New podcast interview with Ebbe Dommisse (ION)

https://www.aumanufacturing.com.au/the-startup-plucking-critical-minerals-from-battery-waste-using-chicken-feed

Episode guide

1:15 – Career background.

2:30 – Established as a University of Adelaide spinout. Information about the research at the university and the transition from exploration company Southern Gold to what the company does now.

4:04 – An explanation of black mass and what’s in it.

5:30 – Black mass and its importance in terms of supply chain sovereignty. 80 per cent of it is shipped back to China for processing because nations like the US and the EU lack the capacity. 11 million tonnes is predicted to be on-market by 2040.

6:59 – An explanation of deep eutectic solvents, which are behind IonDrive’s processing technology, contrasted with hydrometallurgy and pyrometallugy families of metals recovery.

8:50 – A closed loop process without the waste streams or energy demands of other recycling types used for battery materials.

10:08 – A simplified explanation of Deep Eutectic Solvent processing involving teabags.

13:10 – Pilot plant commissioning in late-2025 and the activities leading up to this to determine if the technology would scale up viably.

15:25 – It’s not a value chain, it’s a value circle, with IonDrive addressing black mass processing and creating PCAM.

16:20 – Recent capital raise and starting with semi-continuous work in January, the first step in moving from batch to continuous processes. To be completed in two months.

17:48 – Countries including Australia don’t need to reinvent the wheel on battery materials processing. Where the country can make a difference and borrow from what the EU has done (e.g. banning black mass exports and implementing the battery passport.)

20:04 – Thomas Friedman’s observations on China capitalising on lithium iron phosphate (LFP)

22:57 – What makes a company innovative. Goran Roos’s “lovely definition” of innovation and what we can learn from one incubator in Finland.

24:50 – Let’s not confuse innovation with invention.

25:40 – Long-termism and the kind of manufacturing that works in Australia. An investigation comparing Switzerland with Australia. What we have here that can be leveraged.