bitcoin mine operated by a national park. One that runs on clean energy. It’s a gamble that’s energized many who work in and around the park—and invited skepticism from experts who wonder what crypto has to do with conservation. Read the story.
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The entrepreneur dreaming of a factory of unlimited organs
Martine Rothblatt was a successful satellite entrepreneur when her daughter Jenesis was diagnosed with a fatal lung disease. So Rothblatt started a biotechnology company, United Therapeutics, which has developed drugs that are now keeping many patients like Jenesis alive. But she might eventually need a lung transplant. Rothblatt therefore set out to solve that problem too, using technology to create an “unlimited supply of transplantable organs.”
At any given time, the US transplant waiting list is about 100,000 people long. Thousands die waiting, and many more never make the list to begin with. Rothblatt wants to address this by growing organs compatible with human bodies in genetically modified pigs.
In the last year, this vision has come several steps closer to reality. US doctors have attempted seven pig-to-human transplants, the most dramatic of which was a case where a 57-year-old man with heart failure lived two months with a pig heart supplied by Rothblatt’s company.?
The experiment demonstrated the first life-sustaining pig-to-human organ transplant—and paved the way towards an organized clinical trial to prove they save lives consistently. Read the story.
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Image credits: Redwood Materials; Brent Stirton/Getty Images; Michael Byers
Technical Advisor - Reservoir and Production (MENA)
1 年This is a very good start, but must say that Shane Inwood has raised many valid questions....as we go forward this route, these issues will need to be raised and solved.
Liason at True 2 Materials
1 年Redwood have made a nice start, but are unfortunately not doing anything new. Redwood, Li-Cycle etc are simply adapting outdated mining techniques to recycling EV batteries. Anyone covering these companies, instead of starry-eyed recitation of glossy brochure pap, should be asking these 3 questions: 1: Why do you get your metals back as sulphates instead of oxides? Sulphates are filthy and expensive. ("Because we use sulphuric acid, same as mining companies, and we can't actually get oxides back") 2: What happens to the graphite and electrolytes in the cells? ( "After shredding or a nice long soak in a bunch of high temperature acids, they're destroyed, so we kinda sorta have plans to work on that somehow down the line hey....look at all this cobalt!") 3: What are your plans for cells with low value metals, such as LFP, which are capturing more and more market share every year? ("We plan to charge automakers through the nose, for what is basically, legally mandated waste clean up. We just sent a bill for a couple of hundred K to an OEM for a few hundred LFP cells they have warehoused.") Redwood and co don't realize it yet, but their business model is done. https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/true-2-materials/posts/?feedView=all
Sales and Operations. Former accounting & finance professional.
1 年Interesting read. Bookmarked. Thx for the share!
Digital Marketing | Driving ROI through AI-driven strategies | Expert in Market Trends & Automation
1 年The information provided is very valuable and well presented. Keep up the good work.
Next Trend Realty LLC./wwwHar.com/Chester-Swanson/agent_cbswan
1 年Well said.