It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, February 26, 2023
CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Trafigura names new battery metals heads in wake of nickel fraud
Bloomberg News | February 20, 2023 Trafigura found out that some cargoes it had bought didn’t contain the nickel they were supposed to, and spent two months uncovering the scheme. (Image courtesy of Trafigura.)
Trafigura Group has appointed new co-heads of battery metals trading — a business the commodities giant has said was the victim of a “systematic fraud” that could cost it more than half a billion dollars.
Mehdi Wetterwald and Daniel von Arx, who have both worked at Trafigura for over a decade, will run the global nickel, cobalt and lithium trading operations, according to a person familiar with the matter. Bloomberg reported earlier this month that head of nickel and cobalt trading Socrates Economou is leaving the group, although Trafigura has said it doesn’t believe any of its employees was complicit in the alleged fraud.
The company has accused Indian businessman Prateek Gupta and companies connected to him of fraud after discovering that nickel cargoes it had bought did not contain any nickel at all. Gupta and his companies have not responded to attempts to seek comment.
Von Arx joined Trafigura in 2009 and is currently head of metals and minerals for North America, based in Toronto, and will relocate to Geneva. Wetterwald is a senior nickel and cobalt trader and has worked across a number of Trafigura offices, having joined the company in 2012. They will report to Gonzalo De Olazaval, one of Trafigura’s two co-heads of metals trading, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.
Trafigura is one of the world’s biggest players in the trade of industrial metals from copper to zinc. It has increased its presence in battery metals in recent years, investing in nickel producers, cobalt procurement and lithium battery recycling.
(By Archie Hunter)
Rio Tinto partners with BMW for low-carbon aluminum supply
Cecilia Jamasmie | February 21, 2023 | BMW’s production plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Mining giant Rio Tinto (ASX, LON: RIO) has agreed to supply BMW with aluminum it produces in Canada using hydroelectric power, in a move that will allow the German automaker to lower its carbon footprint.
The companies, which announced the memorandum of understanding (MOU) in separate statements, said the aluminum produced in Canada will go to BMW’s production plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, starting in 2024.
While the partners did not indicate how much aluminum will be sent, they said the move could generate a reduction of up to 70% in CO2 emissions compared to the BMW Group’s benchmark for aluminum.
“By using innovative materials, we can reduce our vehicles’ carbon footprint,” said Joachim Post, BMW AG board member. “The agreement to supply low-carbon aluminium is based on several pillars: in addition to hydroelectric power and secondary material, we also want to lead the automotive industry by ramping up our use of aluminium with no direct CO2 emissions from the smelting process.”
The companies have also agreed to work on deploying Rio Tinto’s blockchain sustainability solution for aluminum, START, launched in 2021.
The program aims to provide supply chain traceability to customers and consumers with information about provenance and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards.
“As global demand for responsibly sourced materials continues to grow, automakers are increasingly looking to partner with suppliers who share their commitment to traceability and sustainability,” Rio Tinto chief commercial officer Alf Barrios said in the statement.
BMW Group plans to source aluminium from sustainable production in Canada from 2024. (Image courtesy of Rio Tinto.)
Only rare earths miner in US to bypass China in supply deal with Sumitomo
Cecilia Jamasmie | February 22, 2023 | Mountain Pass mine and processing facility, California.
(Image courtesy of MP Materials.) US rare earths producer MP Materials (NYSE: MP) has inked a deal with Sumitomo Corp. to supply the Japanese giant with some key elements, such as neodymium and praseodymium, helping the trading house bypass China in EV rare-earth supply chains.
MP Materials, owner of the Mountain Pass mine in California, will sell material from its separation plant to Sumitomo for distribution in Japan.
Until now, output from Mountain Pass has been sent to China for processing, with Japanese companies purchasing from there.
Under the deal, MP Materials — the only rare-earths producer in the US — will handle not only mining, but also smelting of ores and separating various elements.
Such output will be further refined by companies in Vietnam and the Philippines, before being shipped to Japanese magnet makers for use in final products.
The new supply chain arrangement, set to start operating in July, backs up the US and its allies’ plans to cut China’s role in their critical supply chains.
