New Cheaper, Greener Perovskite Solar Cells To Replace Lead with Tin

Researchers have developed a new cheaper, greener Perovskite Solar cells with no lead. They put tin instead of lead Perovskite as the light harvester. The result was a new solar cell with good efficiency than the other. It could be made easily by “bench” chemistry techniques. The manufacturing process involves the use of completely viable materials and completely eliminates hazardous materials.

Inorganic chemist, Mercouri G. Kanatzidis who has a great skill in dealing with tin, said that this was an advanced step in replacing lead with tin in the very promising type solar cell known as Perovskite. He said that the metal tin is more viable than lead and it worked good to make an efficient solar cell.

As it was in a structure called Perovskite, it is called so. Instead of lead the new one has tin as the light absorbing material. Tin Perovskite has efficiency same as that of lead Perovskite or even more. Thus it can be touted as the “next big thing in photovoltaic”. The materials was developed, synthesized and analyzed by Kanatzidis. Along with the help of Robert P H Chang, Northwestern collaborator and nano scientist, he engineered the new efficient solar cell.

The two main features of the material is it can absorb most of the visible light spectrum and second one the Perovskite salt can be dissolved and it will reform upon solvent removal without heating.

Nickel Ore inventories at China's ports enough for five-month consumption

Shanghai Metals Market expects nickel ore inventories at China’s ports to be sufficient for five-month consumption at least.

As of May 9, nickel ore inventories at major five Chinese ports totaled 13.43 million tonnes, down 5.50 million tonnes or 29% from the level before the ban took effect January 12, according to a survey by SMM.

The SMM survey shows Chinese NPI producers need 4 million tonnes of nickel ore for production every month, and monthly imports from the Philippines are around 1.5 million tons, leaving monthly consumption of port inventories around 2.5 million tons.

It is worth noting that production halts have occasionally happened in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia due to environment protection inspections, and this will slow the decline in port inventories.

Prices for high-grade ore, domestic nickel, high-grade NPI and LME nickel have surged by 100%, 56%, 47% and 45%, respectively, from when Indonesia introduced its ban on unprocessed ore exports , according to SMM’s pricing data.

Such strong gains were due mainly to strong market speculation after the Indonesian ban, SMM believes.

The maximum amount of medium and high-grade nickel ore (Ni 1.5% and above) that the Philippines is capable of exporting each year is approximately 20 million tons. In 2013, China consumed over 40 million tons of medium and high-grade nickel ore, far above the current export capacity in the Philippines.

Scientists Find out Rare ‘Nickel Eating’ Plant in Philippines

In Philippines, scientists have discovered a special plant which has the ability to eat nickel metal. The newly founded plant species Rinorea niccolifera, as it name indicates can absorb large quantity of nickel without harming itself. It doesn’t eat nickel like Venus plant eats insects; instead, Rinorea absorbs nickel from the soil, growing in nickel rich soil.

The group of scientists from the University of Philippines discovered this special plant species in Philippines. Professor Edwino Fernando, the lead researcher and author of a new paper on palnt said that it absorbs nickel through its leaf. It can absorb about 18,000 parts per million of nickel. This is up to 1000 times greater than the nickel absorbing capacity of most other plants.

The new nickel eating plant is one of the only 450 species out of 300,000 known vascular plants species which can intake a significant amount of metal. These kinds of metal eating plants have a significant place of interest in mining industry as well as environmental advocates. The new plant species Rinorea niccolifera can make our ecosystem clean as it can be planted to remove hazardous metallic materials from the air, especially near mining factories. 

Another value of the plant is that once it has absorbed a sufficient amount of metal, it can also be used for harvesting to extract commercially valuable contents. Augustine Doronila of the University of Melbourne who co-authored the paper with Fernando explained that the hyper accumulator plants had great potential for the development of green technologies.

US Aluminum Imports Surge: Is It All About Rusal ?

An article last week from Reuters reports US aluminum imports surged in March to 264,100 tons, the highest since August of last year, up 11% from February and 14% higher than March 2013.

The sharp rise in physical delivery premiums in January has undoubtedly had an impact, but physical delivery premiums have been rising everywhere in the first quarter so this may not be the whole story. Interestingly, inflows from Russia, the home of UC Rusal, the world’s largest primary producer, were particularly dramatic, partially reversing a years-long decline.

Over 44,000 metric tons arrived in March, more than double March 2013 levels and up 52% from February. The total exceeded long-term monthly averages and was almost three times the monthly average of 16,000 tons last year, Reuters reported. With the Midwest premium at 20c/lb, it is not unreasonable to expect that strong delivery premiums have played a large part, but it should not be overlooked that UC Rusal is a declared backer of the new CME aluminum contract and it’s possible the firm may also have been positioning metal to create liquidity.

Most see the strong rise in imports as evidence the US market is in deficit following closures by Alcoa and others, and the failure of the Hannibal smelter late last year. Certainly the surge in imports would support this and the strong physical delivery premiums since January add further weight to this argument.

Still, other developments, particularly reductions in LME inventory in the US, show a repositioning of aluminum from higher-cost LME warehouses to lower-rent off-warrant warehouses as banks, hedge funds and financial institutions involved in the stock and finance game look to lower their costs and maximize returns.

North American LME warehouse inventory fell from 1.9 million tons in January to 1.7 million tons by the end of the quarter.

Figures for April imports are not out yet, but are eagerly awaited to see if the trend has continued; if Q2 continues as Q1 finished it would add weight to the tight market theory. If imports tail off back to last year’s levels, it would suggest the surge may have had more to do with positioning for the new CME contract. Either way it shows changes are happening in the aluminum market – and that’s not a bad thing.

Rusal forecasts strong growth in demand for aluminium in China

THE WORLD'S largest aluminium producer UC Rusal yesterday said it expects strong growth in demand from China this year, as it reported flat first-quarter revenue and a fall in output.

The Moscow -headquartered company forecasts global aluminium demand of six per cent this year, with a 10 per cent increase in China , the world's largest consumer of commodities.

"We are seeing positive trends," said chief executive Oleg Deripaska .

Rusal's aluminium production fell by 2.3 per cent to 883,000 tonnes in the first quarter, which it attributed to mothballed smelters in parts of Russia .

Revenue remained at $2.1bn (£1.25bn), as the 3.4 per cent decrease in the aluminium price over the period was offset by higher volumes sold and higher average realised premiums.

Nickel Prices may top $30,000 a metric ton by Citigroup

Nickel, this year’s best-performing metal, is set to rally an additional 43 percent by the end of next year as supply concerns prompt investors to pile in, according to Citigroup Inc.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows nickel’s open interest, or the number of contracts yet to be closed, liquidated or delivered, has surged for five straight months to a record 316,793. Prices rallied 51 percent this year after Indonesia, the largest producer of the metal from mines, banned exports of unprocessed ore in January.

The jump in open interest is “reflecting the extreme nature of change that the nickel market is facing with the Indonesian export ban,” David Wilson, an analyst at Citigroup in London, said in a telephone interview. “It’s the only real story that anybody is interested in, from an investor perspective.”

Prices may top $30,000 a metric ton in 2015, according to Citigroup, which last year correctly predicted that Indonesia would implement the export ban. The last time the commodity traded above that level was in April 2008. Nickel settled at $21,000 a ton yesterday on the London Metal Exchange.

Increasing open interest at a time when prices are rising, can indicate that traders are adding to long positions, or bets on price gains. When prices are declining, the increase in open interest may mean traders are adding to wagers on price declines.

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