Ask any driver of a Tesla and you will find a happy customer. The cars look good, drive incredibly fast quickly, they cost a quarter of the price of petrol to run, and they have a fart cushion feature that makes every kid laugh.

With electric mobility continuing to gather pace especially in urban environments, recycling high-voltage batteries is increasingly under the spotlight. This is where urban miners, and companies that can recycle batteries and parts after a product’s first life is over.

After successfully launching a closed-loop recycling system for the reuse of raw materials from high-voltage batteries thanks to the BMW Brilliance Automotive Joint Venture in China in 2022, BMW has now hit another milestone on its journey to make cleaner, greener electric cars.

This past November, BMW launched a pan-European partnership with SK tes, a company that can mine valuable minerals such as cobalt, nickel and lithium from used batteries before returning them to the value chain to make new batteries.

This closed-loop system is set to expand to the car markets in the US-Mexico-Canada regions as early as 2026.

Its long-term partnership with SK tes sees the BMW Group directly involved in the practical recycling processes, allowing it to feed back valuable insights to the development departments: high-voltage batteries from BMW Group development, production and markets in Europe that are no longer fit for use are to be delivered to SK tes in what is the first step towards an effective and sustainable circular economy for batteries.

SK tes then converts the old batteries into high-quality metals that can be reintroduced to battery production. The latter process sees the batteries mechanically shredded, during which the metals are concentrated to leave a material called black mass.

The valuable materials, namely nickel, lithium and cobalt, are then recovered in a highly effective chemical process called hydrometallurgy. Among other things, these secondary raw materials will be used for the new GEN 6 drive train. Government groups like the Department of Energy are actively funding the development of mineral recovery technologies –– we recently reported on more than $20 million USD going toward funding the recycling of decommissioned wind turbines.

“Partnerships like this increase our efficiency in terms of the circular economy. In the closed-loop process, all partners mutually benefit from their experiences,” says Jörg Lederbauer, Vice President Circular Economy, Spare Parts Supply High Voltage Battery and Electric Powertrain at BMW AG. 

We interviewed Regenx on its business model. And how lucrative upcycling minerals can be as the world looks to dangerous alternatives such as deep sea mining to develop new sources of minerals like lithium which exist waiting to be pulled from existing end-of-life products.

“The promotion of circular economy is an important strategic topic for the BMW Group. The development of recyclable products, the increase of secondary materials in our components, and the closing of loops play an equally important role,” says Nadine Philipp, Vice President Sustainability Supplier Network at BMW AG. “And by the means of circular economy we are also increasing our resilience in the supply chains.”

The BMW Group follows the principles of Re:Think, Re:Duce, Re:Use, and Re:Cycle in the sense of a conservation of resources when it comes to circular economy.

From vehicle design and production to recycling and reuse: everything is geared towards ensuring BMW vehicles become a raw materials source for new cars once they reach the end of their useful life. One such example is the BMW Group’s Recycling and Dismantling Centre.

Over a period of 30 years now, the centre has developed processes and put them into practice, making key progress in parts and materials recycling.

Let’s hope a struggling Volkswagon will learn something from BMW in the face of Chinese cars flooding Europe.

::SK tes

The post BMW partners with mineral miner SK tes to recycle electric batteries appeared first on Green Prophet.

Maritime law, also known as admiralty law, is a legal field that helps to govern legal issues that may arise in the seas, oceans, or other navigable waters. A maritime lawyer plays a crucial role in handling a wide range of cases relating to shipping, navigation, ocean resources, and maritime industries. This is a specialised branch of law that is particularly useful for nationals with extensive coastlines or significant shipping industries. If you’re looking at maritime legal jobs, read through our article below to find out what a maritime lawyer really does and how to become one. 

What Does A Maritime Lawyer Do? 