Sumitomo anticipates it will supply 3,000 tonnes of neodymium and praseodymium a year to Japanese magnet makers, equivalent to about 30% of their annual consumption.
President Joe Biden has boosted efforts to help critical minerals companies speed up plans to produce locally. Last year, his administration gave MP Materials a $35 million Pentagon grant to help it acquire further equipment to process rare earth minerals in California.
Its open-pit Mountain Pass mine accounted for about 15% of the world’s mined rare earths supply in 2021, the company says.
The agreement will “stabilize, diversify, and strengthen a supply chain of critical importance to Japan’s manufacturing sector,” the US and Japanese companies said in the joint statement.
As of last year, China accounted for about 90% of smelting and about 70% of rare earth production, data from the U.S. Geological Survey shows.
The US has long been pushing to secure supply chains of critical minerals through partnerships that include Canada, the European Union, the UK, Japan, Australia and South Korea.
Sheep Creek deposit’s rare earth samples exceed highest grades in US
Amanda Stutt | February 21, 2023 US Critical Mineral’s Crowley Adit #3 at Sheep Creek, Montana, showing banded carbonatite exposed near the top of the right rib.
Credit: US Critical Minerals.
US Critical Materials Corp. announced Tuesday that rare earth samples from 125 feet underground at its flagship Sheep Creek property in Southwest Montana report grades that exceed any other domestic rare earth resource.
The Salt-Lake City, Utah-based privately held company said results from Activation Labs in Ontario, Canada confirm over 10% of total rare earth oxides, (TREO) including high levels of neodymium and praseodymium.
The results included channel samples from two underground adits that were unsealed in October 2022 and sampled in November 2022.
US Critical Materials said the claims at Sheep Creek contain 12 of the most essential critical minerals needed for electrification and to establish a domestic supply chain, as North America’s reliance on China for rare earths has become increasingly untenable.
The Sheep Creek project area is in Ravalli County, an hour from Darby, and is accessible by paved roads for 40 miles and then an additional 4 miles along all-weather gravel roads. US Critical Materials holds 223 lode claims on 4,700 acres. More than 50 carbonatite dikes have been identified in the prospect area.
In addition to high grades, the underground data shows a low thorium level — below 500 parts per million, which will negate the need for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission permit, likely speeding up the overall permitting process and will make extraction and processing easier, faster, and less damaging to the environment, Critical Materials executive director Harvey Kaye told MINING.com.
“What we believe is the differentiator between Sheep Creek and the other players is that these deposits are not 600 feet on the ground, but are more easily obtainable,” Kaye said.
“We have the ability to bring these online, we believe, a lot faster than most that talk 10 years, when the reality is that all the American automotive companies, the Department of Defense, [and] renewable energy sources need these products now.” Geological phenomenon
Critical Materials president Jim Hedrick, a former rare earth commodity specialist for the USGS, said the combination of high-grade rare earths, low thorium, and carbonatites 125 feet below surface is a geological phenomenon that “does not exist in other reported US deposits.”
Hedrick said the pre-resource-stage deposit is valued at a “conservative” $43 billion.
“Over the course of my career independently evaluating rare earth properties within the US, I have never encountered a property with the grades being generated by Sheep Creek,” Hedrick said.
Hendrik added that the company’s geologists found 50 carbonites over 800 acres, and they believe there is a ‘continuous source’ underground that ties it all together.
He pointed out that the rare earths at Sheep Creek support the production of Samarium Cobalt —alternative rare earth magnets used in aerospace, automotive and military applications such as sidewinder missiles, and added that if cobalt production comes online in Montana the results could be a “marriage made in heaven.”
“As we drill in different areas over the 50 carbonatites, hopefully it is continuous, because there is some similarities between all of the carbonatites, ancylites, primarily, the main mineral…in some of the minor elements change on trend from northwest to the southeast… other elements, like gallium goes down, but then niobium goes up – but the rare earths are staying pretty much the same,” Hedrick said.
“That’s all a good indicator, and that there’s so many … it’s not a small area, but its a lot of carbonatites for 800 acres,” Hedrick said. “It’s showing that there is probably a similar source for all of these – and that’s what we’ll be going out there to prove.”
