Press

Multiple Contributors

Lithium Ion Manganese Oxide Battery

A Lithium ion manganese oxide battery is a lithium ion cell that uses manganese dioxide, MnO2, as the primary cathode material. They function through the same intercalation/de-intercalation mechanism as other commercialized secondary battery technologies, such as LiCoO2. They are a promising technology as their manganese-oxide components are earth-abundant, inexpensive, non-toxic, and provide better thermal stability.

Multiple Contributors

Vanadium Redox Battery

The vanadium redox battery (VRB) (or Vanadium flow battery) is a type of rechargeable flow battery that employs vanadium ions in different oxidation states to store chemical potential energy.[3] The vanadium redox battery exploits the ability of vanadium to exist in solution in four different oxidation states, and uses this property to make a battery that has just one electroactive element instead of two.[4] For several reasons, including their relatively bulky size, most vanadium batteries are currently used for grid energy storage, such as being attached to power plants or electrical grids.

Greg Klein

US Increases Its Dependence on Critical Mineral Imports

Lacking any domestic sources at all, the United States imported 100% of its supply of 20 minerals last year, the USGS reports. That number increased from 19 the previous year and 11 in 1984. Included in the 2016 list were rare earths, manganese and niobium, “which are among a suite of materials often designated as ‘critical’ or ‘strategic’ because they are essential to the economy and their supply may be disrupted.

Colin Jeffrey

Power Dense Zinc-Manganese Power Unit as Cheap as a Car Battery

Researchers have discovered a way to fix the reliability problems of zinc-manganese batteries and produce a high-energy-density, rechargeable unit that could provide an inexpensive solution for alternative energy storage.

Richard Mills

Renewable Energy’s Problem and the Solution

The electric vehicle market, indeed the entire energy storage market, is at the start of an at least decade-long major transition, says Rick Mills.

Priscila Barrera

Vanadium Outlook 2017: Rising Demand Expectations

After a slow recovery in 2016, all eyes are on vanadium redox batteries that could drive demand in 2017.

Lisa A. Corathers

Manganese – USGS Domestic Use Summary 2017

Domestic Production and Use: Manganese ore containing 20% or more manganese has not been produced domestically since 1970. Manganese ore was consumed mainly by eight firms with plants principally in the East and Midwest. Most ore consumption was related to steel production, either directly in pig iron manufacture or indirectly through upgrading the ore to ferroalloys. Additional quantities of ore were used for such non-metallurgical purposes as production of dry cell batteries, in plant fertilizers and animal feed, and as a brick colorant. Manganese ferroalloys were produced at two smelters.

Richard Mills

The Most Beautiful Metal

Vanadium is a soft, silvery gray, ductile transition metal and is the 22nd most abundant element in the Earth’s crust. Vanadium in not found by itself, instead it’s most often found in chemically combined forms occurring in about 65 different minerals and has been historically mined as a by-product of other mining operations.

Richard Mills

Manganese Is Energy Critical

In 1917 the War Industries Board (WIB) noted that the United States was deficient in certain minerals of great importance to war making and self defense. A pre-World War II list of materials contained a total of 29 materials: 14 were strategic materials that ‘must be based entirely or in substantial part on sources outside the United States.’ There were 15 critical materials that would be easier to source, perhaps even domestically, than the strategic materials.

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