Maritime lawyers handle a variety of legal issues related to shipping, offshore activities, and marine resources. Some of their main roles include: 

1. Advising on shipping contracts and regulations

This is a vital part of the shipping industry as all forms of global trade rely on creating contracts between the shipmaster and the company looking to transport their goods. A maritime lawyer’s role is to advise businesses and individuals on the many different laws and regulations related to shipping and marine trade. These laws help to govern everything from the movement of goods across seas to environmental standards. Maritime lawyers will typically help to draft and review shipping contracts, ensuring that they comply with the vast array of international and domestic regulations. 

2. Resolving disputes that arise

Maritime disputes are common in commercial shipping, fishing, and offshore operations. Some disputes include cargo claims, ship damage, collisions, and even pollution incidents. Maritime lawyers may take on shipowners, insurance companies, or injured seamen in cases that involve a dispute and can carry out different roles, including litigation, arbitration, or mediation. 

3. Assisting in personal injury and worker claims

It is well-known that safety is a concern in the shipping industry, and that means that maritime lawyers are often involved in personal injury cases arising from the maritime industry. For example, injuries that might happen on ships, oil rigs, and even on docks would all be the responsibility of a maritime lawyer, should they need one. Seafarers, longshore workers, and offshore oil rig personnel may face hazardous working conditions, and a lawyer’s role is to ensure that they receive appropriate compensation under laws such as the Seafarers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act. 

4. Dealing with environmental regulations

The shipping industry is dealing with a growing focus on environmental conservation, and maritime lawyers have to become well-versed in dealing with cases that may involve pollution and environmental damage. Regulations in this area are changing rapidly meaning lawyers must remain up to date with changing laws and requirements to help protect oceans and marine ecosystems. Some cases that may come up in this line of work include oil spills, illegal dumping, and breaching environmental protection laws. 

How To Become A Maritime Lawyer

If you’re interested in becoming a maritime lawyer, you’ll need to follow a specific educational and professional path. 

Firstly, you’ll need to get your law degree and complete practical legal training to apply the theoretical knowledge you have gained. Once you’ve gained admission as a lawyer to practice law, you can start to specialise in maritime law – i.e., working specifically law firms, shipping companies, or government agencies that specialise in this area. You can also consider pursuing postgraduate studies or joining professional organisations that can help you with your specialisation. 

Conclusion 

Becoming a maritime lawyer requires a sincere amount of dedication and a keen understanding of both national and international laws. With the ability to advise on highly complex shipping regulations, help resolve disputes, and protect the environment, maritime law is a difficult but highly rewarding career path for those interested in a legal profession. 

The post How To Become A Maritime Lawyer & What Do They Do? appeared first on Green Prophet.

During the first week of March, Africa’s development finance leaders convened in Zimbabwe for the UNECA-hosted COM2024 summit amid a wavering continental growth agenda. Recognising that many SDG and African Union Agenda 2063 targets remain far out of reach, participants focused discussions on overhauling the global financial architecture to help generate the massive funding Africa needs to accelerate inclusive, sustainable growth.

According to World Bank Institute economist Hippolyte Fofack, the Bretton Woods system, comprised of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, has largely failed to help Africa unlock its significant economic potential. Fofack notably highlights how decades of underinvestment in the continent’s human capital have undercut the entrepreneurship, technical skills and infrastructure required to attract investment in high-value regional industries fueled by its natural resource wealth. 

With African leaders providing a promising economic vision, the mining industry is set to play a foundational role in the continent’s industrial transformation, as leading firms accelerate the socioeconomic and environmental innovations positioning Africa to take a new path in the 21st century.

Evolution of human-first mining 

As KPMG’s recently-published Mining Risk Forecast 2024 underlines, ESG considerations have risen to the top of the industry’s agenda in recent years, with tackling climate change, safeguarding biodiversity and cultivating strong community relations no longer “nice-to-haves” but core operational priorities for companies on the cutting-edge. 

The ‘S’ in ESG even has a specific term in the mining industry – ‘social license to operate,’ a measure of a project’s acceptance by local communities that has increasingly come to define what “good mining” looks like over the past two decades according to Africa-focused risk analyst Vincent Rouget. Chinese mining company CMOC is among the industry leaders that has fully embraced African governments’ rising expectations to ensure that the extraction of critical ‘green transition’ minerals generates local socioeconomic value.