A drilling program is slated for Q2 2023.
Osisko Metals forms joint venture with Appian on Pine Point project in Northwest Territories
Staff Writer | February 22, 2023 Pine Point, which could become one of the 10 largest zinc producers in the world.
Credit: Osisko Metals
Osisko Metals (TSXV: OM) is setting up a joint venture and potentially surrendering a majority stake in its flagship Pine Point base metals project in Canada’s Northwest Territories as it continues to advance towards construction.
On Wednesday, the company announced it has entered an investment agreement with Appian Natural Resources Fund, under which Appian, as the JV partner, would invest up to C$100 million ($74m) over an estimated four-year period to acquire a 60% interest in the project. The Appian fund is advised by Appian Capital Advisory LLP, a London-based private equity group specializing in the acquisition and development of mining assets.
Appian’s investment will be broken down into an estimated C$75.3 million funding to advance the Pine Point project towards a final investment decision (FID) or construction approval. About C$19.8 million of that will be provided upon establishment of the joint venture.
The remaining C$24.7 million will be cash payments to Osisko Metals. Appian will first pay C$8.3 million on closing of the investment agreement to acquire an initial 9% interest in Pine Point, and then make an approximate C$16.4 million milestone payment upon a positive FID to bring its ownership to 60%. The C$100 million total investment would give the Pine Point project a pre-money valuation of C$91.3 million. Located on the south shore of Great Slave Lake, the Pine Point project is considered to be one of Canada’s premier past-producing zinc mining camps. A preliminary economic assessment published by Osisko Metals last year outlined an after-tax net present value of of $602 million and an internal rate of return of 25%.
The 2022 PEA integrates updated long-term prices for zinc and lead ($1.37/lb and $0.97/lb respectively) and increased mineral resources at Pine Point, which currently is estimated at 15.7 million tonnes grading 5.55% zinc equivalent in the indicated category and 47.2 million tonnes grading 5.94% zinc equivalent inferred.
“This milestone agreement is a significant endorsement and daylights the considerable intrinsic value of Pine Point,” Osisko Metals CEO Robert Wares said in a statement. “The transaction allows us to leverage Appian’s extensive mine development experience and includes a crucial investment of C$75 million into the project that will advance the development of Pine Point to a ‘shovel-ready’ status.”
This funding, according to Wares, is expected to cover all costs, including final definition drilling, additional exploration drilling, feasibility, environmental assessment and permitting, including Indigenous engagements.
In addition to the funding commitment, Appian has also agreed to make a C$5 million investment in the common shares of Osisko Metals on closing, priced at C$0.2481 per share. The stock was trading at C$0.30 at of 12:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, up 19.6% for the day on the back of the announcement, giving Osisko Metals a market value of roughly C$60.9 million ($45m).
“This joint venture, coupled with Appian’s cash payments to Osisko Metals and C$5 million equity investment, will allow Osisko Metals to focus on the development of other projects while avoiding excessive dilution to advance the Pine Point project,” Wares added.
Separately, Appian has agreed to the issuance of a convertible instrument to provide short-term funding of up to C$11.5 million for Osisko Metals’ ongoing drill program on the Pine Point project.
The 29,000-metre winter definition drilling program is currently progressing as planned with six drill rigs operating. This program, with associated costs, will be integrated into the investment agreement and pre-FID budget.
Taseko increases stake in Gibraltar mine in British Columbia
Staff Writer | February 22, 2023 | Taseko’s Gibraltar mine, Canada’s second largest copper-molybdenum operation, is located in south-central British Columbia, near Williams Lake. (Image courtesy of Taseko Mines)
Taseko Mines (TSX: TKO; NYSE American: TGB; LSE: TKO) has agreed to acquire an additional 12.5% interest in the Gibraltar mine from Sojitz Corporation.
Gibraltar is the country’s second-largest open pit copper mine. Last year it churned out 97 million pounds of copper, down 14% from the 112.3 million pounds it mined in 2021.
Gibraltar is operated through a joint venture which is owned 75% by Taseko and 25% by Cariboo Copper Corporation. Under the terms of the deal, Taseko will acquire Sojitz’s 50% interest in Cariboo, and will then hold an effective 87.5% interest in Gibraltar.
