Hi russet; Re: "Doesn't look like you read the article too closely. The article says even if there is a shortage there is no good way to invest to take advantage. Why is that complete BS?";
Even complete idiots know that when an item is in shortage, its price goes up and the companies that provide it make more money, LOL. This is common sense.
But you haven't answered either of my claims that (a) graphite can be synthesized and (b) natural graphite is available in vast quantities.
By the way, did you know that there's a relationship between coal mining and graphite production? That should come as a bit of a shock to the greenies:
Energizer expects synergies between Madagascar graphite and coal projects
miningweekly.com
And let's take another look at the logic of the paper, the assumption that graphite is needed for batteries. Maybe you haven't been following new battery technology:
At long last, new lithium battery tech actually arrives on the market (and might already be in your smartphone)
Amprius, a battery startup based in Silicon Valley, is making waves with a new kind of lithium-ion battery that stores around 20% more energy than batteries currently on the market. Unlike most battery breakthroughs that we write about on ExtremeTech, this one is actually here today: Amprius is already shipping its batteries to some smartphone makers, and has recently secured $30 million in funding to develop next-generation batteries that will store 50% or more energy than the current Li-ion batteries. This is massive news for mobile computing, but also for electric vehicles, where energy density per kilo (weight of the battery) is a major factor in the development of long-range EVs.
It isn’t often that we get to write about an actual, honest-to-God, on-the-market battery breakthrough — but it’s definitely not a coincidence that the founder of Amprius, Stanford’s Yi Cui, has been the star of more battery stories on ExtremeTech than any other researcher (by some margin). Yi Cui was the mastermind behind the silicon nanotube anode, the transparent lithium-ion battery, and the everlasting water-based battery. None of those techs are ready for commercial use, though. Instead, Amprius is commercializing something that’s a bit simpler: lithium-ion batteries with a silicon anode (negative; cathode is positive), rather than standard-issue graphite (carbon).
...
These batteries retain 80% of their charge after 500 cycles, which isn’t quite up to spec for electric vehicles — Amprius’ next-gen batteries, which it recently raised $30 million in funding for, will aim for 700 to 1000 cycles — but it’s more than good enough for mobile computing.
...
extremetech.com
-- Carl |
