Japan sees that a free resource CO2, with Water, Electricity and a Catalyst Can Produce Ethanol and Synthesized Materials. Now, can it be made into a Profitable Business?

Govt to investigate utilization of CO2

The Yomiuri ShimbunThe government will start practical trials in fiscal 2018 to utilize carbon dioxide discharged from industrial plants and other facilities, turning it into fuels such as ethanol and synthesizing it into materials for producing synthetic resins.

From article, (The government will start practical trials in fiscal 2018 to utilize carbon dioxide discharged from industrial plants and other facilities, turning it into fuels such as ethanol and synthesizing it into materials for producing synthetic resins.

It will establish about four facilities in the nation for the trials, which will be conducted for five years until fiscal 2022 to examine profitability and other factors.

If the conversion of CO2 is put into practice, it is expected that the nation’s CO2 emissions could be drastically reduced. Therefore, it is expected that the conversion system will enable the nation to get closer to its CO2 emissions reduction goal set under the Paris Agreement (see below), an international framework for taking measures against global warming.

The practical trials will be implemented at two kinds of facilities. At one kind, CO2 discharged from facilities such as garbage incineration sites and manufacturing plants will be utilized. At the other, artificial photosynthesis will be triggered using CO2 already in the air. From April, the government will publicly seek cooperation from entities studying the conversion of CO2 into resources, such as companies, universities and research institutions. The government will then choose trusted contractors from among these groups, with the aim of making the experimental facilities fully operational from fiscal 2019.

The conversion process involves chemical reactions between CO2 and either hydrogen or water using photocatalysts and other tools, and produces organic compounds such as ethanol, methanol and formic acid. The government expects that the organic compounds will be used for the production of fuels for machinery at plants and synthetic resins, which are processed into materials used for various kinds of products.

Such conversion of CO2 has already been successfully achieved by domestic chemical makers and universities in the research and development stage. But tasks remain when it comes to putting the technology to practical use, such as whether it can be profitable. Therefore, in the trials, in which all processes up to the production of the materials will be conducted, the government will examine factors such as costs and the quality of the products so that it can find out whether CO2 conversion can be operated as a business. )

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Toyota Builds New Electric Motors, with New Magnet Chemistry, to Reduce Reliance on Chinese Rare Earth Materials.

New Toyota magnet cuts rare-earth use

The rise of electric vehicles is threatening supplies of a host of the earth's elements. Cobalt and lithium for batteries are getting most of the attention, but rare earths for electric motors are also a pinch point. Now, Toyota Motor scientists have developed a new recipe for the motors' permanent magnets that cuts reliance on particularly rare rare earths.

 From article, (Toyota Motor scientists have developed a new recipe for the motors’ permanent magnets that cuts reliance on particularly rare rare earths.

Permanent magnets keep electric motors turning in all kinds of devices, from electric toothbrushes to refrigerator compressors. In electric vehicles, the magnets need to last a long time without demagnetizing. They also have to stay stable at temperatures that can reach 100 ºC.

To meet those requirements, the magnets are made up of 30% rare earths, to take advantage of their many unpaired electrons, and 70% iron. The go-to rare earth for powerful, durable magnets is neodymium.

Most of this pricey element comes from China, and Toyota says demand is expected to increase rapidly. Smaller amounts of terbium or dysprosium are added to neodymium to lend heat resistance, but those elements are even more expensive.

Toyota has already cut terbium and dysprosium use in the 2016 Prius, and future magnets won’t use any, the firm promises. In addition, up to 50% of the neodymium will be replaced with the low-cost rare earths lanthanum and cerium.

To make the new recipe work, Toyota scientists reduced the size of the magnet’s grains to 0.25 micrometers, one-tenth their original size. They then concentrated neodymium on the surfaces of the smaller grains; the grains in standard magnets have the expensive element throughout. Looking inside the grains, they found that a 1:3 ratio of lanthanum to cerium is needed to prevent magnet performance from deteriorating.

Toyota says the new magnets could reach the market in the first half of the 2020s. They could also be used in robots and household appliances.)

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