As the world’s  largest cobalt producer, CMOC mobilises its considerable presence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to not only provide jobs and training for local residents but  empower them with the wider range of resources they need to thrive. In 2023, CMOC spent a total of $42.08 million in community projects. At its Tenke Fungurume Mine (TFM), CMOC is investing over $30 million in its communities over the coming years, with project areas including economic development, public health and infrastructure.

In addition to the ongoing construction of 9 local primary schools and a host of other social initiatives, TFM has funded a nearly-completed electrification project that will help provide local communities the significant energy resources needed to realise the DRC Government’s plans to manufacture EV batteries with locally-sourced cobalt, which CMOC has committed to supporting to promote industrial development. Paired with its membership in the Fair Cobalt Alliance, CMOC will help embed supply chain safety, human rights and sustainability as the pillars of this economic transition. 

Sustainability at heart of mining innovation 

Given the need to reconcile industrial development, climate and biodiversity imperatives, incorporating sustainability in the mining industry has never been more vital. As mining consultant Jaime González has aptly noted, this accelerating societal evolution has inspired the industry to adopt both ‘Green Mining’ decarbonisation and ecological-value creating ‘Sustainable Mining’ innovations.

South African giant Impala Platinum has established a strong position in this space, joining the growing group of miners capitalising on the continent’s abundant renewable energy potential. As part of its ambitious decarbonisation strategy, Impala Platinum recently announced plans to build a 100 MW solar plant to power its massive Rustenburg mine with clean electricity, complementing substantial carbon emissions savings from its range of energy-efficiency measures.

To mitigate its ground disruption and waste generation, Impala Platinum has delivered an increasingly ambitious project to ‘re-mine’ waste rock at Rustenburg, enabling the firm to recover millions of tonnes, notably in partnership with a local reclamation company created with the surrounding Luka community that has created good-quality jobs for residents. What’s more, this initiative has spurred a land rehabilitation process unlocking some 200 hectares of healthy land for the community.

Beyond merely reversing its operations’ land disturbance, Impala Platinum’s proactive commitment to biodiversity has seen it place these considerations at the heart of its planning and decision-making, from strict internal environmental authorisation processes to site-specific biodiversity management plans. On the ground, its projects include the conservation of key bird species and tackling invasive species at its Rustenburg site.

Building on mining foundation

In addition to meeting vital local and global needs, the African mining industry’s ongoing transformation is equally set to help attract crucial foreign investment in its downstream manufacturing sectors, which in turn will lay the foundation for enhanced regional economic integration and accelerated sustainable development progress.

As Hippolyte Fofack has recently written, this rise in capital “financing would accelerate…the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the regulatory initiative to eliminate intra-African trade barriers and fuel strong regional economies. At COM24, African leaders notably discussed a new UNECA report revealing the continent’s concerningly-weak regional integration progress, with the fact that African countries continue trading more with the other parts of the world than among themselves highlighted as a significant development obstacle. 

Regarding the AfCFTA, whose full realization would assemble 55 AU countries and represent a combined GDP of over $3 trillion, the UNECA report has highlighted a series of roadblocks, from slow progress in ratifying key protocols on free movement and good governance to the rising wave of military coups and a massive infrastructure funding gap – most problematically for the energy and transport infrastructure needed to underpin robust regional supply chains.

By combining expanded regional regulatory harmonisation and railways with ESG-driven mining, Africa would be able to ramp up the industrial transformation of its natural resources into lucrative products in high demand on the international market. In effect, this development would spark a virtuous cycle helping countries attract foreign private and multilateral investment –  particularly if paired with the Bretton Woods reform that COM24 participants recently advocated for to transform Africa’s economic future. 

The post Africa’s emerging economic vision calls for ESG innovations of transformed mining industry appeared first on Green Prophet.

“A lot of people think the use of lithium-ion batteries is a good thing right now, but it is important to explore the effects that may be coming down the road.”

