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Category: sustainability

Saudi Arabian mining company Ma’aden, together with the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Innovation Ventures Fund, are investing $6 million USD into Lithium Infinity (Lihytech). The KAUST startup’s battery-grade lithium will be a key component in driving the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s commitment to developing the entire value chain of electric vehicles (EVs).

Lihytech has patented a membrane-based lithium extraction technology developed by Professor Zhiping Lai at KAUST. The innovative technology can extract the alkali metal from sources such as seawater, brine, red mud and more. Based on KAUST research, the startup was funded through the KAUST Near Term Grand Challenge, a research translation program, and the technology is being developed on the campus.

This investment will take the technology from lab to commercial pilot scale. Ma’aden is leading the investment with $4 million and KAUST Innovation Ventures is investing $2 million. The University’s venture capital arm, KAUST Innovation Ventures, supports deep tech startups that look to offer solutions to pressing scientific and technological challenges, such as lithium extraction. Lihytech will use the infusion of capital to build a pilot facility at KAUST to extract lithium from the Red Sea and other in-Kingdom resources.

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The design facilitates efficient land use and can even save water lost to evaporation.

Sunstall, a California-based company, has launched a vertical solar panel, Sunzaun, which can be used in existing fields and arable lands without sacrificing them for clean green energy. The installation is much like conventional solar systems, just that the system uses bifacial solar modules, and the entire array stands like a boundary wall in the field.

As countries look to move away from fossil fuels, the interest in solar energy has increased in recent years. Countries in Europe facing harsh winters are also finding new ways of tapping into solar energy, such as installing solar panels at high altitudes… More.

Sunzuan.

Continue reading “Vertical solar panels could save farm land and transform agriculture” | >

Its concept is maintenance-free, recyclable, and offers low rolling resistance.

The concept of airless tires is getting closer to production, with Bridgestone’s version going in for testing in February 2023. The firm’s product is based on its “Air Free Concept,” a technology that eliminates the need for tires to be inflated with air to support the weight using a unique structure of spokes stretching along the inner sides of tires.

According to DesignBoom, the testing will be done in association with Idemitsu Kosan Co, using one of its compact electric vehicles. More than 3 billion tires are produced around the world in a year, and the market for airless tires is expected to hit $77.

Continue reading “Bridgestone’s airless tires near production, testing to begin soon” | >

Proto is betting that companies will view their 7-foot-tall holographic projection boxes as an alternative for in-person meetings. At least a half-dozen startups and giants like Google and Microsoft already are.

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Continue reading “Are Holograms the Next Zoom?” | >

A new North Carolina State University study, performed in collaboration with battery testing researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, shows that extremely short pulses from a high-powered laser can cause tiny defects in lithium-ion battery materials—defects that can enhance battery performance.

The technique, called nanosecond pulsed laser annealing, lasts for only 100 nanoseconds and is generated by the same type of laser used in modern-day eye surgeries. Researchers tested the technique on graphite, a material widely used in lithium-ion battery anodes, or positive electrodes. They tested the technique in batches of 10 pulses and 80 pulses and compared the differences in current capacity; power is calculated by multiplying voltage by current.

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in portable electronic devices and electric cars. With further improvements, these batteries could have a major impact on transportation and as storage devices for renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

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(https://www.timothywittig.com/) is a conservationist, professor, and former defense intelligence analyst. He is a research fellow at Oxford University (Oxford Martin School), an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London, and has served as Head of Intelligence for both the Royal Foundation’s United for Wildlife Transport and Financial Taskforces (https://unitedforwildlife.org/), and the wildlife investigations charity Focused Conservation.

Dr. Wittig has lived in 8 countries on 3 continents and worked in nearly 50 different countries. His professional background is in research & development and applied sciences, intelligence-led targeting of illicit financial networks, and African and global security.

Dr. Wittig began his career in national security, and was one of the first people in the US Intelligence Community (IC) to treat biodiversity and ecosystem collapse as a threat to global security.

Since their inception in 2016, Dr. Wittig has played a central role in the United for Wildlife Transport and Financial Taskforces, a groundbreaking program of the Royal Foundation of the Prince & Princess of Wales (https://royalfoundation.com/), to use data and intelligence, alongside high-level formal commitments, to mobilize 200+ of the worlds’ largest banks, maritime shipping companies, and airlines to take meaningful action against global wildlife trafficking. Dr. Wittig conceived of and currently runs the central intelligence sharing system of the both Taskforces.

Continue reading “Dr. Tim Wittig, Ph.D. — Applying Data & Intelligence To Defeat Global Wildlife Trafficking” | >

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Wednesday that he will present the long-awaited and often teased Master Plan 3 during the company’s investor day March 1.

Tesla’s investor day will be held at the company’s Gigafactory Texas located near Austin. The event will be live streamed. Some of the company’s institutional and retail investors will be invited to attend in person, according to the company. Investors will be able to see its production line and discuss topics like the company’s long-term expansion plans, generation 3 platform and capital allocation with its leadership team, according to the company.

Musk first hinted about the Master Plan 3 last March with vague goals to scale operations at Tesla to “extreme size.” He also leaned into themes like AI and noted that this next stage in the plan would include his other companies SpaceX and The Boring Company. Later in the year, Musk revealed more details about his Master Plan part three. Per a companywide meeting, the plan’s raison d’etre is: “How do you get to enough scale to actually shift the entire energy infrastructure of earth?”

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I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.

After a long day, you are finally at your favorite restaurant and you order the burger you have been dreaming of the whole time. The burger is gone within minutes, or seconds depending on your appetite. You call the waiter to send compliments to the chef for that delicious burger but are surprised to learn that your burger’s meat has been grown in a laboratory. How would you feel about eating lab-grown meat? Would you even care or does this scenario not make sense because you would have understood in the first bite that you are not eating “real meat”? What is lab-grown meat, anyway?

Lab-grown meat is made from animal cells, so technically, it is real meat. We can even say that cultured meat is more genuine than a plant-based one. When you consider the rapidly growing world population, resources spent on breeding the animals don’t seem sustainable in the long run at all. With all things considered, lab-grown meat might be the safest and most sustainable option for our future and might become a big part of our lives. In fact, even now, world-leading scientists and entrepreneurs are investing in lab-grown meat research to make it both affordable and delicious.

Continue reading “How Lab-grown meat is made” | >