The acquisition price consists of a minimum of C$60 million ($44.3m) payable over a five-year period and potential contingent payments depending on Gibraltar mine revenues and copper prices over the next five years.
An initial C$10 million ($7.4m) will be paid to Sojitz upon closing and the remaining minimum amount will be paid in C$10 million annual instalments over the next five years.
“This is a logical and beneficial transaction for Taseko, providing immediate 17% growth in our attributable copper production and earnings from mine operations,” CEO Stuart McDonald said in a news release.
“Gibraltar is a high-quality asset with a long mine life in an excellent jurisdiction,” McDonald said. “The transaction is immediately accretive to Taseko and the deferred payment structure allows us to focus our financial capacity on the construction of the Florence Copper project which we expect to commence later this year.”
Talent shortage holds miners back from delivering on production targets, objectives – report
An unprecedented skills shortage in the mining industry is putting talent acquisition at the top of miners’ agendas, according to a new report by McKinsey & Company.
There are three cross-industry trends converging to mobilize changes within the mining workforce, the report notes.
First, the nature of work is evolving in the industry, with a focus shifting to technology roles, especially in automation and algorithms, resulting in over 100 million workers worldwide needing to change occupations by 2030, McKinsey says.
Workers’ preferences also changed during the pandemic. Changing priorities led to a stunning 40% of employees reporting they were likely to leave their jobs in the next six months.
Third, ways of working are evolving: a recent McKinsey Global Institute report indicated that 72% of executives surveyed say their organizations have started adopting permanent remote-working models.
Talent is increasingly being elevated to a true value driver. Miners can enhance performance at an asset, for example, by hiring a skilled metallurgist, effective mine planner, or talented commodity hedging analyst — these talent acquisitions can have significant impact on a mining company’s value relatively quickly, McKinsey points out.
But mining companies are feeling the talent squeeze.
McKinsey reports that 71% of mining leaders are finding the talent shortage is holding them back from delivering on production targets and strategic objectives.
“Indeed, 86% of mining executives tell us it is harder to recruit and retain the talent they need versus two years ago—particularly in specialized fields such as mine planning, process engineering, data science and automation,” the authors note.
Compounding the issue has been a reported 63% drop in mining engineering enrollment in Australia since 2014, and a 39% drop in mining graduations in the United States since 2016.
To better understand the talent-related issues and opportunities within mining, McKinsey & Company authors interviewed a cross-section of miners to form a perspective along the entire talent life cycle.
21ST CENTURY ALCHEMY Copper catalyst may be essential for production of solar fuels from sunlight, water, CO2 Staff Writer | February 23, 2023 | Copper. (Image by James St. John, Flickr).
A research team led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has gained new insights into how copper works as an electrocatalyst, a mechanism that uses energy from electrons to chemically transform molecules into different products.
The new discoveries were done by capturing the real-time movements of copper nanoparticles, in other words, copper particles engineered at the scale of a billionth of a meter, as they convert CO2 and water into renewable fuels and chemicals: ethylene, ethanol, and propanol, among others.
“This is very exciting. After decades of work, we’re finally able to show—with undeniable proof—how copper electrocatalysts excel in CO2 reduction,” Peidong Yang, a senior faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences and Chemical Sciences Divisions who led the study, said in a media statement. “Knowing how copper is such an excellent electrocatalyst brings us steps closer to turning CO2 into new, renewable solar fuels through artificial photosynthesis.”
The work was made possible by combining a new imaging technique called operando 4D electrochemical liquid-cell STEM (scanning transmission electron microscopy) with a soft X-ray probe to investigate the same sample environment: copper nanoparticles in liquid.
In a paper published in the journal Nature, Yang and his colleagues explain that during 4D-STEM experiments, they used a new electrochemical liquid cell to observe copper nanoparticles (ranging in size from 7 nanometers to 18 nanometers) evolve into active nanograins during CO2 electrolysis—a process that uses electricity to drive a reaction on the surface of an electrocatalyst.
