Latest news with #lithiumbattery
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
US startup unveils lithium battery that lasts 1,300 cycles, skips China entirely
A startup led by a Canadian battery chemist is racing to crack a made-in-America energy breakthrough even as Trump's tariffs cast a long shadow over the battery supply chain. Boston-based Pure Lithium is building a pilot plant for a new kind of lithium metal battery, one it claims could outperform today's lithium-ion cells, and, crucially, be built entirely without Chinese efforts come at a crucial time for the U.S., as the world's biggest economy moves to loosen China's grip on the global supply of critical minerals. China's dominance in this space continues to pose a strategic challenge. The country accounts for around 90 percent of global rare earth production, and for certain heavy rare earths like dysprosium and terbium—essential to clean energy systems, defense equipment, and high-tech electronics—its market share was as high as 99 percent until recently. The U.S. remains heavily dependent on these imports. In 2024 alone, China supplied half of all American critical mineral imports, including key materials such as yttrium, antimony, bismuth, and arsenic, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Led by CEO Emilie Bodoin, the startup has spent the past four years developing a lithium metal battery it believes can displace conventional lithium-ion technology. The company's design eliminates the need for graphite, cobalt, nickel, and manganese—minerals either sourced from or processed in China—replacing them with a streamlined system that taps lithium extracted from brine. At its lab in Charlestown, Massachusetts, Pure Lithium uses a proprietary 'Brine to Battery' process to produce a pure lithium metal anode directly from brine. The company pairs this anode with a vanadium cathode to manufacture a next-generation battery that has already achieved more than 1,300 cycles at commercially relevant charge and discharge rates. Thanks to the vanadium cathode's ability to operate at temperatures up to 700°C, the battery is significantly more fire-resistant. It also offers higher energy density—lithium metal has about 10 times the capacity of the graphite electrodes used in today's lithium-ion batteries. Until now, high costs, quality limitations, and environmental concerns have prevented the development of commercially viable lithium metal batteries. Pure Lithium says its approach not only boosts performance but also slashes materials costs by eliminating the need for graphite, nickel, cobalt, and manganese—key minerals often sourced or refined in China. 'We're working as hard as we can to build a prototype pilot facility,' Bodoin said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Tuesday. The company is currently expanding its lithium production process and integrating it into a domestic manufacturing line. 'As soon as we get it up and running,' she added, 'we're going to start getting these batteries out into the hands of US customers that need it.' In April, the firm received a letter of interest from the US Export-Import Bank for up to $300 million in financing, a potential boost for its domestic expansion plans. If successful, Pure Lithium could become one of the few battery startups offering a truly American-made solution at a time when Washington is rethinking its dependence on foreign supply chains.
Bloomberg
17-06-2025
- Automotive
- Bloomberg
A Lithium Startup Is Building a US Battery Plant That Will Skirt Trump's Tariffs
US startup Pure Lithium Corp. is working on a testing facility to build a new type of lithium battery that's completely manufactured domestically. The company has developed a lithium metal battery that Chief Executive Officer Emilie Bodoin says will displace lithium-ion batteries. Pure Lithium has spent the last four years doing research and development on the technology, which could be used in electric vehicles, utility-scale energy storage and other applications.
