Technology
Aepnus wants to create a circular economy for key battery materials
Earlier this 12 months, BASF had to just do that delay opening constructing a battery materials factory in Finland when a court agreed with environmental groups that the corporate didn’t have a good plan for coping with wastewater.
As battery factories are built around the globe, the specter of wastewater threatens to halt their construction. However, one start-up claims that the answer shouldn’t be disposal, but recycling.
Wastewater from these plants flows with sodium sulfate, a byproduct of sulfuric acid and caustic soda, two chemicals utilized in battery production, copper refining and other industries.
“We can create a completely circular economy around these chemicals” – Bilen Akuzum, co-founder and CTO of the corporate Aepnus technologyhe told TechCrunch.
Akuzum and co-founder Lukas Hackl didn’t set out to create a small circular economy, as a substitute they stumbled upon it while touring lithium mining facilities in California and Nevada. A pair of chemists who had been friends since they met of their college cafeteria were exploring possible startup ideas.
“We were thinking about lithium mining or something else in the minerals space,” Akuzum said. “Every time we talked to someone in the industry, they would say, ‘Well, there are actually solutions for lithium extraction. But our activities produce waste and we really don’t know what to do with it.”
After getting back from their trip, Akuzum and Hackl thought in regards to the idea and ultimately decided to improve existing technology to turn this waste into raw materials that the facilities could use of their operations.
The two founded Aepnus to modernize the century-old chloralkali process, which breaks down salts equivalent to sodium sulfate back into the acids and bases that created them.
The company uses electrolyzers to destroy salt, causing it to decompose. Other firms do the identical thing, but may use expensive metals to speed up the reactions. “We don’t use any expensive catalysts in our electrolysers,” Akuzum said.
Aepnus currently ships half-scale models of its devices to customers, who can test the devices in their very own wastewater streams. Wastewater from each plant may contain various pollutants, a few of which should be filtered beforehand. Once they’re depleted, the electrolyzers can start removing sodium sulfate.
For customers, full recycling of sodium sulfate waste should reduce disposal and material costs. And for individuals with distant locations, equivalent to miners, in addition they save on transportation. “Instead of mining companies purchasing these chemicals and trucking them very long distances, we can regenerate them on site from waste,” Akuzum said.
The startup has over 15 clients in various stages, from feasibility studies to testing equipment on a pilot scale. Aepnus recently raised an $8 million seed round to supply more electrolyzers on a pilot scale and develop a commercial-scale version. The round was led by Clean Energy Ventures with participation from Gravity Climate Fund, Impact Science Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Muus Climate Partners and Voyager Ventures.
If Aepnus can produce electrolyzers on a business scale, it’ll be a milestone for the United States. “There are only a few companies around the world that have the expertise to build this type of electrolyzers,” Akuzum said. “Unfortunately, there is not a single company in the United States that has this expertise.”
Technology
US medical device giant Artivion says hackers stole files during a cybersecurity incident
Artivion, a medical device company that produces implantable tissue for heart and vascular transplants, says its services have been “disrupted” resulting from a cybersecurity incident.
In 8-K filing In an interview with the SEC on Monday, Georgia-based Artivion, formerly CryoLife, said it became aware of a “cybersecurity incident” that involved the “compromise and encryption” of information on November 21. This suggests that the corporate was attacked by ransomware, but Artivion has not yet confirmed the character of the incident and didn’t immediately reply to TechCrunch’s questions. No major ransomware group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Artivion said it took some systems offline in response to the cyberattack, which the corporate said caused “disruptions to certain ordering and shipping processes.”
Artivion, which reported third-quarter revenue of $95.8 million, said it didn’t expect the incident to have a material impact on the corporate’s funds.
Technology
It’s a Raspberry Pi 5 in a keyboard and it’s called Raspberry Pi 500
Manufacturer of single-board computers Raspberry Pi is updating its cute little computer keyboard device with higher specs. Named Raspberry Pi500This successor to the Raspberry Pi 400 is just as powerful as the present Raspberry Pi flagship, the Raspberry Pi 5. It is on the market for purchase now from Raspberry Pi resellers.
The Raspberry Pi 500 is the simplest method to start with the Raspberry Pi because it’s not as intimidating because the Raspberry Pi 5. When you take a look at the Raspberry Pi 500, you do not see any chipsets or PCBs (printed circuit boards). The Raspberry Pi is totally hidden in the familiar housing, the keyboard.
The idea with the Raspberry Pi 500 is you could connect a mouse and a display and you are able to go. If, for instance, you’ve got a relative who uses a very outdated computer with an outdated version of Windows, the Raspberry Pi 500 can easily replace the old PC tower for many computing tasks.
More importantly, this device brings us back to the roots of the Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi computers were originally intended for educational applications. Over time, technology enthusiasts and industrial customers began using single-board computers all over the place. (For example, when you’ve ever been to London Heathrow Airport, all of the departures and arrivals boards are there powered by Raspberry Pi.)
Raspberry Pi 500 draws inspiration from the roots of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a non-profit organization. It’s the right first computer for college. In some ways, it’s a lot better than a Chromebook or iPad because it’s low cost and highly customizable, which inspires creative pondering.
The Raspberry Pi 500 comes with a 32GB SD card that comes pre-installed with Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux distribution. It costs $90, which is a slight ($20) price increase over the Raspberry Pi 400.
Only UK and US keyboard variants will probably be available at launch. But versions with French, German, Italian, Japanese, Nordic and Spanish keyboard layouts will probably be available soon. And when you’re in search of a bundle that features all the things you would like, Raspberry Pi also offers a $120 desktop kit that features the Raspberry Pi 500, a mouse, a 27W USB-C power adapter, and a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable.
In other news, Raspberry Pi has announced one other recent thing: the Raspberry Pi monitor. It is a 15.6-inch 1080p monitor that’s priced at $100. Since there are quite a few 1080p portable monitors available on the market, this launch is not as noteworthy because the Pi 500. However, for die-hard Pi fans, there’s now also a Raspberry Pi-branded monitor option available.
Technology
Apple Vision Pro may add support for PlayStation VR controllers
According to Apple, Apple desires to make its Vision Pro mixed reality device more attractive for gamers and game developers latest report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
The Vision Pro was presented more as a productivity and media consumption device than a tool geared toward gamers, due partly to its reliance on visual and hand controls moderately than a separate controller.
However, Apple may need gamers if it desires to expand the Vision Pro’s audience, especially since Gurman reports that lower than half one million units have been sold to this point. As such, the corporate has reportedly been in talks with Sony about adding support for PlayStation VR2 handheld controllers, and has also talked to developers about whether they may support the controllers of their games.
Offering more precise control, Apple may also make other forms of software available in Vision Pro, reminiscent of Final Cut Pro or Adobe Photoshop.
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