Enormous rare earths crisis brewing: China shutting down 3 major dysprosium mines
SEM image of Dysprosium hydroxyfluoride fibers. Credit: PPNL.
A few days ago, Xinhua News agency reported that three rare earth mining districts near Ganzhou city have been order to halt production by year-end. In fact, production at one of the mines has been halted already, according to Li Guoqing, director of the city’s mining management bureau.
This is a huge problem, because, as Japan’s Nikkei news service reports, Ganzhou is the #1 producer of dysprosium. Dysprosium plays a critical role in many clean energy technologies and is one of the elements the DOE has highlighted as being of critical concern in regard to future supply disruptions and affects on critical technologies. The DOE is also concerned because dysprosium has no suitable replacement.
Ganzhou is also the producer of other heavy rare earths.
Nikkei also reports that it believes all three mines have exceeded their annual quotas, and production will likely be suspended at least until the end of the year.
Continuing with the Xinhua story, it says:
It is unknown when production will resume, as they have to wait for directives from the provincial government, Li said. The notice also told the counties to set production quotas to rare earth mines to prevent over-exploitation. …To control environmental damage and protect resources, China has announced various policies, such as suspending the issuance of new licenses for rare earth prospecting and mining, imposing production caps and export quotas, and implementing tougher environmental standards.
It’s not yet clear to me how the US and its business community will react, but the Nikkei story reveals some of the responses in Japan:
Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and some other major Japanese producers of electrical machinery have started raising air conditioner prices because of surging prices for dysprosium.
“There are efforts to kick off (dysprosium) production in Russia and Vietnam, but it will likely take at least five years,” said Nobuhiko Kawamura, general manager of Showa Denko KK’s rare-earths division. The firm, which produces dysprosium-based alloys in Jiangxi Province and elsewhere, sees potential for global dysprosium supply shortages in two to three years should China continue with its strict regulation of rare-earth production.
Even so, magnet manufacturers and other firms with dysprosium dealings mostly reacted to Monday’s news with calm. “Because we thought it might happen, the news comes as no surprise to us,” said a official at Hitachi Metals Ltd., the leading maker of rare-earth magnets.
But a major trading house is alarmed because it will not likely be able to find alternative sources of dysprosium and other rare-earth metals quickly.
Stay tuned.
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Dow Kokam-ORNL agreement on Li-ion battery development aligns with federal AMP
Large-format lithium-ion battery displayed at 2010 Paris Motor Show. Credit: Dow Kokam.
Coincidentally, there is another news item out of Oak Ridge National Lab, this one regarding a new $5.5 million pact between Dow Kokam and ORNL “to develop and commercialize advanced lithium-ion batteries” that is being touted as an example of the new Advanced Manufacturing Partnership.
ORNL has developed unique and specialized battery know-how, and with this new agreement the lab will essentially supplement the Dow Kokam’s staff R&D efforts.
A news release from the lab mentions the two entities have been doing joint R&D work since early 2010 and says the new efforts will come in the areas of electrochemical and microstructural analysis, in-line quality control process development, raw material characterization and processing battery components, technology evaluation and technical strategic advice.
The release also connects the agreement to the AMP, noting it “aligns directly with goals outlined in the recent report titled “Ensuring American Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing.” The report was prepared by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and the President’s Innovation and Technology Advisory Committee. A key recommendation of the 25-member panel was to “invest to overcome market failures, to ensure that new technologies and design methodologies are developed here, and that technology-based enterprises have their infrastructure to flourish.”
Dow Kokam is jointly owned by Dow Chemical Co., TK Advanced Battery LLC and Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault. The company is focused on developing “large-format” (i.e., transportation-scale) batteries, based on Li-ion technologies primarily using a nickel manganese cobalt composition.
The funding for the ORNL support work likely links back to a recent $4.9 million DOE grant to Dow Kokam to develop Li-ion cells that have energy densities greater than 500 Watt-hours per liter.
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Ceramics and glass business news of the week
Alfa Aesar launches mobile website for easy access to product information
Alfa Aesar, a Johnson Matthey Company, announced the launch of a new mobile website designed specifically for use on smart phones. The site allows users to quickly and easily access Alfa Aesar’s detailed product specifications using mobile platforms. The site has been optimized globally for Nokia, Moto, iPhone, Samsung, Blackberry, Sony and Android devices, and is available in ten languages. The mobile website enables users to access full product specifications for Alfa Aesar’s complete range of chemical compounds, metals and materials. Users can also access certificates of analysis and material safety data sheets for all products, as well as link through to the full site.
Horizontal media mills figure prominently in lithium-ion battery preproduction
With the federal government looking for 1 million electric vehicles on US roadways within just four years, attritor and horizontal media mill manufacturer Union Process Inc., is right in the middle of the mix. Lithium-ion batteries are the focus for powering these vehicles, and the Akron-based equipment maker has developed a two-phase process for grinding and dispersing the phosphate precursor required for the batteries. The first phase utilizes the Union Process S-series attritors to grind and disperse the coarse precursor powder to a 1-3 um particle-size range. The second phase runs through the company’s DMQ series horizontal media mills, dispersing the finished material to a primary particle-size range of 200-300 nm.
Unifrax acquires catalytic converter emission control mat business
Unifrax announced that through its Hong Kong subsidiary, Unifrax Asia-Pacific Holding Ltd, it had acquired the catalytic converter emission control mat business of Zhejiang Bondlye Motor Environmental Technology Co. The Bondlye Mat Business produces support mat products used in automotive catalytic converters. They are the leading supplier of emission control mat products to the domestic Chinese automotive manufacturers.
Virial launches first production line for nanostructured ceramic and cerametallic goods
Ceremonies were held in St. Petersburg today for the first production line for new high-tech goods of nanostructured ceramic and cerametallic materials. The facilities belong to Virial, a project company created with coinvestment from RusNano. The total cost of the new project is 1.7 billion rubles. Investment fund CapMan, a leading fund in direct financing in Scandinavian countries and Russia, and agriculture innovator Siberian Organics have joined RusNano as coinvestors. Virial has set up the entire production cycle for cutting instruments that are suited to hard-to-process materials and slide bearings able to accommodate extreme working conditions, higher pressure, and hotter temperatures. Items will be manufactured using a unique patented technology.
Theramax does pioneering work in solar cooling system
Pune-based Thermax Ltd recently designed and commissioned a unique solar conditioning system at the Solar Energy Centre in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. The 100-kW technology demonstration project was inaugurated by Union Minister for New and Renewable energy Farooq Abdullah in the presence of Union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde. In this innovative installation, claimed to be the first-of-its-kind in the world, Thermax has integrated a triple-effect chiller and solar parabolic concentrators (collectors), both indigenously developed by the company.
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Monday materials fun: Robotic flying ‘maple seed’ vehicle with two moving parts
I used to imagine a lot of the bio-inspired ideas, such as flying maple seed pods (above) and artificial jellyfish arose on Thursday or Friday afternoons around happy hour time by brain-fried engineers. You know: It’s easy to imagine sensor, battery, propulsion and aeronautics wonks knocking down a few IPAs and hatching a new scheme to bemuse a project manager.
In this case, it turns out the wild idea didn’t come from engineers letting their hair down, but from ambitious bio-inspired engineering students under the guidance of some encouraging University of Maryland professors impressed with the structural and sensory architecture found in nature.
The above video was shot last week at the AUVSI show where Lockheed Martin got to show off their latest iteration of the UM student’s work original work (see video below).
While both the UM and Lockheed Martin versions show prop propulsion, Gizmag also has a schematic of what appears to be a version powered by a tiny thruster jet.
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