Lower-impact lithium extraction cuts process costs
CategoriesSustainable News

Lower-impact lithium extraction cuts process costs

Spotted: Lithium is a vital component in rechargeable batteries, including the batteries used in electric vehicles (EVs). However, the conventional process for extracting the element from its ore involves high levels of dangerous chemicals such as sulphuric acid. These are not only environmentally harmful, but also expensive.

As a more sustainable alternative, Novalith Technologies has developed a process that uses carbonic acid in carbonated water to extract lithium from rocks and clays in the form of lithium carbonate, leaving inert, CO2-infused rock as a by-product. This method, called LiCAL, cuts process costs by 65 per cent and plant costs by 50 per cent, while using 90 per cent less water than conventional processes.

If the energy for Novalith’s extraction process is taken from renewable sources, the overall production can even be made carbon-negative. The company also claims the process can achieve higher recovery rates and can operate at a much faster rate than other extraction methods.

Following seed funding in August 2021, Novalith built an R&D facility in Sydney, Australia, to demonstrate the process across several different ore resources. In April 2023, the company raised AU$23 million (around €13.9 million) in a series A funding round led by Lowercarbon Capital, with participation from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and others. The funding will go towards a new pilot facility in Sydney, and help the company scale and commercialise LiCAL.

With the world’s demand for lithium batteries rising, more and more innovations in the Springwise Library are working to make their production greener. These include a cleaner way to recycle lithium batteries and a lithium extraction technique that uses far less land than conventional methods.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

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A green process for recycling materials from spent lithium-ion batteries
CategoriesSustainable News

A green process for recycling materials from spent lithium-ion batteries

Spotted: Lithium-ion batteries form the basis of today’s electric vehicle (EV) technology, and their production is ramping up rapidly. According to one estimate, the global production of lithium-ion batteries is expected to increase five-fold between 2001 and 2030. But as more batteries are produced, the question of what we will do with the leftover waste becomes more pressing, as currently only a small percentage of used lithium-ion batteries are recycled (5 per cent is an often-quoted, but disputed, figure). 

Now, researchers at Rice University have found a way to recycle one of the key components of a lithium-ion battery: the graphite anode. Today, used anodes are either burned for energy or sent to landfill. 

Rice researchers developed a process called ‘Flash Joule heating’ back in 2020 to produce graphene, a ‘wonder material’ that can enhance plastics, paint, metals, asphalt, and cement. Now, a team of chemists, led by James Tour and Weiyin Chen, has re-configured the process for use in battery recycling. In the latest iteration of Flash Joule heating, a sudden and powerful jolt of energy, lasting just a few seconds, decomposes inorganic salts, such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese, found in spent anodes. These can then be recovered using dilute hydrochloric acid and re-used in anodes for new batteries.  

The team estimates that it would cost roughly $118 (around €110) to recycle one tonne of untreated anode waste using the new process. And, the researchers estimate that the ‘flashed’ anodes retain 77 per cent of their capacity after 400 recharge cycles. 

Springwise has been tracking the development of Flash Joule heating for several years and has previously spotted it being used for recovering metals from electronic waste, and turning plastic from old cars into graphene.  

Written By: Matthew Hempstead

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Circular production process uses industrial fruit waste for vegan leather
CategoriesSustainable News

Circular production process uses industrial fruit waste for vegan leather

Spotted: The development of vegan leather that looks and feels like the most luxurious animal leather, is a major goal for designers. Startup Polybion specialises in organic, vegan leather made in a closed-loop production process. The company uses local sources of industrial fruit waste as the basis for its material and has already identified additional waste streams should demand grow.

Called Celium, Polybion’s leather is grown to a variety of thicknesses. Fungi and bacteria feed on the fruit waste, producing cellulose as a byproduct of that process. The Polybion team then stabilises the growing material at the desired size and depth before treating it to be ready for dying and other bespoke processes. Customisable and strong, Celium can be produced with an infinite variety of grains and embossments, along with varying levels of water resistance.

Already, Polybion has identified enough biowaste nearby to create up to 168 million square feet of the vegan leather each year. From vehicle interiors and footwear to homewares and fashion, large-scale organic leather production could make significant inroads in multiple industries seeking more sustainable resources.  