From cell phones to watches to electric cars, lithium-ion rechargeable batteries power a plethora of devices. The increased use of this technology means more lithium could find its way into the environment as consumers discard electronic products. Now, researchers describe how lithium can accumulate in a common Southern crustacean: the crawfish. As the season for catching and eating mudbugs comes into full swing, the researchers’ findings highlight the potential implications for public health and the environment.

The researchers will present their results today at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society.

“As aquatic organisms, crawfish can take up large amounts of lithium dissolved in water. Because other creatures — including people — eat crawfish, looking at them allows us to see how lithium moves through the food chain, and potentially into us,” says Joseph Kazery, a professor of biology.

Two undergraduate students in Kazery’s lab at Mississippi College, Andrew Doubert and Javian Ervin, are presenting results of their experiments on uptake of ionic lithium by different crawfish organs, as well as the impact of seasonal temperatures. “If crawfish are raised near a landfill or a polluted site, runoff could expose them to lithium, with effects we don’t yet fully understand,” Ervin says. “I myself eat crawfish, so this issue is important to me.”

Lithium contamination is not new. Even before lithium-ion batteries became widespread, lithium was, and still is, used as a medication to treat mood disorders. It enters the water supply in those applications because typical wastewater treatment does not remove drug contaminants. At high levels, lithium can have toxic effects on human health, including potentially damaging heart muscle cells, as well as causing confusion and speech impairment. In other animals, it can cause kidney damage and hypothyroidism. Studies have also shown that when lithium accumulates in plants, it can inhibit their growth, Kazery says.

Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends discarding lithium-ion batteries at dedicated collection points, Kazery says they often end up in landfills. Soaring demand along with lax disposal practices suggests lithium is on the verge of becoming a significant environmental contaminant, he says.

Read Also: The Serbs revolt against Rio Tinto and lithium mining

As fully aquatic organisms that spend their lives within a relatively small area, crawfish (Procambarus clarkii) reflect local lithium contamination and could serve as powerful bioindicators of its presence in an environment. The lithium they contain could be passed through the food chain to predators, including humans, either directly or indirectly through crawfish-eating fish that people consume.

For its experiments, the team purchased crawfish bred for research. Knowing that the liver collects toxins from the human body for subsequent removal, Doubert wondered whether lithium would accumulate in the crawfish version of this organ: the hepatopancreas. To find out, he added ionic lithium to food for five crawfish, while giving another five lithium-free food. He then examined the amount of lithium present in four of their organs after one week. He found, on average, the most lithium in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, followed by the gills, the hepatopancreas and, finally, the abdominal muscle in the tail.

The researchers think the GI tract likely contained the highest level because the lithium-spiked food remains there during digestion. Meanwhile, the gills and the hepatopancreas both pick it up while removing it from the body. People predominantly eat the tail, which appears to take up lithium, but not as readily as the other body parts studied.

Doubert also found that 27.5% of the lithium he fed them had passed from the animals’ GI tracts into other tissues. Animals further up the food chain can accumulate higher levels of toxic substances if they eat contaminated prey, so lithium will likely become more concentrated in the predators of crawfish. The researchers expect the high rate of absorption Doubert saw to exacerbate this accumulation in both humans and the other animals that eat crawfish.

Water temperature that crawfish inhabit varies significantly throughout the year. Those shifts affect the animals’ metabolism, even causing them to become inactive during winter. Knowing this, Ervin decided to look at the effects of temperature on lithium uptake. He placed crawfish in tanks kept at temperatures as low as 50 degrees Fahrenheit and as high as 90 degrees Fahrenheit and added a consistent concentration of ionic lithium to the water. After five days, he found that lithium uptake by the abdominal muscle and a part of the crawfish that Doubert did not study — the animals’ exoskeleton — increased in the warmest tank. These results suggest that the animals may contain the most lithium during the warm months, according to Ervin.

The crawfishes’ weight also decreased in warmer water. At this point, it’s not clear how or whether the crawfishes’ weight loss was connected to the lithium they accumulated, Ervin says, noting that the team plans to follow up on these results.

“A lot of people think the use of lithium-ion batteries is a good thing right now, but it is important to explore the effects that may be coming down the road,” Doubert says.

