Hi, what are you looking for?
Decoupling From China On Clean Tech Comes With Far More Risks Than Rewards
When Is Geothermal As Bad As Coal?
Pan African Resources’ 9.9 MW Solar Plant In South Africa Saves $170K Per Month On The Gold Mine’s Electric Bill
Giant Steps & Baby Steps For Fuel Cell Trucks In The US
Virtual Power Plant Model To Expand In Utah & Idaho (With Video)
When Is Geothermal As Bad As Coal?
Biden–Harris Admin — New Actions to Expand U.S. Offshore Wind Energy
New Australia Lithium Mine For Ford, LG, & Tesla Lithium To Be Powered By Giant Off-Grid Solar, Wind, & Battery Project
President William Ruto Sworn In, Reaffirms Kenya’s Commitment To Transition To 100% Clean Energy By 2030
Build Back Better Lives Again, Now With Green Hydrogen
When Is Geothermal As Bad As Coal?
President William Ruto Sworn In, Reaffirms Kenya’s Commitment To Transition To 100% Clean Energy By 2030
New Lithium StoryMap & the Future of Electrification
Enhanced Geothermal Technology Cracks The 24/7 Energy Code
Decarbonizing Data Centers — It’s Fun!
$71,315 – Lithium Prices Reach All-time High
When Is Geothermal As Bad As Coal?
Sustainable Battery Materials? Yeah, Right — Or, Right On!
Goldman Sachs Ignites Energy Storage Gold Rush
Insurance Company Fakes Battery Fire On Tesla Model S To Highlight That EVs Can Catch Fire (Video)
NY Governor Hochul Announces Winner of 2022 New York–Israel Smart Energy Innovation Challenge
Biden–Harris Admin Launches $10.5 Billion Investment to Strengthen America’s Electric Grid
Electric Vehicles Don’t Break The Grid, And They Can Help Boost It
Stryten Energy Applauds Investments in Energy Security & U.S. Manufacturers With Passage Of Inflation Reduction Act
First V2G (Vehicle to Grid) System on Launches NYC Grid
Switching The World To Renewable Energy Will Cost $62 Trillion, But The Payback Would Take Just 6 Years
Understanding The High Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Act (HEEHRA)
Questions About IRA Benefits? Rewiring America Has The Answers
10 Big Cleantech Benefits in Inflation Reduction Act
A Cheap Clean RV Option Emerges
The Evolution Of The Israeli EV Market Gives Us An Example Of What’s To Come In Other Markets
$71,315 – Lithium Prices Reach All-time High
IKEA 3-Hour Delivery Service Using Electric Vans
The First Batch of BYD ATTO 3s Are Already In Israel & Ready For Delivery!
Tesla Full Self Driving Beta: Lost & Found! We Lost It After 206 Days, Got It Back Again After 79 Days
Goodbye, LEAF. Hello, Bolt EUV
Thoughts On Class Action Lawsuit Against Tesla Regarding Autopilot & Full Self-Driving Capability (“FSD”) — From A Buyer
Hyundai IONIQ 5 vs. Volvo C40 Recharge
Can Someone Explain To Me Why Tesla FSD Can’t Choose The Correct Lane?
Germany’s Plugin EVs Resume Growth, Tesla Model Y Leads
UK Auto Market Struggling But Full Electrics Still Growing
France’s Plugin EVs Back To Modest Growth, Renault Megane Favourite
Norway’s Plugin EVs Still Falling, For Reasons
Sweden Plugin EV Share At 46.1% In August
Tesla Full Self Driving Beta: Lost & Found! We Lost It After 206 Days, Got It Back Again After 79 Days
Goodbye, LEAF. Hello, Bolt EUV
Thoughts On Class Action Lawsuit Against Tesla Regarding Autopilot & Full Self-Driving Capability (“FSD”) — From A Buyer
Hyundai IONIQ 5 vs. Volvo C40 Recharge
Can Someone Explain To Me Why Tesla FSD Can’t Choose The Correct Lane?
Exploring XPeng’s Self-Driving Tech Live — 1 Hour+, No Interventions!
2022 Nissan Leaf S Plus — CleanTechnica Review (VIDEO)
Ford F-150 Lightning — CleanTechnica Review
Tesla Q4 Shareholder Conference Call — Watch & Listen Here
Volkswagen Group — In-Depth Conference Call Highlights Company’s Focus On Transition
Electric vehicle makers in the US could get an assist from halloysite to ramp up their domestic supply chains (photo courtesy of Ionic Mineral Technologies).
Electric vehicle makers in the US may struggle to qualify their customers for a federal tax credit under new rules set by the Inflation Reduction Act. Topping the list is a supply chain makeover focusing on domestic sources. That could mean a new market for halloysite, and if you don’t know what that is, we’re all about to find out.
Cheers of joy erupted from many electric vehicle fans when they learned that the new Inflation Reduction Act continues an existing federal tax credit and extends it for the next ten years, to the tune of up to $7,500 for new EVs and up to $4,000 for used EVs.
However, there is a big, fat catch. Under the new law, the full credit only applies to an electric vehicle that meets certain requirements.
Among those requirements is a clause covering the domestic source of critical materials used in electric vehicle batteries and other clean tech. That’s a problem because US automakers lean heavily on overseas supply chains for some of those materials.
The Congressional Research Service described the problem just last month, as applied to lithium-ion batteries.
“These EV battery chemistries depend on five critical minerals whose domestic supply is potentially at risk for disruption: lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel, and graphite,” CRS explained. “The U.S. Geological Survey designated these and other minerals as ‘critical,’ according to the methodology codified in the Energy Act of 2020.”
“The United States is heavily dependent on imports for these minerals for use in EV batteries and other applications. The United States currently mines some lithium, cobalt, and nickel, but it does not currently mine any manganese or graphite,” they added.
Back in 2013, the US established the Critical Materials Institute to accelerate the development of domestic supply chains of critical materials, including recycling. However, as the Congressional Research Service points out, there is still a long way to go.
The critical materials effort also focuses on alternative materials that can be developed domestically, and that’s where halloysite comes in.
Halloysite is a clay mineral. It belongs to the kaolinite group of clays, which is mainly known in the form of the fine white clay kaolin used to manufacture ceramics as well as paper and paint.
Check out this description from the US Geological Survey and see if you can tell where the fit with cleantech comes in:
“The kaolinite group includes the dioctahedral minerals kaolinite, dickite, nacrite, and halloysite, and the trioctahedral minerals antigorite, chamosite, chrysotile, and cronstedite. The primary structural unit of this group is a layer composed of one octahedral sheet condensed with one tetrahedral sheet. In the dioctahedral minerals the octahedral site are occupied by aluminum; in the trioctahedral minerals these sites are occupied by magnesium and iron.
“Kaolinite and halloysite are single-layer structures. Although dickite and nacrite have the same basic structure, the stacking sequence of layers is different in these minerals. Kaolinite, dickite, and nacrite occur as plates; halloysite, which can have a single layer of water between its sheets, occurs in a tubular form.”
If you caught those lines about a single-layer structure that occurs in a tubular form, that’s what all the excitement is about.
The connection is carbon nanotubes, a new (or newish) material that has innumerable cleantech applications.
Carbon nanotubes crossed the CleanTechnica radar back in 2014 as a next-generation solution for EV batteries, in the form of a graphene-doped film that could replace the lithium in lithium-ion batteries.
“The end result would be an EV with extra souped-up energy storage integrated into its body panels, enabling it to charge much more quickly, and travel much farther, than current technology allows,” we enthused at the time.
Perhaps we were getting ahead of ourselves in terms of the carbon angle, but the nanotube concept has taken new life in the form of halloysite.
The startup Ionic Mineral Technologies, for example, burst out of stealth mode last week with a halloysite-derived, nano-silicon material launched under the proprietary name of Ionisil.
“Halloysite’s naturally occurring nanotubular structure enables Ionic MT to employ a ‘top-down’ approach to manufacturing nano-silicon, presenting significant scalability and environmental sustainability advantages compared to competitors,” the company explains. The silicon part of the equation is a naturally occurring silicate shell.
Not hurting Ionic MT’s case is control over a cluster of halloysite deposits, which it claims to to the world’s largest single source of high-purity halloysite.
That could mean various locations around the world, but Ionic MT hints that a domestic supply for US electric vehicle makers is in hand.
“The Company launches just weeks after the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed into law. The IRA’s EV tax credits hinge on domestically produced battery minerals, a largely non-existent supply chain. Ionic MT is positioned to address this ‘Achilles heel’ of the legislation and supply U.S.-sourced battery minerals and materials,” they state.
Also, their website says Utah.
Aside from the potential for resolving the domestic electric vehicle supply chain in the US, halloysite could find its way into other cleantech fields.
One interesting development is the creation of “nanorockets” based on a mashup of halloysite, nanoparticles of silver, and a light-sensitive metal oxide nanotube material (in this case, α-Fe2O3). A research team is working that angle to engineer a new, photo-degradation based method for treating organic wastewater.
“Compared to the traditional fabrication of tubular micro-/nanomotors, this strategy has merits in employing natural clay as substrates of an asymmetric tubular structure, of abundance, and of no complex instruments required,” the research team explains.
Another developing field is bioplastics, where researchers are hunting for ways to improve durability and performance without the use of fossil-based inputs.
One avenue of bioplastic research involves nanoscale fillers. A recent article in the materials journal AZoM lists silica, wollastonite, carbon nanotubes, layered double hydroxides, metal oxides, and graphene oxide along with halloysite nanotubes.
Fans of the emerging green hydrogen economy may also want to sit up and take notice. A study published last spring in the journal Nature examined the use of halloysite in a storage medium for hydrogen.
“Halloysite nanoclay as a unique substrate shows favorable properties in terms of hydrogen adsorption using incorporating physisorption and spillover mechanisms,” the study concluded.
In an interesting twist, the storage medium also incorporates graphene quantum dots, in the form of a powder rendered from the juice of a red onion.
For those of you wanting to DIY red onion juice into graphene quantum dots at home, you’ll need a good filter and a sealed autoclave that can maintain a temperature of 180 degrees centigrade for eight hours.
Follow me on Twitter @TinaMCasey.
Photo: Halloysite nanotubes for the electric vehicle battery of the future, courtesy of Ionic Mineral Technologies (via businesswire.com).
Tina specializes in military and corporate sustainability, advanced technology, emerging materials, biofuels, and water and wastewater issues. Views expressed are her own. Follow her on Twitter @TinaMCasey and Google+.
#1 most loved electric vehicle, solar energy, and battery news & analysis site in the world. Support our work today!
Advertise with CleanTechnica to get your company in front of millions of monthly readers.
Almost all of the EV batteries Nissan has ever made are still in cars.
Good news gets even better with news that BMW's new batteries would be good for more than 600 miles of driving!
If all goes according to plan, the Ford pilot test could open the door to a whole new fleet of fuel cell trucks for...
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is already sparking new activity in the energy storage field, with Goldman Sachs and Cleanhill Partners in the...
Copyright © 2021 CleanTechnica. The content produced by this site is for entertainment purposes only. Opinions and comments published on this site may not be sanctioned by and do not necessarily represent the views of CleanTechnica, its owners, sponsors, affiliates, or subsidiaries.