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Solvay starts a new club for companies who want to recycle batteries
Specialty chemicals company based out of Belgium, Solvay, and French environmental services company, Veolia, have announced a partnership to recycle the critical metals found in used lithium-ion batteries.
What are they doing exactly?
The two companies have formed a consortium (an associate of companies looking to pool resources) and are looking for other partners as well. Solvay's mining solutions business offers expertise on the metal recovery processes. Combine that with Veolia's expertise in collecting, transporting, and dismantling the batteries and you've got a great start. Check out the hype video here.
Some context:
We saw that Albemarle just partnered with the DOE to increase lithium production in the US earlier this week. But lithium is just one part of the equation, and not all regions of the world have access to lithium as a natural resource. Many companies, like Redwood Materials, are looking to extract not only lithium but metals like cobalt and nickel from used batteries.
Read the press release here.
India's largest company looking to spin-off its oil and chemicals
Indian multinational conglomerate, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), has released a plan to spin-off its oil-to-chemicals business into a separate entity.
The details:
This means that RIL's assets in refining, petrochemicals, and fuel retail will be combined and technically separated from the remainder of the conglomerate. The decision to do so was initially announced in April, but no further details were provided. The new subsidiary will go into effect starting in January of 2021.
Why it matters:
RIL is making this move to attract investors. In a statement, they said, "The nature of risk and returns involved in the O2C business are distinct from those of the other businesses of RIL and the O2C business attracts a distinct set of investors and strategic partners,". Keep an eye out for a potential sale to Saudi Aramco in the future.
Read more here on ICIS.
New hydrogen-producing technology to continue development
California-based hydrogen start-up, SunHydrogen, has announced an agreement with the University of Iowa to accelerate the development of its novel hydrogen production technology.
So what is this novel idea?
SunHydrogen's technology (which is very much still in development) is based on nanotechnology and is a photoelectrochemical process. It's complicated, but if you want to get an overview this is a good resource, or go here to see a video of it. Either way, the technology still has a far way to go as there isn't nearly enough information about its efficiency, durability, and cost.
Why it's a big deal:
Just like solar panels, these hydrogen-producing photoelectrochemical cells could be installed in any environment. This means that the production of hydrogen could be done in a decentralized fashion near wastewater sources (instead of near large bodies of water). The last time we saw green hydrogen mentioned was about a week ago.
Read the press release here.