"They want us to show these gringo companies where the minerals are and then go and hand over everything, all without a fuss. That's concerning, because where does it leave us, as Mexicans? Basically, they are going to keep stealing from us."
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders is calling for UK-built vehicles, components and batteries to be granted equivalent status to EU-made products under the proposed 'Made in Europe' framework, arguing that the current draft risks undermining a deeply integrated cross-border industry.
tozero's proprietary acid-free hydrometallurgical process runs in a single cycle and produces materials pure enough to feed directly back into battery cell manufacturing without further refinement.
Korea Zinc, which it described as one of the world's largest smelters, is in talks with major US technology firms to recycle data center waste and extract rare earth. The move comes almost one year to the day after China announced immediate export controls on seven more rare earth elements critical to enterprise IT hardware manufacturing.
Demand for lithium is fueling a modern-day gold rush. The industries that define our modern world, like artifiial intelligence (AI), robotics, EVs, and energy, all depend on lithium, which is used to make batteries and other energy storage systems. Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella believes that the AI race will be won based on energy costs, not on who has the best models.That's why lithium demand is projected to grow a staggering 5X by 2040.
Never place batteries of any type in your curbside recycling bin. Batteries can damage recycling equipment and, if lithium batteries are mixed in, cause fires. Always use designated battery collection programs.
The team, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Institute of Technology, recently published their findings in Nature Communications. According to their research, the process not only avoids conventional leaching chemicals and extreme heat to extract lithium from old batteries, but it also uses carbon dioxide in what the authors call a sequestration step, and turns other battery transition metals into new catalysts - with CO₂-rich water doing most of the chemical work.
For the most part, rechargeable battery-powered devices are incredibly well-behaved. It's a good thing, really, because most of us are happy to go to sleep with a charging smartphone not far from our head each night, and cram ourselves onto an aircraft and spend many hours at 40,000 feet surrounded by hundreds of different devices -- all of varying quality and state of repair -- containing a rechargeable battery.
The Tesla CEO argued that too many companies are underestimating their exposure to geopolitical risks posed by fragile supply chains, particularly for critical materials used in electric vehicles and energy storage. "There are so many companies out there that are asleep at the switch with regard to geopolitical risk - or they just have their head in the sand and hope nothing bad will happen," Musk said. "I'm way more paranoid than that."
Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are found in many devices we use every day, like smartphones, laptops, tablets, wireless earbuds, power tools, e-bikes, and electric vehicles. By 2023, there were more than 40 million electric vehicles on the road worldwide, and billions of portable electronics used Li-ion cells. These batteries are valuable for recycling, but they can be dangerous if not disposed of correctly.
Button cell batteries are the small, flat, round batteries found in watches, hearing aids, car key fobs, calculators, and medical devices. Although they are tiny, these batteries contain valuable materials that can be recovered and can harm the environment if not handled or disposed of correctly. The main challenge in recycling button cells is their small size and the difficulty of sorting them.
The first sites are expected to open later this Summer, and will be built at select locations along I-5 and I-10, major routes for commercial vehicles and significant logistics companies. The chargers will be available in California, Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas. Each station will have between four and eight chargers, delivering up to 1.2 megawatts of power at each stall.