The scope of new leather options is widening by the day, with creators and innovators in many industries finding new ways of working with surprising ingredients. Springwise has spotted a number of leather alternatives, with two recent innovations being lab-grown leather and a leather bag made from grape skin.

Written by: Keely Khoury

Email: contact@polybion.bio

Website: polybion.bio

Reference

Startup converts existing buildings to net-zero with innovative process
CategoriesSustainable News

Startup converts existing buildings to net-zero with innovative process

Spotted: One of the big challenges to reaching net zero is converting existing buildings to reduce their carbon footprint. It is simply not feasible to tear down existing structures and replace them with purpose-built net zero buildings, and in many cases, it is also not economically viable to add elements such as insulation or heating pumps to older buildings. In response, German startup Ecoworks is tackling this problem from the outside . The company develops a second skin with built-in insulation designed to help buildings radically cut energy use.

Ecoworks begins with a 3D scan of the building, which is used to create a digital twin. Using this twin, the company develops plans for panels which will fit over the existing walls. Robots then assemble the panels, which are complete with windows, ventilation, channels for pipes, and solar panels on the roof. On-site, skilled workers can install the panels rapidly, completing the project in a few weeks.

This approach works best with buildings that have a simple exterior structure, such as apartment complexes. However, Ecoworks has plans to expand the concept to less uniform buildings, such as schools and single-family homes. In one project—which involved a 1930s apartment complex—the building went from using 450 kilowatt-hours of energy per square metre, to having negative emissions and feeding excess energy back into the grid.

The push to decarbonise existing buildings is just getting started, but already we are seeing some fascinating innovations in this space. Springwise has already covered a number of these, including an SaaS platform geared to helping real estate investors lower their environmental impact, as well as zero carbon buildings made from ceramics. 

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Website: ecoworks.tech

Reference

Road repair process sequesters carbon and recycles asphalt
CategoriesSustainable News

Road repair process sequesters carbon and recycles asphalt

Spotted: There are roughly 70 million kilometres of road worldwide. Most roads are made using oil-based bitumen to bind the small pieces of crushed materials together. Maintaining and repairing such an extensive network currently involves trucking in new materials to fill holes and cracks on heavy duty construction vehicles. All of this combines to make roads significant polluters.

That may be changing soon, thanks to Norwegian startup Carbon Crusher. Using dedicated machinery and a paper industry byproduct, the company has developed a carbon negative road repair process. This new process recycles the old road surface by scraping off the top layer and crushing it. Carbon Crusher’s machine greatly reduces the size of the pieces of road, which, when bonded together with lignin (a natural byproduct of the paper industry), create a more flexible, sustainable surface.

By scraping off the entire road surface and crushing it small enough for reuse in smooth, uniform application, Carbon Crusher eliminates the need to bring in new materials to fill previous surface damage. Lignin’s flexibility also helps reduce long-term maintenance costs as roads become more resilient and strong.

Carbon Crusher is currenlty focusing on developing its equipment and the roads themselves. Yet future plans include making roads act as chargers for electric vehicles. Moreover, further reductions in time and resource cost could be achieved by making the machinery autonomous and hydrogen powered.

Several innovators are seeking ways to make wheeled transport smarter and more efficient. Recent innovations spotted by Springwise include new methods for turning roads into power generators and connected bike helmets that keep riders and drivers safer.  

Written by: Keely Khoury

Email: info@carboncrushing.com

Website: carboncrusher.io

Reference

What Kéré Architecture’s Renderings Reveal About the Firm’s Design Process
CategoriesArchitecture

What Kéré Architecture’s Renderings Reveal About the Firm’s Design Process

The 10th Annual A+Awards is still accepting entries! New this season, firms can gain recognition for their entire portfolio of work thanks to the addition of the new Best Firm categories celebrating practices of all sizes, geographies and specializations. Start your entry today.

Images tell powerful stories of people and place. For Kéré Architecture, renderings provide a way to showcase design and relate to larger contexts. Founded by Francis Kéré in 2005, with a dual focus on design and social commitment, the studio’s scope encompasses building, design and knowledge sharing. Known for its use of structure and materials, the practice’s portfolio spans a wide spectrum of projects from civic infrastructure to temporary installations, from concept to execution and across diverse geographies.

