CU Boulder engineers have revamped a World War II-era process for making magnesium that requires half the energy and produces a fraction of the pollution compared to today鈥檚 leading methods.
The breakthrough process, developed in the labs of Professor Alan Weimer, could vastly improve production of the strong, lightweight metal that鈥檚 used in everything from vehicles and aircraft to dietary supplements and fireworks.
Now, CU Boulder spinoff company听听is working to translate the laboratory innovations into a viable commercial-scale enterprise.
鈥淚鈥檓 doing it in the lab; I鈥檓 seeing the product and seeing the results,鈥� said Boris Chubukov, a graduate researcher in CU Boulder鈥檚听听and one of Big Blue Technologies鈥� co-founders. 鈥淚 know the potential is really there.鈥�
A few different methods currently exist for creating magnesium metal, but the most common one takes ore from the ground, combines it with expensive silicon and uses extremely high heat鈥攁round 1200 degrees Celsius鈥攖o create chemical reactions and extract the magnesium in small batches.
Recent CU Boulder听PhD graduate Aaron Palumbo, along with Chubukov and graduate student Scott Rowe, sought a better way.
They swapped cheap, abundant carbon for the silicon reactant and addressed flaws in the production process, landing on a system that requires much less energy. They also managed to extract magnesium continuously, rather than in batches, and eliminated the solid waste commonly formed.
罢丑别听, a division of the U.S. Department of Energy, provided the $3.6听million grant to Weimer鈥檚 lab that funded the preliminary research.
The technology could have global economic implications. Metal smelting has increasingly moved overseas, mostly to China, in attempts to reduce the overall cost of manufactured goods. Until the late 1990s, the U.S. was a major world supplier of magnesium, but today, only a single domestic producer remains, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
But the Big Blue Technologies听founders believe this new process could change the equation and they鈥檝e secured almost a half-million dollars so far from backers who agree, Palumbo said. That includes a $225,000 seed grant from the National Science Foundation鈥檚听听辫谤辞驳谤补尘.
鈥淚n our economic projections, if you built a plant in the U.S., with current energy prices and fair, first-world labor wages and benefits, we could still produce magnesium cheaper than Chinese product,鈥� Palumbo said. 鈥淭he U.S. can only begin to 鈥榖ring back manufacturing jobs鈥� if there is abundant access to cheap raw materials and if we continue to lead in innovative developments for process technology.鈥�
Early this year, the fledgling company formed a partnership with Nevada Clean Magnesium, a publicly traded company, to further develop, test and improve the production method. Big Blue Technologies also won the 鈥淢ost Impact鈥� award at the Cleantech Open Global Forum in February, the culmination of a yearlong accelerator for early-stage clean technology startups. They also graduated from听, the university鈥檚 startup accelerator, in 2015.
Big Blue鈥檚 startup environment is decidedly hands-on. The researchers鈥� basement lab is filled with ultra-hot furnaces and they often end the day with hands covered in grease and grime. But the trio is excited by the possibilities the technology holds.
鈥淭he prospect of doing something real-world is very exciting,鈥� Rowe said. 鈥淭o be able to revive the metals industry in this country would be remarkable, so that had universal appeal for us as graduate students.鈥�
