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Well, I'm not sure about Buffalo. I would like to think Musky and Fluffy are on to something. But in the meantime, 'SPACE' may be an option. Our product is like nothing else in the world!
MIT Invented The Material We'll Need To Build In Space
It's ten times stronger than steel but is only 5% as dense, and it could revolutionize architecture on Earth, too.
The space elevator—a theoretical mode of transportation where transport modules move up and down a long cable that connects Earth to space—has long been the stuff of futuristic fantasy. It's shown up in books, movies, and scientific journals, while researchers have tried to uncover a material strong enough and light enough to make such a structure possible. Now, a team of MIT scientists has designed one of the strongest lightweight materials in existence, taking us one step closer to realizing that sci-fi dream—and creating a formula for a material that could revolutionize architecture and infrastructure right here on Earth, too.
The material is composed of graphene, a two-dimensional form of carbon that's considered to be the strongest of all known materials. But because the 2D form of graphene is so thin—it's only one atom thick—it's impractical for building purposes. The team's breakthrough is in creating a 3D geometry out of graphene using a combination of heat and pressure. As detailed in a paper published today in the journal Science Advances, they developed computational models of the form and then recreated it with graphene. The kicker? During testing, they found that the samples of the porous material were ten times stronger than steel, even though they were only 5% as dense.
According to Markus Buehler, the head of MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, who was on the research team along with researchers Zhao Qin, Gang Seob Jung, and Min Jeong Kang, the idea behind reconfiguring graphene is similar to changing the form of a piece of paper: When you role a piece of paper into a tubular shape, for instance, it's much stronger than when it's flat or crumpled. Tubular forms are already used in architecture because of their strength—the Willis Tower, in Chicago, uses a tubular structural system.
"It’s a very innovative material because if we can produce the material in big amounts, we can use that to somehow substitute some of the steel used for construction and infrastructure," Zhao Qin says. "We could save a lot of labor to construct infrastructure and buildings because it is so light and so strong."
The material could also have a positive environmental impact in architecture. Its porous structure and large surface area could act as a filter for water or air—which has potential applications in building green structures. Because it's made of carbon, the material is chemically and mechanically stable. In the face of external environmental factors, like stronger storms and rising sea levels, these features could help make buildings more resilient.
“It's in shipping supplies into space to build stations, or even colonies, that such a lightweight material could dramatically reduce costs.”
But Qin believes that the potential applications for the material aren't limited to buildings on Earth. It's in shipping supplies into space to build space stations, or even colonies, that such a lightweight building material could dramatically reduce costs. When asked to speculate about how many stories a skyscraper built of this type of material might have, Qin instead pointed to the space elevator. A structure of three-dimensional graphene could potentially clear the Earth's atmosphere, even if many remaining constraints make this a more distant possibility.
Even more exciting is the fact that the porous geometry the team designed doesn't necessarily require the use of graphene, which Qin says is currently so expensive that it would be ultimately impractical for engineering use. Other forms of organic molecules, like polypeptide proteins, cellulose, or silk, could also potentially be transformed into a material with similar geometric properties. While this has implications for the building industry, these types of super-strong materials could have potential in a host of products, from medical equipment to cars. Qin says this line of inquiry is next on the team's agenda.
While the space elevator today remains a fantasy, this advancement in material science has brought stronger, lighter, and more resilient forms of architecture—and that sci-fi future—a little closer.
Link: https://www.fastcodesign.com/3066988/mit-invented-the-material-well-need-to-build-in-space
Of the lofty corporate mission statements issued from Silicon Valley, Tesla’s stands out, with co-founder Elon Musk describing his venture as nothing less than an attempt to help avert a climactic apocalypse.
The world’s reliance on fossil fuels is the “dumbest experiment in history,” he says, and describes the company’s mission as a planetary remedy: “to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass market electric cars to market as soon as possible.”
He is not alone. The U.S. government and many environmentalists also view electric vehicles as key to combating climate change.