Kéré’s architectural reputation is strongly tied to the work’s built realization, and rarely is the process of a project’s creation explored through working images and visualizations. The following article examines a range of Kéré Architecture’s work through rendering, and it does so across different approaches and scales. A common thread emerges that is grounded in the renowned Burkinabè architect’s pioneering approach to sustainable modes of construction and context. The result is a portfolio that centers process and vision as the heart of design.

Inspired by the particularities of each project’s locality and its social tapestry, Kéré and his team work on projects across multiple continents. At the intersection of utopia and pragmatism, the team creates contemporary architecture that feeds the imagination with an Afrofuturist vision. Informed by tradition, the practice explores new modes of construction for which the foundations have long been laid.

Innovative uses of local resources and participatory design methods allow them to work beyond the boundaries of most established design practices and shed dominant norms. Exploring the many crossroads of the architectural realm and other disciplines, from art to technology, they expand their design practice through a deeper understanding of the relationship between rendering, illustration and built work.

Interior of Thomas Sankara Memorial. Render by Kéré Architecture

Interiors: Thomas Sankara Memorial

The Memorial Thomas Sankara is a project to honor and commemorate the memory of the seminal 20th-century Burkinabè thinker, former president and change-maker Thomas Sankara. The design proposal for the memorial reflects the genesis of revolution. The aim is the integration of a structure into an existing landscape that places innovation at its fore. In this rendering, the studio visualizes the interior of the memorial tower, an 285 feet (87 meters) high urban landmark for the Burkinabè capital, a design that stands on the site of the 1987 assassination of Sankara and his comrades.

Visitors are invited to climb the structure using a helicoidal ramp. The path is purposefully long and demanding, emulating the call not to fear the challenging road to change. Tackling the winding route is rewarded with stunning views across the city from a unique vantage point, which also features a restaurant shaped as the contour of Burkina Faso. A suspended funicular cabin provides access to the summit for older people and other abled. This rendering view is used to emphasize materials, light and circulation — all central elements of the design.

Xylem, Render by Kéré Architecture, photograph by Iwan Baan.

Early Concepts & Materials: Xylem

Kéré Architecture designed Xylem, the gathering pavilion for the Tippet Rise Art Centre, as a quiet, protective shelter. Named to evoke the vital internal layers of a tree’s living structure, Xylem is a place where visitors of this vast outdoor art space can gather to converse or sit and contemplate in solitude. Early renderings for the project show a much more playful and artistic interpretation of the finished design. Favoring illustration over realism, the renderings evoke layering that is much more conceptual than later renderings.

The logs of Xylem’s canopy are grouped in circular bundles within a modular hexagonal structure in weathering steel, supported by seven steel columns. The upper surface of the canopy is carved sinuously to blend into the surrounding hills. Simultaneously massive yet light, the roof is inspired by the tuguna, the sacred gathering space of many small Burkinabè communities. These low-level wood and straw shelters offer protection from the sun while allowing for ventilation.

Inside the pavilion, sunlight filters through the vertical logs, creating a soft play of light and shadow on the curvilinear seating and polished concrete circular platform below. The spatial complexity of the carved wooden seating elements encourages visitors to explore different views of the surrounding landscape.

Xylem, Render by Kéré Architecture, photograph by Iwan Baan.

Design Development & Scale: Xylem

Later in the design process you can see how Kéré Architecture’s renderings evolve to a more realistic approach. This brings in scale, sky and photo-realism as an entirely different approach to illustration. Located in a slightly sunken landform between the main facilities of the art center and the start of the hiking tracks, the pavilion nestles in a clearing surrounded by aspen trees, facing a small creek. Entirely carved in wooden logs, the pavilion invites visitors into the heart of the trees. The sustainable pinewood used for the entire pavilion, locally sourced from a natural pruning process that saves forests from parasitic bugs, is used in its raw state.

For Kéré Architecture, the definition of local resources has many layers, all of which are tightly interwoven. The studio believes that to build in a particular location means to engage actively with all aspects of the building practices of that place. Perhaps the most significant local resource is the existing built heritage, which teaches us how to adapt to our given context. In the work of Xylem and the render process, you can see how the studio strongly believes that a comprehensive understanding of local resources grounds each of their projects in its specific site and context.

Waterfront of the Niamey Nyala Masterplan. Render by Kéré Architecture.