The post Electric battery materials, like lithium, entering our food chain appeared first on Green Prophet.

After weeks of intense debates at the International Seabed Authority (ISA) meeting in Jamaica this summer, deep seabed mining will not be allowed. The ISA, an international organization responsible for overseeing and regulating mineral resource activities in the seabed and ocean floor, focuses on protecting the marine environment from harmful impacts related to deep-seabed activities. 

On July 28, 2023, the ISA announced the reinstatement of a moratorium on deep-sea mining. The proposal to discuss the protection of the marine environment and the future of deep-sea mining, initially blocked, will be on the agenda for the upcoming Assembly in 2024 thanks to champion countries’ efforts.

The ocean is already under significant stress from various factors, and deep-sea mining could exacerbate the situation. A temporary halt, or in the ISA’s terms, moratorium, is considered the best option until there is sufficient scientific evidence to protect the marine environment adequately. A number of companies have started mining for precious metals and minerals and policies need to be developed before the sea floor is ripped apart.

The deep-sea mining industry is being questioned as unnecessary for the green transition, and alternative measures like technology choices, recycling, and circular economy practices are suggested to reduce mineral demand. Transitioning to a circular economy is vital to effectively address biodiversity and climate crises.

A total of 21 countries have joined the call for a ban, precautionary pause, or moratorium on deep seabed mining, with Canada, Brazil, Finland, and Portugal making announcements during the ISA meetings. Additionally, companies representing 32% of the global tuna industry expressed concerns, 37 financial institutions managing over 3.3 trillion euros in assets highlighted the need for understanding potential risks, and the UN Commissioner on Human Rights advised against deep-sea mining.

Throughout the week, China, in favor of deep sea mining, had opposed the motion for discussion but eventually consented to include it in the agenda for 2024.

Supporters of deep-sea mining argue that it is necessary to fulfil the growing demand for metals like cobalt and nickel, which are crucial for producing batteries used in electric cars and the the shift towards green energy from fossil fuels. Companies like Regenx from Canada show that we can do a better job of recycling and re-using what we already have in the system. Another Canadian company, started the whole deep sea mining controversy. The Canadian company The Metals Company partnered with a tiny nation of Naura in Micronesia to trigger a loophole.

Canada is undoubtedly a mining nation and we need to hope that Canada will set the global environmental standard on protecting its Arctic borders and Pacific and Atlantic coasts when it comes to deep sea mining.

According to the Mining Association of Canada, which represents mines and their assets mining industry continues to be a critically important part of Canada’s economy, and contributed $125 billion to the GDP in 2021, 5% of the total. Mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction made up 7.9% of Canada’s $2 trillion gross domestic product.

The debate made clear that governments, financial institutions, scientists, and communities are uniting in opposition to deep seabed mining and are creating progress.

However, the potential danger of unregulated deep-sea mining persists, and the complete extent of its impact, if allowed to proceed, remains uncertain.

The post Deep sea mining and killing the seas so you can drive an electric car appeared first on Green Prophet.

Electric cars are probably for the greater good, especially if they are powered up with renewable energy. But fewer emissions on our city streets, certainly helps with bringing down high rates of lung cancer and bringing problems in cities. 

But as always the case, lithium batteries that are good for your Tesla in Oakland or Montreal might be terrible in someone else’s backyard. As we speak the Serbians are heavily fighting against lithium mining by Rio Tinto, and are calling out the government for its corruption.

According to The Guardian, which I consider to be the greatest environmental newspaper on the planet, Rio Tinto and the Serb government started its advertising campaign using clean tech as the greater good on national TV, announcing:

“Green technologies, electric cars, clean air – all of these depend on one of the most significant lithium deposits in the world, which is located right here in Jadar, Serbia.

“We completely understand your concerns about the environment. Rio Tinto is carrying out detailed analyses, so as to make all of us sure that we develop the Jadar project in line with the highest environmental, security and health standards.”

