Artificial intelligence meets materials science (US)

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Texas A&M researchers work on coding an algorithm. (Credit Photo@Dharmesh Pate)

A Texas A&M University College of Engineering research team is harnessing the power of machine learning, data science and the domain knowledge of experts to autonomously discover new materials. The team developed and demonstrated an autonomous and efficient framework capable of optimally exploring a materials design space (the materials design space is an abstraction of the concrete world. It is the space of all the possible materials under study, characterized by fundamental material features). An autonomous system — or artificial intelligence (AI) agent — is defined as any system capable of building an internal representation, or model, of the problem of interest, and that then uses the model to make decisions and take actions independent of human involvement. The authors of this interdisciplinary Continue reading→

Posco hires ex-Daelim CEO for future growth (US)

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Steel giant Posco has hired former the CEO of Daelim Industrial to seek the company’s future growth, it said Thursday in a statement. Oh Gyu-seok, former president of the local builder, will take charge of the newly established future growth division assigned to pave the way for the 50-year-old steelmaker struggling to find alternatives amid declining market demand for metal. Oh is the first outsider to take the Continue reading→

Le nouveau PDG d’ArcelorMittal Méditerranée relaie l’appel de son groupe: “La sidérurgie doit être soutenue” (FR)

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Bruno Ribo a pris ses fonctions à la tête du site ArcelorMittal de Fos. Il arrive de l’usine de Galati en Roumanie.(Credit Photo@ FRÉDÉRIC SPEICH)

Après un parcours complet au sein du groupe ArcelorMittal depuis 1989, Bruno Ribo vient de prendre ses fonctions à la tête d’ArcelorMittal Méditerranée à Fos. Ingénieur de formation, il quitte la direction de l’usine de Galati en Roumanie, couplée à celle de Skopje (Macédoine) dont le groupe a dû se séparer, à la demande de la Commission européenne, pour pouvoir intégrer le site d’Ilva, en Italie.

Où en est-on de l’intégration d’Ilva ? Que peut en attendre Fos ?
Bruno Ribo : La cession n’est pas encore finalisée, elle doit se faire dans le courant du premier trimestre et doit être approuvée par la Commission européenne. Le site d’Ilva a un aval plus complet que Fos. ArcelorMittal n’était pas présent de façon significative jusque-là en Italie exceptée à travers son usine de Piombino spécialisée dans le finishing. Fos a une place importante dans la production de “produitsContinue reading→

BASF’s proposed new cathode recipe would include 70% manganese, 20% nickel and no more than 5% cobalt (US)

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In yet another lithium-ion battery shake-up, the common nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) cathode formula is about to undergo another rejig after the world’s largest chemical company BASF said it was looking to reduce both the nickel and cobalt content in the cathode, while upping the manganese element. The NMC-based lithium-ion battery is commonly used in electric vehicles and BASF expects altering the battery recipe to including more manganese will slash battery costs – making electric vehicles (EVs) cheaper. Under BASF’s proposed new move, it will start Continue reading→

US Advanced Battery Consortium funds extension of lithium-ion battery recycling process (US)

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Yan Wang, William Smith Foundation Dean’s Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), with a sample of the cathode materials he is able to produce with his process for recycling lithium-ion batteries. The focus of his work with USABC is electric and hybrid vehicle batteries, like the ones in front of him on the lab table.

Developed at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the patented process can recycle the most widely used power source for and electric and hybrid vehicles and use the recovered materials to produce nickel-rich cathodes for commercial-grade automotive batteries.