But the electric-vehicles revolution Musk and others envision depends on an immense escalation in the world’s capacity to manufacture lithium-ion batteries, and the race for the raw materials to build those batteries is creating strains for people and the environment far from Silicon Valley, a Washington Post investigation has found.
The series of Post stories found that the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries — the power source for smartphones, laptops and electric cars — is linked to child labor in cobalt mines in Congo, severe air and water pollution around graphite plants in China and complaints of mistreatment of indigenous communities near lithium deposits in South America.
Tesla expects to manufacture batteries at its “Gigafactory,” seen here under construction on July 26, 2016, in Sparks, Nev. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)
The mining companies tied to these problems supply some of the largest manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries, The Post found. And some of those battery makers directly supply Tesla and other big tech giants.
In response to these concerns, Tesla denied that the sources of its battery materials are tainted by abuses. At the same time, the company declined to identify what those sources are.
“Tesla is committed to ensuring all supply chain practices are safe and humane, that workers are treated with respect and dignity, and that manufacturing processes are environmentally responsible,” according to a statement from the company.
Samsung, LG Chem and other consumer companies likewise reliant on lithium-ion batteries have issued similar assurances.
Yet The Post investigation showed that large consumer companies may not know where the raw materials come from. The paths that cobalt, graphite, lithium and other materials take from mines to batteries involve multiple stops, and tracking batteries to their origins can be a logistical maze.
Some nonprofit organizations trying to correct abuses in the global supply chain say they believe that few companies take the care required to trace their raw materials back to their source, let alone correct any abuses they would find there.
“Most consumers have an expectation that their products are sourced responsibly,” said Patricia Jurewicz, director of the Responsible Sourcing Network, a group that seeks to correct human rights abuses in the way raw materials are harvested and mined. But “it’s like we are walking around with our hands over our eyes.”
“All the brands we know are so far removed from the abuse,” Jurewicz said. “They don’t buy raw materials. They don’t even buy processed materials in the form of metals. There may be anywhere from three to seven tiers of suppliers and sub-suppliers.”
While the abuses in the production of raw materials span many industries — from food to textiles to high tech — the anticipated growth in the electric-vehicle industry means the demand for the materials for lithium-ion batteries may be especially acute. The demand for raw materials for lithium-ion batteries is expected to more than triple over the next 10 years, according to some industry analysts.
While many consumers may assume their products emerge from companies that treat workers and the environment well, there are few legal requirements for companies to track their supply chains.
The best known effort to regulate mining is the U.S. law regarding four “conflict minerals” from the Congo region: tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold. The 2010 legislation, known as the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, aimed to stem the flow of money from those materials to Congo’s militias and requires U.S. companies to attempt to trace the sources of these materials.
But other minerals are not part of those requirements, leaving consumers to rely on company assurances that their supply chains are managed in a way that protects workers and the environment.
It is difficult, and in most cases impossible, to know whether major brands in the United States are fulfilling their promises.
As an example, The Post traced ways that disputed raw materials are reaching or could be reaching Panasonic, the company that supplies batteries for Tesla.
Graphite from polluting Chinese factories is sold to BTR, a Chinese company, that supplies Panasonic. Panasonic said it found and corrected a problem in its graphite supply chain.
Lithium from Sales de Jujuy, a mining company in Argentina that some indigenous communities say has acted unfairly, was anticipated to be sold to Panasonic, according to a news release from the operators.
Cobalt from Zhejiang Huayou, a Chinese company accused of buying cobalt mined under harsh conditions in Congo, is shipped to Taiwan, according to the news accounts. In Taiwan, a company called Coremax was a supplier of Sumitomo in the past decade, according to company documents, and Japan-based Sumitomo supplies Panasonic.
In each case, Tesla denied that the products from those companies reached their batteries.
So if not from those companies, where does Tesla gets its graphite, cobalt and lithium? Tesla declined to identify sources.
