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SK Innovation to build EV batteries in US?

South Korean energy and chemical company SK Innovation (SKI) is reportedly considering building an electric vehicle battery plant in the US, but is staying tight-lipped on details.

The announcement follows President Donald Trump’s order of a ‘Section 232’ investigation that could lead to the US slapping a 25% import tariff on automobile parts brought into the US.

SK Innovation

ev battery

LG Chem

Hyundai

daimler

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Donald Trump

Axion Power files for bankruptcy as China deal hope fails

Lead-carbon battery maker Axion Power International has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the US.

The chairman and CEO of the Pennsylvania-based firm, Richard Bogan (pictured), said the decision had been taken after pursuing “unsuccessful endeavours”— and failing to clinch a deal with one China's largest lead-acid battery manufacturers, Fengfan Co.

Axion Power International

US backs studies of ‘breakthrough electrolytes’

Energy chiefs in the US are backing the launch of an ‘Energy Frontier Research Center’ (EFRC) as part of research into “breakthrough electrolytes for energy storage”.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded $10.75 million to set up the EFRC at Case Western Reserve University.

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Energy Frontier Research Center

‘Irrational Trump will hurt US’ with battery tariffs plan— China

Lead-acid batteries and lithium raw materials have been dragged into the now highly-charged trade tariffs bust-up between the US and China.

President Donald Trump has ordered that “lead-acid batteries of any kind” be included in a new list of $200 billion worth of Chinese imports subject to tariffs of 10%.

US training boost for next lead-acid generation

A pioneering programme to nurture tomorrow’s generation of professionals for the expanding US lead-acid sector is under way in Missouri backed by lead recycling firm Doe Run.

St Louis-based Doe Run has already stepped up hiring in 2017 and 2018 for its mining and lead battery recycling operations.

US lab team ‘develops new compound for redox flow batteries’

Research published by scientists in the US indicates an organic molecule used in dyes and antibiotics “may be the key to less expensive, more efficient redox flow batteries”.

The scientists at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) team have developed a “highly reversible, water soluble material based on phenazine”— that could serve as an alternative to vanadium used in grid-scale batteries.

Crash probes in US, Europe, highlight lithium fires

Lithium-ion batteries continue to be in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons— the latest being fatal crashes and fires in the US and Europe.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has confirmed it is investigating a crash involving a 2014 Tesla Model S in Florida, which was “reportedly traveling at a high rate of speed when it struck a wall resulting in a post-crash fire”.

lithium-ion batteries

Temperature ‘heals lithium dendrites’— study

Researchers in the US say they have developed a new technique using heat to “enable lithium-metal self-healing” to eliminate the dendrite build-up in battery anodes.

The team at New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute claim to have discovered a way to use internal battery heat “to diffuse the dendrites into a smooth layer”.

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research

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

US-Korea LIB recycling joint venture launch

A new US-Korean joint venture has announced plans to launch a major lithium-ion batteries recycling operation in the US.

Metallica Commodities Corp (MCC) and SungEel HiTech said the new company, SungEel MCC Americas (SMA), will “redefine” the lithium-ion battery, e-waste recycling, energy and metals markets in North America— “where consumption of cobalt and lithium has outpaced supply in recent years”.

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south korea

recycling

lithium-ion batteries

SungEel MCC Americas

SungEel HiTech

Metallica Commodities Corp

Lithium creep into forklifts grows

The growing impact of lithium-ion power in the traditional lead acid traction market could be seen last week at Modex in Atlanta— a major US supply chain trade fair.

Exide, one of the USA’s big four and predominantly lead-acid makes, launched a lithium-ion battery aimed the forklift and autonomous guided vehicle market while Navitas announced a lithium-ion deal with Hyster— one of the largest global players in materials handling equipment.