In July, Rio Tinto announced that it would invest $2.4bn in a project in the Jadar valley, in western Serbia, overlooked by the Cer and Gučevo mountains, building what it says will be Europe’s biggest lithium mine, and one of the world’s largest on a greenfield site. The site will also over 40 years produce boric acid and raw materials for solar panels.

“Such mines are mostly opened in deserts precisely because of the detrimental effect on the environment and biodiversity,” said Prof Dragana Đorđević, head of environmental chemistry and engineering at the University of Belgrade told The Guardian: “The basins of the Drina and Sava rivers, from which about 2.5 million people are supplied with water, are endangered.”

“Woke” Serbs aren’t buying the propaganda. One critic told the Guardian that Rio Tinto could be seen as “a poster child for corporate malfeasance.”

They fear displacement, toxic pollution and loss of land and biodiversity.

So we are in a bit of a pickle. On one had we want renewable energy and electric cars but these “things” require raw materials. But is a company that provides products and parts we need, despite not being able to save the planet too, a demon? Not long ago we interviewed Rio Tinto for their aluminium supply chain progress – on the blockchain. We know that corporates can do better, want to do better, but how and at what risk to communities and ecosystems?

Or perhaps all mines should just move to Africa where the people are not organized enough, or safe enough to rise up against authorities? Or to Canada? 

We received a dispatch from Jun, a Serbian eco activism group. They write:

“Of the myriad of environmental problems in Serbia, we are most concerned with the proposed Rio Tinto-operated Jadar lithium mine. Rio Tinto executives told EU officials that the development of the mine will begin after the March 2022 elections in Serbia. This amounts to strategic manipulation of Serbia’s democratic process by foreign corporations and governments,” they write.

“As the regional implementation leader of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda in the Western Balkans, 28. Jun is obliged to communicate on the deteriorating ecological situation and its potential for humanitarian crisis.

“We will use our Special Consultative Status with the United Nations to enlist, organize and shape public support of necessary policy changes to benefit the people of Serbia.

“Our report will be submitted to the United Nations, the Serbian Ministry of Environmental Protection and made public before the March 2022 elections. In addition to the communiqué, 28. Jun will make contributions in support of environmental projects to both municipal governments and civil society organizations in Serbia.

“Our foray into the battle to protect our land, air and water begins immediately.”

We’d be happy if anyone from Rio Tinto would like to comment and we will publish it here. I suspect jobs of the future aren’t in blockchain. They are in renewable mining for resources. Get learning your green MBAs people, and start here:

::Jun

::Rio Tinto Serbia

The post Electric cars and lithium for batteries? Serbs revolt against Rio Tinto appeared first on Green Prophet.

Michael Moore’s explosive documentary, Planet of the Humans, full documentary can be seen below, shows how the renewable energy business can never be sustainable. Part of the reason is really about raw materials and where we source them from, like graphite. Lithium ion batteries in electric cars for instance are so energy intensive and have travelled thousands of miles before the owner drives it one, and the reason is because of where we source raw materials.

The production of rare earth metals is a global $4 billion annual market that continues to grow as renewables, solar panels, wind turbines, new electronics, computerized engines for aircraft, warships, electric automobiles, magnets and other critical products are developed that need rare earth metals to perform. The value of the products that require rare earth metals to function is valued at more than $4 trillion per year.

The current challenge is that just one country, China, owns the market on extracting and purifying this critical resource despite the fact that other global countries, including the US, are rich in such metals. The detrimental environmental impact of current acid based separation and purification of rare earth metals prohibits most companies across the globe from entering the market.

New environmentally friendly technologies promise to be “game changers” in this field and enable the US to create a more stable and reliable domestic source of these essential metals. Purdue University-patented extraction and purifying processes using ligand-assisted chromatography are shown to remove and purify such metals from coal ash, recycled magnets and raw ore safely, efficiently and with virtually no detrimental environmental impact.

“It’s a supply chain challenge with wide implications on the US economy and national security. We have a critically needed product and one dominant source for this product. This new patented process promises to enable US independence from the China near monopoly,” said Dan Hasler, founder of Hasler Ventures. “This technology has been researched and developed at Purdue University for more than a decade and has proven to be versatile and robust.”