As evidence of its concern that suppliers operate cleanly, Tesla officials note that the core of its mission involves improving the environment and that it has taken steps to make sure that the inputs to its forthcoming battery “Gigafactory” in Nevada will be clean. It will be powered in part by solar energy, they say, and the project will allow it to select and purchase its own raw materials rather than relying on battery suppliers to make those decisions.
“Tesla performs on-site visits and audits to the best of our ability during the sourcing and vetting process for suppliers,” the company said. “All of our contracts require suppliers to adhere to our human rights policy and environmental and safety requirements.”
The company sometimes finds it difficult to make on-site visits, however. In March, the company said it would be sending personnel to Congo, where cobalt is mined. As of September, it had not done so.
A few companies, meanwhile, have begun to respond to pressure for more disclosure, and some industry groups have initiated efforts to promote industry standards for the sourcing of cobalt. Apple annually publishes a list of its top suppliers, a rare move in an industry that prefers to keep supply details secret. And Umicore, a major supplier of battery parts, has hired the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, to judge whether it has adhered to its standards for making sure its cobalt is sourced responsibly.
But these efforts are the exception within the many industries reliant on lithium-ion batteries.
“It’s important for companies to demonstrate what they’re doing and go beyond a mere verbal commitment,” Jurewicz said. “Companies that do anything beyond what is required by the [Dodd-Frank] law are few and far between.”
A dusty village on the outskirts of Ningde, a third-tier city in China's southeast, seems an unlikely place for the headquarters of a potential global leader in future automotive technology.
Yet China's top-down industrial policy diktats - move up the value chain, clean up polluted urban skies, and shift to plug-in cars - have Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) poised to go from hometown hero to national champion, and beyond.
China's answer to Japan's Panasonic and South Korea's LG Chem has tripled its production capacity for lithium-ion car batteries in the past year to keep up with a surge in China's sales of electric cars.
After a second major funding round completed in October, the company's value quadrupled to 80 billion yuan ($11.5 billion), CEO Huang Shilin said last week.
CATL, which hopes to list on Beijing's over-the-counter exchange as part of plans to raise at least another 30 billion yuan ($4.32 billion) by 2020, could be a dominant force globally.
It has already overtaken LG Chem in lithium-ion car battery output, and is chasing down Panasonic and Warren Buffett-backed BYD.
CATL plans to grow its battery capacity sixfold by 2020 to 50 gigawatt hours, which could put it ahead of Tesla Motor Inc's gigafactory in Nevada.
"We continue to walk where the country guides us," Huang said. "We hope by 2020 we can achieve performance and price that lead the world."
The company, founded just five years ago, is already pushing beyond China's borders, with offices in Sweden, Germany and France and plans to build a factory in Europe. Company representatives say that because of non-disclosure agreements they can only list BMW as a customer for now.
Despite the ambitious expansion, the emerging segment's dependence on government policy and rapidly evolving technology is not without risk.
A123, a U.S. automotive battery maker, went from IPO to bust in just three years as battery costs remained stubbornly high and orders dried up.
"People think we're a big successful company, but we think we're in jeopardy every day," marketing director Neill Yang said. "The market environment and technology changes so fast that if we don't follow the trend we could die in three months."
To become a Chinese champion, a battery maker must first shed any foreign investment to be eligible for subsidies and other policy support, people in the industry say.
Before he set up CATL, Robin Zeng had started Amperex Technology Ltd (ATL), a company now majority-owned by Japan's TDK.
ATL initially had a 15% stake in CATL, but liquidated that holding last year, Yang said, when electric vehicle sales first started to take off. He declined to elaborate on the circumstances of that divestment.
TDK separated from CATL to focus on batteries for mobile consumer electronics, but still collects royalties on some intellectual property used by CATL, a spokesman for the Japanese company said.
"The reason is strategic and confidential. ATL still keeps a close relationship with CATL," said a person familiar with the situation, who was not authorized to speak to the media.
ATL and CATL still share a Ningde campus, although the front gate and main office bear only the ATL name.
Zeng, a Ningde local with a doctorate in chemistry, appears to be the remaining link between the two companies he founded. He declined an interview request.
