Matt Blois

3 weeks ago | cen.acs.org | Matt Blois

Battery materials producers across the globe are hitting the brakes on expansion plans. Umicore, LG Chem, and other firms say that subdued demand for electric vehicles and uncertainty about policies supporting the battery industry are forcing them to pull back. Umicore executives recently told investors that the company is halving the amount of money it will spend on battery materials projects between 2025 and 2028.

4 weeks ago | cen.acs.org | Matt Blois

Several biobased chemical makers plan to scale up production of nylon precursors made via fermentation. They are responding to demand from consumer product companies that want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from yoga pants, athletic clothes, and other plastic products. The clothing company Lululemon says it will work with the start-up ZymoChem to scale up a fermentation process for adipic acid, a precursor of nylon 6,6.

1 month ago | cen.acs.org | Matt Blois

Chemistry start-ups are scrambling to adjust their plans after layoffs at US government agencies and delays in federal funding have thrown obstacles into their paths. Many entrepreneurs also worry that uncertainty about the US government's commitment to emerging chemistry technologies will stifle progress. The trouble for the agricultural technology start-up Pheronym started almost as soon as President Donald J. Trump took office.

2 months ago | cen.acs.org | Matt Blois

The stationary energy storage business that Mateo Jaramillo started while working for Tesla was gaining momentum. At the end of 2016, the company had installed one of the world's largest lithium-ion battery systems for a utility in California. But Jaramillo felt that weaning the electrical grid off fossil fuels would require a cheaper form of energy storage. Although lithium-ion batteries excel at delivering short bursts of electricity, they were too expensive for long- duration storage.

2 months ago | cen.acs.org | Matt Blois

As the US electric vehicle battery industry matures, less viable projects are starting to fall by the wayside. Over the past few weeks, three start-ups canceled plans for US battery plants. Earlier this month, Freyr announced the sale of a site in Georgia where it was going to build a battery factory. In January, iM3NY's plan to manufacture lithium-ion batteries in New York vaporized when the company went bankrupt.