Worcester, Mass. – With a $1.08 million contract award from the United States Advanced Battery Consortium LLC (USABC), a collaborative organization of FCA US LLC, Ford Motor Company, and General Motors, a materials engineering research team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) will extend development of its novel process toContinue reading→

Melrose weighs options after ‘low-ball’ bids for GKN Powder Metallurgy unit (US)

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The industrialists who bought GKN, the British engineering group, in a controversial £8bn deal this year are weighing options for one of its key divisions after receiving a string of “low-ball” takeover offers.  Sky News has learnt that executives at Melrose are deciding whether to press on with an immediate auction of GKN Powder Metallurgy following initial bids last week valuing the business at about £1.6bn. That figure was well belowContinue reading→

Australia discovers lower cost process to produce hydrogen based on cobalt-nickel (US)

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QUT Professor Anthony O’Mullane, Ummul Sultana and their colleagues have discovered cheaper and more efficient materials for producing hydrogen for the storage of renewable energy that could replace current water-splitting catalysts.

QUT Professor Anthony O’Mullane and PhD student Ummul Sultana have demonstrated the efficiency of a cobalt-nickel-gold system for electrochemical production of hydrogen, which could replace expensive, currently used materials. The International Energy Agency estimates the global market for hydrogen will reach US$155 billion by 2022. Australia, with its technically skilled workforce in the energy sector and extensive renewable-energy resources, is well placed to take advantage of such a boom, and simultaneously reduce its own carbon emissions in two major Continue reading→

Germany secures access to vast lithium deposit in Bolivia (US)

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Germany and Bolivia y sealed a partnership for the industrial use of lithium, a key raw material for battery cell production, in an important step to become less dependent on Asian market leaders in the dawning age of electric cars.

Interest in battery metals such as cobalt, nickel and lithium is soaring as the auto industry scrambles to build more electric cars and cut noxious fumes from vehicles powered by fossil fuels in light of stricter emission rules. “Germany should become a leading location for battery cell production. A large part of production costs is linked to raw materials,” German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said. “German industry is therefore well advised to secure its needs for lithium early in order to avoid falling behind and slipping into dependency,” Altmaier said, adding the deal was “an important building block” to secure this supply. With the joint venture, Bolivian state company YLB is teaming up with Germany’s privately-owned ACI Systems to develop its massive Uyuni salt flat and build a lithiumContinue reading→

L’Algérie mise sur la mine de Ghar Djebilet pour augmenter la production d’acier (FR)

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L’Algérie a déjà entamé l’étude sur la possibilité d’exploiter la mine de Ghar Djebilet afin d’accompagner le développement de la dynamique de production de l’acier dans le pays. L’objectif est de parvenir à un volume de 16 millions de tonnes de fer et d’acier par année à l’horizon 2030, destinées à couvrir la demande intérieure et à l’exportation.

L’Algérie compte renforcer sa production d’acier et étudie la possibilité d’exploiter la mine de Ghar Djbilet, située dans le nord-ouest du pays. L’information a été donnée ce samedi 24 novembre par le ministre de l’Industrie et des Mines, Youcef Youssoufi, en marge de la cérémonie d’inauguration de la troisième phase d’investissement du complexe d’acier de la compagnie turque «Tosyali».

«Nos capacités productives actuelles estimées à 5 millions de tonnes/an de fer et d’acier atteindront 12 millions de tonnes dans 4 à 5 années et 16 millions à l’horizon 2030, ce qui nécessite de fournir 20 millions à 25 millions de tonnes/an», a déclaré le ministre de l’Industrie et des mines, rapporté par l’Agence algérienne APS.

L’Algérie considère que les productions minières des sites d’El Ouenza et de Khadra dans l’est du pays ne sont pas en mesure de satisfaire les besoins de développement des secteurs de l’aciérie et de la sidérurgie du pays. Elle a ainsiContinue reading→

China’s No.2 steelmaking hub Jiangsu escalates smog alerts, halves output (US)

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BEIJING (Reuters) – Steel mills, coke plants and coal-fired utilities in China’s second-biggest steelmaking hub Jiangsu will have to slash their production capacity as the provincial authorities have escalated smog alerts for the next three days. Air pollution is expected to worsen from Nov. 27 until Nov. 30, triggering second-level orange smog alerts in the country’s four-level system, the Department of Ecology and Environment of Jiangsu Province said in a statement. Heavy industry in Jiangsu will have to cut more of their production capacity by at least 50 percent fromContinue reading→