The experiments revealed a surprise: copper nanoparticles combined into larger metallic copper “nanograins” within seconds of the electrochemical reaction.
Facilitating CO2 reduction
To learn more, the team turned to Cheng Wang, who pioneered a technique known as “resonant soft X-ray scattering (RSoXS) for soft materials.” With his help, they used the same electrochemical liquid cell but this time during the experiments to determine whether copper nanograins facilitate CO2 reduction.
Wang explained that soft X-rays are ideal for studying how copper electrocatalysts evolve during CO2 reduction.
The RSoXS experiments —along with additional evidence gathered at Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS)—proved that metallic copper nanograins serve as active sites for CO2 reduction. (Metallic copper, also known as copper(0), is a form of the element copper.)
Yang explained that during CO2 electrolysis, the copper nanoparticles change their structure during a process called “electrochemical scrambling.” The copper nanoparticles’ surface layer of oxide degrades, creating open sites on the copper surface for CO2 molecules to attach. And as CO2 “docks” or binds to the copper nanograin surface, electrons are then transferred to CO2, causing a reaction that simultaneously produces ethylene, ethanol, and propanol along with other multicarbon products.
“The copper nanograins essentially turn into little chemical manufacturing factories,” Yang said.
Further experiments revealed that size matters. All of the 7-nanometer copper nanoparticles participated in CO2 reduction, whereas the larger nanoparticles did not. In addition, the team learned that only metallic copper can efficiently reduce CO2 into multicarbon products.
In Yang’s view, these findings have implications for rationally designing efficient CO2 electrocatalysts.
The new study also validated his findings from 2017: That the 7-nanometer-sized copper nanoparticles require low inputs of energy to start CO2 reduction. As an electrocatalyst, the 7-nanometer copper nanoparticles required a record-low driving force that is about 300 millivolts less than typical bulk copper electrocatalysts.
This means that the copper nanograins could potentially boost the energy efficiency and productivity of some catalysts designed for artificial photosynthesis, a field of research that aims to produce fuels from sunlight, water, and CO2.
New Copper Catalyst Could Pave The Way For Next-Gen Solar Fuels
Since the 1970s, scientists have known that copper has a special ability to transform carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals and fuels. But for many years, scientists have struggled to understand how this common metal works as an electrocatalyst, a mechanism that uses energy from electrons to chemically transform molecules into different products.
Now, a research team led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has gained new insight by capturing real-time movies of copper nanoparticles (copper particles engineered at the scale of a billionth of a meter) as they convert CO2 and water into renewable fuels and chemicals: ethylene, ethanol, and propanol, among others. The work was reported in the journal Nature last week.
Peidong Yang, a senior faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences and Chemical Sciences Divisions who led the study said, “This is very exciting. After decades of work, we’re finally able to show – with undeniable proof – how copper electrocatalysts excel in CO2 reduction.”
Yang is also a professor of chemistry and materials science and engineering at UC Berkeley. “Knowing how copper is such an excellent electrocatalyst brings us steps closer to turning CO2 into new, renewable solar fuels through artificial photosynthesis,” he added.
The work was made possible by combining a new imaging technique called operando 4D electrochemical liquid-cell STEM (scanning transmission electron microscopy) with a soft X-ray probe to investigate the same sample environment: copper nanoparticles in liquid.
First author Yao Yang, a UC Berkeley Miller postdoctoral fellow, conceived the groundbreaking approach under the guidance of Peidong Yang while working toward his Ph.D. in chemistry at Cornell University.
Scientists who study artificial photosynthesis materials and reactions have wanted to combine the power of an electron probe with X-rays, but the two techniques typically can’t be performed by the same instrument.
Electron microscopes (such as STEM or TEM) use beams of electrons and excel at characterizing the atomic structure in parts of a material. In recent years, 4D STEM (or “2D raster of 2D diffraction patterns using scanning transmission electron microscopy”) instruments, such as those at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry, have pushed the boundaries of electron microscopy even further, enabling scientists to map out atomic or molecular regions in a variety of materials, from hard metallic glass to soft, flexible films.
On the other hand, soft (or lower-energy) X-rays are useful for identifying and tracking chemical reactions in real time in an operando, or real-world, environment.
