Exploring Clean Technology

Welcome to “Exploring Clean Technology” - a place to explore advanced material science, the innovation of new processs technologies, and applications for critical materials in new technology, among other subjects. Click below to read about recent technology developments, all made possible with advanced materials such as lithium, indium, gallium, tin and the rare earths.

Mar 16, 2018
Advances in material science and new technology applications gallop forward at accelerating speeds! Fields include electrifying cars, buses and trucks; more efficient and reliable renewable energy sources; communications and computing capacities we... Read More
Feb 7, 2018
  We all generally aware that yttrium (element 39) and everything from lanthanum (element 57) to lutetium (element 71) on the Periodic Table - otherwise referred to as the rare earths elements or REEs - are vital for the advanced technologi... Read More
Jan 9, 2018
Tesla has installed the world's largest lithium ion battery in South Australia in late November. Tesla teamed up with French renewable energy firm Neoen and the local government to install the battery, which is approximately three times more po... Read More
Dec 13, 2017
According to the World Bank , nearly half of the world’s population (of 7.6 billion people) now have access to the internet. I must confess that when I read that number I thought it was low - I think I take the internet for granted here i... Read More
Nov 24, 2017
In 2016, the National People’s Congress in China ratified its 13 th Five Year Plan, which has been called the “most environmentally focused to date.” These plans set out economic and social goals and directives and are gen... Read More
Nov 7, 2017
Research being undertaken at New York-based Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Cornell University sees the advent of innovative lithium electrodes coated with indium: electrodes that could offer “the basis for more powerful, longer-lasting,... Read More
Oct 3, 2017
“Anyone who focuses solely on the technology has not yet grasped how autonomous driving will change our society. […] The car is growing beyond its role as a mere means of transport and will ultimately become a mobile living space&rd... Read More
Sep 5, 2017
In April earlier this year, the Energy Observer was launched with the intention of becoming the first hydrogen vessel to sail around the world. The vessel will test and prove the efficiency of a full production chain that relies on the coupling of ... Read More
Aug 9, 2017
I was recently perusing several online articles in an effort to respond to a question a colleague asked about rare earth lasers – a query more related to which lasers are used for what applications. I fortunately came across a SCHOTT (one of the... Read More
Jul 4, 2017
First of all, Happy Canada Day, and Happy Independence Day to our southern friends! As many readers are already aware, graphene is an allotrope of carbon first isolated by scientists in 2004. It is just one atom thick, extremely light and around... Read More