Masterplans: Niamey Nyala Masterplan

Not only does Kéré Architecture work at the scale of architecture and pavilions, but also masterplans. The Niamey Nyala Masterplan puts forward a new vision, based on the premise of transforming the city by harnessing the hugely untapped potential of its riverbanks. The plan intends to create a network of public spaces along the Gounti Yéna (a tributary of the Niger River flowing through the city from south to north) and the Yantala Corniche on the left of the river, promoting Niamey’s biodiversity. The studio’s rendering for the masterplan combines an aerial view of the river and city superimposed with textures, architecture and infrastructure for the new project vision.

Along the Yantala Corniche, the existing tree nurseries and market gardens are reorganized to integrate recreational areas. In turn, the illustration shows how housing is planned along the riverside to slow the city’s expansion into the desert, as well as water transport to improve the connection between various points along the banks. The promenade planned along the Gounti Yéna waterway is combined with a series of waste stabilization ponds that filter the water through plants and sand. At the heart of the masterplan, a pedestrian bridge connects the two main promenades and spans the ring road, offering Niamey’s citizens a new vantage point over their city and its river.

Façade of the TUM Tower. Render by Kéré Architecture.

Large-Scale Landmarks: TUM Tower

At the start of 2019, Kéré Architecture was commissioned to design a multi-use civic centre at the heart of the Technical University of Munich’s Garching research campus. Complementing the science facilities, this new central hub aims to promote cross-pollination between the public, faculty, alumni, students and researchers of various disciplines. The rendering especially showcases how each terrace is brought to life by the green façade, which serves as the building’s natural climatization system.

The design explores the organic and flexible possibilities of geometric forms, starting from the simple square. The TUM Tower includes a 360° view of the campus, made possible by the 22.5° rotation of a squared plan around its core axis. Acting as a landmark visible from afar, the TUM Tower brings the form of the campus’s functional architecture to new light. It playfully evokes both the essence and shape of the Bavarian maypole or Maibaum tradition – an annual celebration of communal gathering around a soaring tree-like structure.

Interior of the Serpentine Pavilion. Render by Kéré Architecture, photo by Iwan Baan.

Pavilions & Light: Serpentine Pavilion

Since 2000, the Serpentine Galleries annually commission an international architecture practice to design the Serpentine Pavilion in Kensington Gardens, London. In 2017, they chose Francis Kéré. Taking inspiration from the great tree in his hometown of Gando, under which members of the community meet to reflect on the day, Kéré’s design is based on creating this sense of community while connecting people with nature. A great overhanging roof canopy made of steel and a transparent skin covers the entire footprint of Kéré’s Serpentine Pavilion, allowing sunlight to enter the space while also protecting it from the rain.

Not only does this rendering showcase the materials and vision for natural light, but it also points to a larger approach to pavilion design. The project is defined by wooden shading elements that line the underside of the roof, creating a dynamic shadow effect that changes with the movement of the sun and clouds. The wall system is made of prefabricated wooden blocks assembled into triangular modules with slight apertures, giving a lightness and transparency to the building enclosure. The curved walls are split into four fragments, allowing four unique access points to Kéré’s Serpentine Pavilion. Completely detached from the roof canopy, these elements allow both the air and visitors to freely circulate.

Façade of the Benin National Assembly. Render by Kéré Architecture.

Architecture & Facades: Benin National Assembly

Having outgrown its current building, which dates back to the colonial era of its past, the parliament of the Republic of Benin has entrusted Kéré Architecture to design a new national assembly that will embody the values of democracy and the cultural identity of its citizens. The project takes inspiration from the palaver tree, the age-old West African tradition of meeting under a tree to make consensual decisions in the interest of a community. Here, an approach to rendering not only accentuates the conceptual idea and brings it to life, but also tells a story of structure and the building façade.

The assembly hall is defined by the dynamic reach of the structure. The crown is comprised of offices and auxiliary functions, set back from the deep façade, which filters the sunlight. The trunk is hollow, creating a central courtyard that allows circulation spaces to be naturally ventilated and indirect light to penetrate the plan. A spiral staircase in its center connects the assembly hall on the ground floor to the offices above. In the southeast corner of the site, a public square marks the civic façade of the building, across from the former national assembly where Benin’s independence was historically declared.

The 10th Annual A+Awards is still accepting entries! New this season, firms can gain recognition for their entire portfolio of work thanks to the addition of the new Best Firm categories celebrating practices of all sizes, geographies and specializations. Start your entry today.

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