But now, scientists can have the best of both worlds. At the heart of the new technique is an electrochemical “liquid cell” sample holder with remarkable versatility. A thousand times thinner than a human hair, the device is compatible with both STEM and X-ray instruments.
The electrochemical liquid cell’s ultrathin design allows reliable imaging of delicate samples while protecting them from electron beam damage. A special electrode custom-designed by co-author Cheng Wang, a staff scientist at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source, enabled the team to conduct X-ray experiments with the electrochemical liquid cell. Combining the two allows researchers to comprehensively characterize electrochemical reactions in real time and at the nanoscale.
Getting granular
During 4D-STEM experiments, Yao Yang and the team used the new electrochemical liquid cell to observe copper nanoparticles (ranging in size from 7 nanometers to 18 nanometers) evolve into active nanograins during CO2 electrolysis – a process that uses electricity to drive a reaction on the surface of an electrocatalyst.
The experiments revealed a surprise: copper nanoparticles combined into larger metallic copper “nanograins” within seconds of the electrochemical reaction.
To learn more, the team turned to Wang, who pioneered a technique known as “resonant soft X-ray scattering (RSoXS) for soft materials,” at the Advanced Light Source more than 10 years ago.
With help from Wang, the research team used the same electrochemical liquid cell, but this time during RSoXS experiments, to determine whether copper nanograins facilitate CO2 reduction. Soft X-rays are ideal for studying how copper electrocatalysts evolve during CO2 reduction, Wang explained. By using RSoXS, researchers can monitor multiple reactions between thousands of nanoparticles in real time, and accurately identify chemical reactants and products.
The RSoXS experiments at the Advanced Light Source – along with additional evidence gathered at Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) – proved that metallic copper nanograins serve as active sites for CO2 reduction. (Metallic copper, also known as copper(0), is a form of the element copper.)
During CO2 electrolysis, the copper nanoparticles change their structure during a process called “electrochemical scrambling.” The copper nanoparticles’ surface layer of oxide degrades, creating open sites on the copper surface for CO2 molecules to attach, explained Peidong Yang. And as CO2 “docks” or binds to the copper nanograin surface, electrons are then transferred to CO2, causing a reaction that simultaneously produces ethylene, ethanol, and propanol along with other multicarbon products.
Yang said, “The copper nanograins essentially turn into little chemical manufacturing factories.”
Further experiments at the Molecular Foundry, the Advanced Light Source, and CHESS revealed that size matters. All of the 7-nanometer copper nanoparticles participated in CO2 reduction, whereas the larger nanoparticles did not. In addition, the team learned that only metallic copper can efficiently reduce CO2 into multicarbon products. The findings have implications for “rationally designing efficient CO2 electrocatalysts,” Peidong Yang said.
The new study also validated Peidong Yang’s findings from 2017: That the 7-nanometer-sized copper nanoparticles require low inputs of energy to start CO2 reduction. As an electrocatalyst, the 7-nanometer copper nanoparticles required a record-low driving force that is about 300 millivolts less than typical bulk copper electrocatalysts. The best-performing catalysts that produce multicarbon products from CO2 typically operate at high driving force of 1 volt.
The copper nanograins could potentially boost the energy efficiency and productivity of some catalysts designed for artificial photosynthesis, a field of research that aims to produce solar fuels from sunlight, water, and CO2. Currently, researchers within the Department of Energy-funded Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA) plan to use the copper nanograin catalysts in the design of future solar fuel devices.
“The technique’s ability to record real-time movies of a chemical process opens up exciting opportunities to study many other electrochemical energy conversion processes. It’s a huge breakthrough, and it would not have been possible without Yao and his pioneering work,” Peidong Yang said.
This is a really long press release, but is does a pretty good job of laying the relevant facts out sparing us most of the highly technical jargon. Its almost in a story format. Thanks are deserved and offered. Its really good news to see the future has a great deal of hope.
But.
This is recycling carbon in the form of CO2. That’s likely going to set off the anti-carbon extremist crowd. That’s just a pity. Driving to sustainability has to include carbon for life to exist. And CO2 is the active part of the earth’s and life’s carbon cycle. Hating on it seems so, well, choose your own term here.
