Carbon Capture, Lithium, & Smaller MRIs

UAE Launches Carbon Capture Plant

The ADNOC carbon capture plant. Image Credit: ADNOC.

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has launched a carbon capture plant in the remote mountains of the United Arab Emirates. The step is part of a controversial attempt by the oil company to lower carbon dioxide emissions without abandoning fossil fuels. The technology, which was previously tested in a smaller pilot project, will suck carbon dioxide from the air and dissipate it in seawater, then inject the seawater deep underground where it is expected to mineralize over just a few months.

The target for the plant is one ton of CO2 a day. At the moment, we emit globally about 55 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year. ADNOC press release here.

First European Lithium Extraction Plant Opens in Germany

The LEOP in Germany. Source: Vulcan Energy Resources.

Did you know that Germany has lithium resources? I didn’t know that either until recently. But it does, and with lithium being in high demand as the main ingredient of our transition to electric vehicles, these resources have suddenly become very interesting.

Just last week, Vulcan Energy Resources (an Australian mining company) officially opened the very first Lithium Extraction Optimisation Plant (LEOP) in the E.U. at Landau, Germany. It will produce Europe’s first 100% locally-sourced lithium for use in the manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries. This trial plant will serve as a training ground for its production team, whilst a bigger commercial plant is being constructed and commissioned over the next two and a half years. Read press releases here and here.

Smaller and More Affordable MRI Machine Wins Prize

The MAGNETOM Free. Image: Siemens

The German Future Prize for Technology and Innovation, worth EUR 250,000, was just awarded to a team of physicists at SIEMENS for developing a smaller and more affordable MRI machine.  

The MRI – Magnetic Resonance Imaging – is the premier contemporary medical scanning technique. It can take 3D images of all parts of the human body by exposing it to a strong magnetic field. The field forces nuclear spins to align, and then measures the strength of their resonance with an electromagnetic field. This way, one can infer the density of certain types of atoms (most commonly hydrogen in water molecules) in different parts of the body.

The trouble is, the magnetic field needs to be strong, hence the magnets must be large, and superconducting. This makes the devices bulky and expensive and usually unaffordable in developing countries. The slimmed-down MRI, dubbed the MAGNETOM Free, is good for most medical purposes. It uses a smaller magnet of only 0.55 Tesla, is only about 2 metres tall, and has a closed cycle for liquid Helium that works with only 0.8 litres. Press release here.