A serious matter of dialog on the ARPA-E summit was geologic hydrogen—there’s a ton of pleasure about efforts to search out underground deposits of the gasoline, which can be utilized as a gasoline throughout a variety of industries, together with transportation and heavy trade.
Final yr, ARPA-E funded a handful of initiatives on the subject, together with one in Iwnetim Abate’s lab at MIT. Abate is among the many researchers who’re aiming not simply to hunt for hydrogen, however to really use underground circumstances to assist produce it. Earlier this yr, his group printed analysis displaying that by utilizing catalysts and circumstances frequent within the subsurface, scientists can produce hydrogen in addition to different chemical substances, like ammonia. Abate cofounded a spinout firm, Addis Power, to commercialize the analysis, which has since additionally acquired ARPA-E funding.
All of the rocks on the desk, from the chunk of darkish, onerous basalt to the softer talc, might be used to supply these chemical substances.
An electrical guitar powered by iron nitride magnets
The sound of music drifted from the Niron Magnetics sales space throughout close by walkways. Individuals wandering by stopped to take turns testing out the corporate’s magnets, within the type of an electrical guitar.
Most high-powered magnets immediately comprise neodymium—demand for them is ready to skyrocket within the coming years, particularly because the world builds extra electrical autos and wind generators. Provides might stretch skinny, and the geopolitics are sophisticated as a result of a lot of the provide comes from China.
Niron is making new magnets that don’t comprise uncommon earth metals. As an alternative, Niron’s know-how is predicated on extra considerable supplies: nitrogen and iron.
The guitar is an illustration product—immediately, magnets in electrical guitars sometimes comprise aluminum, nickel, and cobalt-based magnets that assist translate the vibrations from metal strings into an electrical sign that’s broadcast via an amplifier. Niron made an instrument utilizing its iron nitride magnets as a substitute. (See images of the guitar from an occasion final yr right here.)
Niron opened a pilot industrial facility in late 2024 that has the capability to supply 10 tons of magnets yearly. Since we final coated Niron, in early 2024, the corporate has introduced plans for a full-scale plant, which could have an annual capability of about 1,500 tons of magnets as soon as it’s totally ramped up.