Nature figured out CO2 is key for the planet to have life millions of years ago. We’re just at the cusp edge of catching up. Lets hope extremism doesn’t kill off natural progress used by technology.
By Brian Westenhaus via New Energy and Fuel
Active site identification and engineering during the dynamic evolution of copper-based catalysts for electrocatalytic CO2 reduction
This review article is led by Prof. Fan Dong and associate research fellow Bangwei Deng (Yangtze Delta Region Institute (Huzhou), University of Electronic Science and Technology of China). which was given to inspire more investigations and studies on the intrinsic active sites during the dynamic evolution of catalysts that could promote the optimization of the catalyst system to further improve the performance of CO2RR.
To date, copper-based catalysts are one of the most prominent catalysts that can electrochemically reduce CO2 towards high value fuels or chemicals, such as ethylene, ethanol, acetic acid. However, the chemically active feature of Cu-based catalysts hinders the understanding of the intrinsic catalytic active sites during the initial and the operative processes of CO2RR. The identification and engineering of active sites during the dynamic evolution of catalysts are thereby vital to further improve the activity, selectivity, and durability of Cu-based catalysts for high-performance CO2RR.
In this regard, four triggers for the dynamic evolution of catalysts were introduced in detail. Afterward, three typical active-site theories during the dynamic reconstruction of catalysts were discussed. In addition, the strategies in catalyst design were summarized according to the latest reports of Cu-based catalysts for CO2RR, including the tuning of electronic structure, controlling of the external potential, and regulation of local catalytic environment.
“The dynamic reconstruction of catalysts has now been well accepted by the research community, especially for Cu-based catalysts. Even though great advances have been achieved in the research of high performance CO2RR, however, the activity, selectivity, and durability for the industrial application of CO2RR on Cu-based catalysts are still unsatisfactory, particularly in the production of C2+ products. The detailed mechanisms on the intrinsic active site behind these dynamic properties, which are very important for the advanced catalyst design, are still ambiguous and more investigations are needed in future studies” Dong says.
Some perspectives are also given here to guide the future studies: 1) The triggers of the dynamic evolution of Cu-based catalysts should be carefully investigated, since several factors (intermediates, electrolyte, applied potential) are present along during CO2RR; 2) More factors such as such as the electrolytic cell type, mass/electron transfer, local electric field, pH variations, solution resistance, hydrophilic/hydrophobic feature of reaction interface, and supporting effects should be considered during the catalyst design; 3) High-throughput testing and machine learning are efficient techniques to further establish the structure–property relationship in more complicated conditions.
See the article:
Active site identification and engineering during the dynamic evolution of copper-based catalysts for electrocatalytic CO2 reduction https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11426-022-1412-6
Rio Tinto to spend $40m on Diavik diamond mine expansion
Cecilia Jamasmie | February 23, 2023 | Aerial view of Diavik diamond mine. (Image courtesy of Rio Tinto.)
Rio Tinto (ASX, LON: RIO) is going ahead with a $40 million expansion of its iconic Diavik diamond mine in the Northwest Territories of Canada, which will extend the operation’s life to at least early 2026.
The approved first phase of the project will expand diamond extraction underground, below the existing A21 open pit. Mining of that area, opened in 2018, recently concluded.
A second phase an additional cost will be put forward for approval in 2024, Rio said.
Phase one below A21 is slated to produce an extra 1.4 million carats, with phase two adding another 800,000 carats.
“This is good news for our employees, partners, suppliers and local communities in the Northwest Territories,” Sinead Kaufman, Rio Tinto Minerals’ chief executive, said in a statement.
Rio Tinto became in 2021 the sole owner of the operation, after buying the 40% share held until then by Dominion Diamond Mines.
The company has operated Diavik since production began in 2003. Located approximately 300 km north-east of Yellowknife, the mine employs over 1,100, of which 17% are Northern Indigenous people.
Diavik is Canada’s largest diamond mine in terms of production with between 6 and 7 million carats of rough diamonds produced each year. Since mining began in 2003 Diavik has produced over 100 million carats of diamonds.