Hasler Ventures has secured rights from the Purdue Research Foundation that grant the company first rights to commercialize the technology’s intellectual property.

The technology – developed and patented from the laboratory of Nien-Hwa Linda Wang, Purdue’s Maxine Spencer Nichols Professor of Chemical Engineering – has successfully shown to separate the rare earth metals without the devastating environmental effects of conventional acid based methods with high yield and purity.

“About 60% of rare earth metals are used in magnets that are needed in almost everyone’s daily lives. These metals are used in electronics, airplanes, hybrid cars and even windmills,” Wang said. “We currently have one dominant foreign source for these metals and if the supply were to be limited for any reason, it would be devastating to people’s lives. It’s not that the resource isn’t available in the US, but that we need a better, cleaner way to process these rare earth metals.”

According to Wang, after China reduced the export quotas for rare earth metals in 2010, the costs of rare earth magnets for one wind turbine increased from $80,000 to $500,000. After China relaxed the export restrictions 18 months later, the prices returned to lower levels than in 2010.

“Conventional methods for producing high-purity rare earth elements employ two-phase liquid–liquid extraction methods, which require thousands of mixer-settler units in series or in parallel and generate large amounts of toxic waste,” Wang said. “We use a two-zone ligand-assisted displacement chromatography system with a new zone-splitting method that is producing high-purity (>99%) metals with high yields (>99%).”

Wang’s ligand assisted method has the potential for efficient and environmentally friendly purification of the rare earth metals from all sources of recyclates, such as waste magnets and ore-based sources and helps transform rare earth processing to a circular, sustainable process.

“We continue to work diligently in the lab to learn how to adapt the ligand-assisted system to many variations we see in source material and are excited to collaborate with and assess the suitability of potential partners source material be it recycled magnets and batteries, coal ash or domestically mined ore.

Joe Pekny, a Purdue professor of chemical engineering said Wang’s innovation enables the U.S. to reenter the rare earth metals market in a significant way and sustainable way. “Linda’s method replaces a very inefficient process and replaces it with an earth-friendly, safe extraction process,” he says.

The post Planet of the Humans: there is also earth-friendly, local mining appeared first on Green Prophet.

The global climate crisis, mainly generated by the biggest fossil fuel corporations in the world, is seriously aggravating the already extensive and heavy set of human rights violations caused by this same industry, warns a report released this Friday, February 7th, by 350.org. The whole report can be found here (links to PDF) and offers great research for anyone researching how fossil fuels and coal extraction, like in the case of Turkey, harms human rights. 

The post Turkish locals displaced coal, new report by 350.org appeared first on Green Prophet.

Commodities, or how most people would like to call them “goods” have been around forever. They are things that drive consumption and manufacturing all over the world. They can be in their raw form, which is very easily usable by the consumer, or could require refinement for better use as a product later on.

But understanding what commodities are isn’t what this article is about. It’s about understanding what sustainable commodities are, how people use them, why they use them and how they are becoming the most sought-after assets in modern times.

Simplifying commodities

In order to tackle sustainable commodities on a level that is very easy to understand we have to first see the difference between commodities and goods. The bottom line is that there is pretty much no difference besides the name, but who uses those names is very important.

You see, the word commodities are usually used in a speculative term, while goods are used in a more consumer term.

Commodities are things that are traded, bought and sold, invested in and etc. While goods are something found on the shelves of the supermarket and other stores. The only difference between these two words is the people that use them.

And today, we focus on those that use the word “commodity”.

Shifting trends

Although the idea of an investor is an older man trying desperately to generate a profit from his gold or oil investment, modern times have helped us tone down those perceptions.

You see, the modern investor isn’t a huge oil magnate anymore. It could be a person living in a very small apartment, trying to make ends meet and finish school. The digitalization of financial markets has helped us broaden the investor spectrum.

Because of this, environmental activists, green earth supporters and various others have managed to enter the market. Where in the past these people were mostly alienated from the markets due to serious financial disparities, nowadays they are able to make a real impact on the matter.