Yahoo
15-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Hong Kong startup targets lithium battery waste with AI-powered recycling system
Lithium battery waste is piling up, and a Hong Kong-based startup is showing the world how to clean it up smartly. Achelous Pure Metals has developed a portable, eco-friendly recycling system designed to process used lithium-ion batteries right in urban centers, according to a report on SCMP. The five-year-old company has built a robot-assisted pilot line that can sort, shred, and filter materials from non-electric vehicle (EV) batteries. The process includes vacuum and heat treatment to safely extract hazardous substances like epoxy adhesives and fluorine gases. Another pilot system, which uses nanoparticle-based separation, helps isolate and refine critical metals like lithium, cobalt, and nickel from the so-called 'black mass'—a powdery residue left after crushing batteries. The firm's goal is to bring scalable and movable recycling to cities, starting with Hong Kong and eventually expanding across Southeast Asia. 'Our goal is to tackle the growing problem of discarded lithium-ion batteries by bringing scalable, movable, eco-friendly recycling to urban centres starting in Hong Kong, with plans to expand to [Southeast] Asia,' Alan Wong Yuk-chun, co-founder and technical director of the startup told SCMP. While the startup has deployed its technology at a client facility in Jiangsu province that can process up to 10,000 tonnes of battery waste annually, it's facing hurd+6les. A surge in China's recycling capacity has led to a scramble for black mass, while the prices of end products have been falling rapidly. 'Our client's factory has to compete for black mass at higher and higher prices, while the prices of end-products like lithium carbonate keep falling amid oversupply,' said Shawn Cheng, the company's co-founder and R&D director. Battery-grade lithium carbonate, once dubbed 'white gold,' dropped nearly 90 percent in price—from 568,000 yuan in November 2022 to just 60,600 yuan per tonne in May 2024, according to Daiwa Capital Markets. Global lithium oversupply is expected to peak by 2027 before swinging into a deficit early next decade, forecasts UK-based consultancy Wood Mackenzie. In response, the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park-based startup is pivoting. It's building out its Hong Kong operation and helping companies across Southeast Asia establish 'micro-factories' that can turn discarded batteries into black mass for export to China. The company is also in talks with local firms to recycle lithium batteries from security transceivers, and exploring opportunities in Malaysia and Singapore for e-waste recovery. 'We want to help [our] partners meet their future recycled content obligations and set up a system to keep track of the materials' footprint for compliance,' Cheng said. The world is staring at a mounting e-waste crisis. In 2022 alone, about 62 million tonnes of electronic waste were generated globally—enough to circle the planet in bumper-to-bumper tractor-trailers, according to a 2024 UN report. That figure is projected to hit 82 million tonnes by 2030, with metals such as copper, gold, and iron making up nearly half the total, valued at an estimated $91 billion. Yet just 22 percent of this waste was properly collected and recycled in 2022, and that figure is expected to drop even further by the decade's end. The UN attributes this to ballooning consumption, limited repair options, shorter product lifespans, and inadequate recycling infrastructure. In response, governments are tightening the screws. New EU regulations mandate lithium recovery rates of 50 percent by 2027 and 80 percent by 2031, with recovery targets for metals like cobalt, copper, and nickel climbing as high as 95 percent.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Yahoo
Derby laptop fried in latest TikTok trend
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – A new social media trend led to a fried laptop at Derby High School. It's the latest TikTok trend wreaking havoc in schools. The trend teaches kids how to fiddle with their school laptops to make smoke come out. It's been triggering chemical reactions leading to hazardous lithium battery fires. Derby's fire department says the danger goes beyond flammability. Parents are keeping an eye on the latest TikTok trends 'My son and his friend came home, I think it was last week, and said that someone in their class got their conduct card marked,' said Becky Howe, a mom in Winfield. She says the student who got marked was fiddling with a laptop. She says the trend is not surprising. 'They always pass, they always cycle through, and there's always the next one,' Howe said. Curiosity is getting the best of students at Derby High School. 'There's been a social media trend that's been online for about a week or so that demonstrates how you can cause a thermal runaway in a lithium-ion battery inside of a laptop,' said Derby Fire Marshal Jonathan Marr. The trend is causing real concern. 'Once you cause this thermal runaway to occur, you can't stop it, and it'll continue to get worse until it burns itself out,' Marr said. The fire department has to isolate the device. Because it's a chemical reaction, it can reignite, which also means it's more of a hazard. 'The gases that it releases are highly toxic,' Marr said. The school district says the laptops cost almost $400 to replace. 'I think education is always important in that and communication is important… reminding students that there are real consequences to certain actions,' said Katie Carlson 'Parents need to be educated and our children need to be educated that they're actually dangerous,' Howe said. The police chief in Derby says there can be serious legal consequences, too. Even incidents that happen in schools are presented to the DA's office. If the DA decides to pursue the case, not leaving it up to the school to decide appropriate discipline, the chief says the case would go to court, and a student could be charged with arson. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