The world’s biggest miner BHP (NYSE, ASX: BHP) said Thursday it is trialling the use of hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) to help power mining equipment at its Yandi iron ore operations in Western Australia.
Supplied through a collaboration with BP, the renewable diesel made from HVO will be used in haul trucks and other mining equipment over an initial three-month trial period.
“About 40% of BHP’s operational greenhouse gas emissions come from using diesel fuel, and this is a core focus of our decarbonization strategy,” BHP Western Australia Iron Ore asset president Brandon Craig said in the statement.
“Ultimately, our aim is to have fully electric trucking fleets at our sites, but alternative fuels like HVO may help us reduce our emissions in the meantime while the electrification transition takes place,” Craig said. “This collaboration with the teams at Yandi and BP is really exciting to see, given the potential application in our WAIO business and BHP’s operations globally.”
BP president, Australia and SVP fuels and low carbon solutions, Asia Pacific, Frederic Baudry said BP plans to increase its investment in low carbon energy globally. “Forging strategic partnerships with companies like BHP enables BP to create solutions that satisfy the increasing demand for lower carbon fuels in sectors like mining and transport,” Baudry said.
BHP has a medium-term target to reduce operational greenhouse gas emissions by at least 30% by FY2030, from an FY2020 baseline. Approximately 40% of BHP’s operational emissions in its FY2020 baseline year came from diesel-powered equipment.
POSTMODERN ALCHEMY
Black gold-nickel efficiently converts CO2 to useful chemicals
Researchers at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, have demonstrated that plasmonic black gold-nickel efficiently catalyzes CO2 hydrogenation using visible light.
CO2 hydrogenation with green hydrogen is a technique that has the potential to remove excessive CO2 levels, address the temporal mismatches between solar electricity production and demand, and promote hydrogen gas storage.
Given that the reaction needs very high temperatures, which causes quick deactivation of the catalyst, the researchers explored the idea of catalyzing CO2 hydrogenation at the room to moderate temperature via the plasmonic excitation of H2 and CO2 using a plasmonic catalyst.
In a paper published in the journal ACS Nano, the scientists explain that they generated the reaction at temperatures as low as 84°C to 223°C without external heating.
They found a multifold increase in the catalytic activity as compared to the catalyst DPC-C4 to the extent that measurable photoactivity was only observed with the catalyst DPC-C4-Ni. Their work showed the best-reported CO production rate of 2464± 40 mmol gNi-1 h-1 and selectivity greater than 95% in the flow conditions. The catalyst also showed extraordinary stability (100 h).
Super-linear power law dependence on the light intensity with photocatalytic quantum efficiencies increased with a rise in light intensity and reaction temperature, while the kinetic isotope effect (KIE) in light was higher than in the dark, confirming the hot-electron mediated reaction mechanism.
Ultrafast studies of hot-carrier dynamics proved the superfast electron injection from Au to Ni, populating the Ni reactor with charge carriers. The researchers observed a spectral signature of such an indirect charge generation due to hot electron transfer from the gold to the nickel. Finite-difference time-domain simulations also showed plasmon-induced high local field intensity enhancement in DPC-C4-Ni.
An in-situ DRIFTS study showed C=O stretching vibrations of linearly bonded CO atop Ni atoms, while bridge carbonyl species formation was hindered. CO2 hydrogenation took place by direct dissociation path via linearly bonded nickel-CO. The linearly bonded CO on Ni sites of DPC-C4-Ni were weakly bonded due to its weak Ni-C bond. Hence CO desorption was efficient, restricting hydrogenation to methane, leading to more than 95% CO selectivity.
According to the group, the high production rate and selectivity were due to Ni NPs being highly dispersed on black gold, providing a weakly bonded CO pathway, in addition to the excellent light-harvesting ability of black gold. Due to the excitation of electrons in the nickel d-band to higher energy level during plasmonic damping of black gold SPR, as well as to the filling of Ni d-band due to hot electron transfer from black gold to Ni, Ni sites showed excellent activity even at smaller particle size.
In their view, the outstanding catalytic performance of black gold-Ni may provide a way to develop plasmonic catalysts for CO2 reduction and other catalytic processes using black gold.