And due to such a large influx of investors like these, we start to see the shift towards sustainable commodities more than things like oil, coal, charcoal and etc.

What are sustainable commodities?

Almost everything can be a sustainable commodity, as long as the production process falls within a few ramifications.

1. It does not damage the environment

2. It has the potential to be infinite

3. Production ethics are preserved

Nowadays there are only a few commodities that fall under these requirements. They are:

• Coffee
• Cocoa
• Coconut
• Palm Oil
• Rubber
• Spices
• Timber

As long as the companies producing these goods follow the third rule of the list above, they have the possibility to be branded sustainable commodities well into the future.

Why are they becoming more popular?

The increasing popularity of sustainable commodities can be associated with the changing mentality of the investors themselves.

When in the past most people only cared about profit, now investors are moving towards generating profits while not destroying the world as we know it.

Massive shifts from large financial markets such as stocks, currencies and even commodities have been seen towards a more sustainable sector.

People that use Forex demo accounts to start generating immeasurable profits from currencies used to damage the environment, now trade on eco-friendly platforms targeting commodities that bring no harm to the nature around them.

Why such a strategy?

The world runs on profit. We have to face this in order to identify the issue. Although there is no issue running on profit, there’s an issue with how it’s being done. Right now, the most profitable commodities to invest in are things like oil, natural gas, coal and etc. All of these products are the worst things to use in an already damaged climate.

Therefore, by switching the attention to sustainable commodities, the market would be able to focus most of its capital on them, thus derive the value from eco-unfriendly commodities to eco-friendly ones.

Naturally, it’s a years-long process, but it doesn’t mean that it is impossible.

Is it still possible?

Considering all of the news of new innovative companies switching to sustainable energy, more eco-friendly manufacturing doctrines and the overall abandonment of oil and natural gas coming in the future it’s likely that the market will indeed start switching to sustainable commodities.

Once we run out of oil and dig enough coal, it will be up to the commodities that can be infinitely produced to drive the speculation aspect of the financial markets.

In fact, the process has already begun with new plant-based products seen in the Western world and the Sustainable Commodity Initiative signed in 2003 and expanded over the last couple of years.

Potential issues

The only potential issue that has been identified for sustainable commodities is that there might not be enough resources to support the entire demand. What this means is that eradicating non-sustainable methods of producing commodities is currently impossible.

There are also issues of increasing prices on these goods due to increased spending on eco-friendly production and mining.

Furthermore, considering that most energy sources will be moving towards electricity, additional methods of creating this electricity without the use of damaging materials need to be discovered as well, not to mention funding.

The post Sustainable commodities | A new trend in global finance appeared first on Green Prophet.

Cyanide – a highly-toxic chemical compound – is being used by mining companies in the extraction of gold from the soil. While the compound is safe for humans wearing protective coverings, the same cannot be said for the environment that absorbs traces of the chemical that are left in the process of extraction. The hazardous nature of the mining business is the reason why the industry is being heavily criticized by environmentalists all over the world.

The face of the mining industry, however, might change with the groundbreaking discovery of some scientists from the Northwestern University.

Sir Fraser Stoddart, a professor of chemistry, and his team were able to discover a non-toxic method to isolate gold from the soil with the help of a common baking ingredient: cornstarch.

“The elimination of cyanide from the gold industry is of the utmost importance environmentally,” said Stoddart. “We have replaced nasty reagents with a cheap, biologically friendly-material derived from starch.”

The new material made with cornstarch was discovered purely by accident. Stoddart’s team originally intended to create a three-dimensional structure that can be used for storing gases and molecules.

The mining industry is facing a lot of challenges today. Apart from the pressure given by environmental activists, mining companies are now facing a “drought” due to the fact that most of the easy-to-mine gold has already been extracted from the Earth.

Bullionvault mentions that gold outputs from some of the biggest mines in North America, South Africa, and Zimbabwe have fallen to very low levels.

Stoddart and his team’s findings were documented in the online journal of Nature Communications.

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