While government support for electric cars has driven demand for components such as batteries, Beijing is also rolling out other policies that could benefit leading producers like CATL, by forcing smaller firms to consolidate or go out of business.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MITI) said last month it is considering a rule that would increase minimum production requirements for battery makers by around 40 times to 8 gigawatt hours.
Only BYD and CATL are roughly in line with that minimum, though Chinese media reports suggest Hefei Guoxuan High-Tech Power Energy and Tianjin Lishen Battery may be close to or above that level by next year.
Yang said subsidy support for batteries is fairly modest compared to those for producing electric vehicles, which totalled $4.5 billion last year alone.
CATL has been nominated as one of three battery makers - with Guoxuan and Lishen - for incentives under China's 13th Five-Year Plan, promising around $15 million if it can meet targets, Yang said. He noted, though, that a single production line costs $40 million.
Among national 2020 targets: to halve battery costs to below 1 yuan ($0.144) per kilowatt hour, and improve energy density by two-thirds.
To get there, CATL is ramping up spending on research and development, where it employs more than 1,000 people with advanced science degrees.
"The strength of their R&D investment is quite large," said Fu Yuwu, chief of the Society of Automotive Engineers of China, adding he hopes the company can become a global leader.
"They have such large scale and the support of China's huge market, all the more reason they should do a good job of internationalizing," he said.
Article Link: http://fortune.com/2016/12/25/catl-chinese-electric-car-battery-maker/
With yesterdays new release, I thought this might be relevant.
Huawei unveils breakthrough graphene-assisted Li-ion battery.
Watt Laboratory, an organization under Huawei’s Central Research Institute, has introduced a new graphene-assisted Li-ion battery which can withstand higher temperatures when compared with ordinary Li-ion batteries.
The new batteries are able to function at a temperature of 60°C (140℉), which is 10°C (50℉) above the current upper limit. They can be used in cellular base stations in high-temperature regions around the world and have a lifespan that is twice as long as ordinary Li-ion batteries.
In addition, the new batteries can extend the range of EVs in high temperatures and can also be used in drones, which tend to produce quite a bit of heat.
Dr. Yangxing Li, Chief Scientist at Watt Laboratory, has stated that there are three technologies that have assisted them in making a breakthrough in this battery technology. The first is a special additive in the electrolytes that can remove trace water and prevent the electrolytes from evaporating in high temperatures.
The second is modified large-crystal NMC materials that are used for the cathode and are able to improve the thermal stability of the cathode powder, while the third is graphene, which allows for more efficient cooling of the Li-ion battery.
Dr. Yangxing Li also said that charging and discharging tests in a high-temperature environment have shown that the graphene-assisted high-temperature Li-ion battery is 5°C (41℉) cooler than ordinary Li-ion batteries. And after being recharged 2,000 times at a temperature of 60°C (140℉), the graphene battery retains more than 70 percent of its capacity.
In other battery-related news, Huawei’s Watt Laboratory introduced a quick charging technology back in 2015, which is able to charge 48 percent of a 3,000 mAh battery in only 5 minutes. The company has now said that that technology will soon be available. Huawei plans on announcing a new smartphone in late December that will have the new quick battery charging tech onboard.
There is no other information regarding the device for now, so we’ll just have to wait for a month or so to see what Huawei will bring to the table. Stay tuned.
Video Link: https://youtu.be/OceA8Wye71M
Article Link: http://www.androidauthority.com/huawei-graphene-assisted-li-ion-battery-733266/
"It’ll be a new product, which will be “unexpected by most," and which will be separate from a Tesla/SolarCity product unveiling on the 28th."
The Oct 28th unveiling is will include joint products from both the electric car and the solar energy companies, including a solar roof, along with an integrated second generation of the Tesla Powerwall energy storage solution, and a Tesla EV charger.
The new information Tesla will be revealing on Oct 17th will be something new on top of all of the above."
Link: https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/09/tesla-to-unveil-unexpected-new-product-october-17/