Ceramic and glass business news of the week for July 12, 2021

PLANTS, CENTERS, AND FACILITIES

Pensana starts development of pioneer Freeport rare earth processing hub

Pensana says that, following the recent £15-million premium equity raise, early-stage development has started on establishing its rare earth processing hub at the Saltend Chemicals Park in Humber, U.K. The Saltend plant will be the first major rare earth separation facility to be built in over a decade and the first located in a freeport.

Australia’s Vital Metals starts production at Canadian rare earth project

Australian rare earth miner Vital Metals said it had started production at its Nechalacho project in Canada’s Northwestern Territories last month. The miner said it has begun crushing ore and expects to hit full production rates in July.

San Miguel Yamamura Asia completes glass plant modernization

Glass manufacturer San Miguel Yamamura completed a batch plant modernization at its Cavite facility in the Philippines. Zippe Industrieanlagen modernized the batch plant in 2006, and this time they supplied several modern components including a new mixer, two scales, several diverters, dosing trays, elevator, and new scraping conveyor.

CeraNova corporate offices and manufacturing operations move to new location

CeraNova Corporation, a manufacturer of transparent and advanced ceramics for a wide range of applications, moved its operations to a new location at 669 Forest Street, Marlborough, Mass.

ACQUISITIONS AND COLLABORATIONS

Greek glass manufacturer Elias Valavanis sold to Berlin Packaging

U.S.-based hybrid packaging supplier Berlin Packaging acquired Greek glass packaging supplier Elias Valavanis. Based in Larissa, Elias Valavanis supplies bottles and jars for the food and beverage industries.

Generac announces acquisition of Chilicon, a solar technology company

Generac Power Systems is acquiring Chilicon Power, a California-based solar technology company. Generac did not disclose terms of the sale, but Minick said the price was slightly higher than the company paid for another solar company, Pika Energy, which was around $49 million.

INDOT, Purdue develop wireless electric vehicle charging solution for highway

The Indiana Department of Transportation and Purdue University plan to jointly develop the world’s first contactless wireless-charging concrete pavement highway segment. The project will use innovative magnetizable concrete—developed by German startup Magment GmbH—enabling wireless charging of electric vehicles as they drive.

RHI Magnesita, Calix Limited to advance carbon emissions reduction in refractory industry

RHI Magnesita, a global supplier of high-grade refractory products, systems, and solutions, executed a memorandum of understanding with Australian technology company Calix Limited to develop a Calix Flash Calciner for use in the production of refractory materials, which will enable CO₂ separation for either utilization or storage.

Pikus 3D announces investments from Baker Concrete and Lithko Contracting

Pikus 3D LLC, a commercial construction 3D concrete printing provider, announced that the company received significant investments from the nation’s leading concrete construction companies, Baker Concrete Inc. and Lithko Contracting LLC.

CeramTec part of project consortium to produce ceramic sample containers for ISS

CeramTec, together with Airbus Defence & Space and other partners in a project consortium, developed sample containers for experiments onboard the International Space Station and manufactured them at the Plochingen site in Germany.

Energy Fuels, Neo Performance Materials ship rare-earth product to Europe

Energy Fuels Inc. and Neo Performance Materials Inc. announced that the first of an expected 15 containers of mixed rare earth carbonate was successfully produced by Energy Fuels at its White Mesa Mill in Utah and is en route to Neo’s rare earth separations facility in Estonia, creating a new United States-to-Europe rare earth supply chain.

OTHER STORIES

Webinar: Emerging image sensor technologies

Matthew Dyson, a senior technology analyst at IDTechEx, will discuss a wide range of emerging image sensing technologies and the potential applications to which they are best suited. The webinar takes place July 14 and will be broadcast three times that day.

New research division at Paul Scherrer Institute points to the future of scientific computing

The Paul Scherrer Institute, in cooperation with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, is establishing a new research division: Scientific Computing, Theory, and Data.

Vienna-based RHI Magnesita renames its Indian arm

Vienna-based RHI Magnesita said its Indian subsidiary Orient Refractories was renamed as RHI Magnesita India following an approval by the government. The development follows the merger of two other Indian arms—RHI Clasil Pvt Ltd and RHI India Pvt Ltd—into Orient Refractories Ltd in June 2021.

Indonesia’s Pertamina eyes hydrogen to meet 2026 goal

Indonesia’s state-owned Pertamina is looking to renewable energy sources such as hydrogen to meet its target of adding 10GW of clean energy power generation capacity by 2026, in line with its green transition plan for 2050.

Uzbekistan establishes the copper industry cluster

The Uzbek government will establish a new scientific and technological cluster for the production of high added value copper and processed products within Uzbekistan. Among other things, the cluster will focus on expansion of geological exploration for copper, nonferrous, rare earth, and rare metals and improvement of the regulatory environment.

The Arts Commission invites creatives to reimagine industrial glass

The Arts Commission invites creative individuals to reimagine the potential of Pilkington float glass toward the creation of projects funded through Momentum | Intersection. The Commission seeks to provide new partnerships between applications of glass as an artistic medium and manufacturing processes with a call for proposals, which you can see here.

3D printing opens DOD to unnecessary cyber risk

Even as 3D printing is gaining momentum in the military, unless the systems are properly secured, they can be vulnerable to unauthorized changes to designs and open up the Defense Department’s networks to unnecessary cybersecurity risk, DOD’s inspector general said in a July 7 report.

MARKET TRENDS

Denmark could be an 80 TWh clean power market by 2030

The chief executive of Danish renewables developer GreenGo Energy Group has said demand fed by electrification and green fuels such as hydrogen could drive an 80 TWh-plus clean power market in the country this decade.

Booming demand for critical minerals could harm the environment, not save it

An Engineering & Technology article looks at data that shows increasing demand from the renewable energy industry for rare earth minerals is set to grow to unsustainable levels. Major deficits in mineral supply and hasty decisions to expand mining in the wrong places could harm the environment and undo efforts to protect it by reducing emissions.

Lawn care is going electric—and the revolution is here to stay

An article on The Washington Post looks at the growing demand for electric lawn equipment and the hurdles to implementing the technology en masse.

The rise of ‘ARPA-everything’ and what it means for science

A Nature article looks at the push to establish science agencies such as ARPA-Health to replicate the success of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, but researchers question whether the new agencies will thrive.

NEW PRODUCTS

Bio Series ceramic knives for eco-conscious cooks

Kyocera launched its Bio Series of eco-friendly ceramic knives. The new line features a slim, corrugated, 100% recyclable package that is free of fossil fuel-derived plastic.