Baltic Dry Index. 1381 +79 Brent Crude 91.10
Spot Gold 1789
Coronavirus Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,100
Coronavirus Cases 31/01/22 World 375,241,633
Deaths 5,681,747
As goes January, so goes the year.
Wall Street saying.
It is the month-end, but not just any month-end in the stock casinos, it’s the January month-end! Time to dress up stocks and the stock indexes lest the greater fool buyers stop being greater fools.
In Asia, many casinos have closed early for the Chinese/Lunar New Year. Making it easier to dress up the European and American casino indexes later today.
Onward and upward for the central banksters and billionaires.
Still, if Fed Chairman Powell’s Fed actually does what it says it will do and start raising interest rates, ending 30 plus years of Easy Street, the over-priced stock casinos are about to become Skid Row for the next few years.
Much, if not most of the everything bubble is about to burst, no matter how dress up Monday goes. Though probably not the crude oil and natural gas price surges. Germany finds itself over a Russian barrel of its own making, albeit at the dictate of Washington and London.
In trivia news, Canada’s Prime Minister has run away and gone into hiding, but will anyone notice?
Major Asia indexes jump more than 1%; mainland China, South Korea markets closed for Lunar New Year eve
SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia were higher on Monday — the final trading day of January, with markets in mainland China and South Korea closed for the Lunar New Year eve.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 1.47% in afternoon trade while the Topix index climbed 1.19%.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index jumped 1.07% on the day to 23,802.26 while Singapore’s Straits Times index advanced 0.1% to finish the trading day at 3,249.59. Markets in Hong Kong and Singapore closed early on Monday ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays.
Over in India, the Nifty 50 jumped 1.3% while the BSE Sensex surged 1.29% in morning trade.
The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia declined fractionally.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.58%.
China factory activity data
Official data released Sunday showed Chinese factory activity growth slowing in January. The country’s official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index for January was at 50.1, just above the 50 level that separates growth from contraction. January’s reading compared against December’s figure of 50.3.
Meanwhile, a private survey released over the weekend showed Chinese manufacturing activity contracting in January. The Caixin/Markit manufacturing PMI came in at 49.1 for the month.
PMI readings are sequential and represent month-on-month expansion or contraction.
Global markets have seen volatile trading in recent days after the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday indicated it could soon hike interest rates for the first time in more than three years.
More
Stock futures edge higher of final January session, S&P heads for worst month since March 2020
Stock futures were higher in overnight trading on Sunday as investors braced for the final trading day in what could be the worst month for the S&P 500 since March 2020.
Dow futures rose 33 points. S&P 500 futures gained 0.14% and Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.29%.
January has turned out to be a dismal month for stocks. The S&P 500 is headed for its worst month since the pandemic-spurred market turmoil in March 2020 as investors worry about inflation, supply chain issues and the upcoming rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.
The 500-stock average is nearing correction territory, down more than 8% from its intraday high earlier this month. The S&P 500 is down 7% in January.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is also heading for its worst January since March 2020. The Dow is off by 4.4% this month.
The Nasdaq Composite, which is roughly 15% off its November record close, is headed for its worst month since October 2008 and the worst first month of the year of all time. The technology-focused average is down 12% in January.
Plus, the small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 is in a bear market.
Last week, the Federal Reserve indicated that it is likely to raise interest rates for the first time in more than three years in order to combat historically high inflation. Markets are now pricing in five quarter-percentage-point interest rate hikes in 2022.
The major averages experienced violent swings last week, with the Dow moving a gut-wrenching 1,000 points in both directions. The Dow ended the week 1.3% higher. The S&P 500 gained 0.8% last week and the Nasdaq was about flat for the week.
“This all kind of results in additional market volatility until investors digest this transition period,” said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors. “On the other side of this, the economy should continue to expand, earnings are pretty good. That’s enough to sustain markets, but I think they’re adjusting to the shift in monetary policy, fiscal policy and earnings.”
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/30/stock-market-futures-open-to-close-news.html
Top oil producers to meet amid record crude prices
Issued on:
London (AFP) – The world's top oil-producing countries will meet on Wednesday to discuss a further increase in output, while crude prices have reached seven-year highs rattled by geopolitical tensions.
Part of their regular meetings since the Covid-19 pandemic shook markets, the 13 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their 10 allies convene by videoconference to set output.
Many analysts expect the grouping, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, to decide to continue to boost output by 400,000 barrels per day in March.
This will be in line with their strategy to slowly re-open the taps since May last year, after drastic cuts to curb slumping prices when the coronavirus first started spreading.
"With that said, we wouldn't completely rule out a larger increase, given high oil prices and recent OPEC+ underproduction," Capital Economics analysts said.
Brent oil on Wednesday surpassed $90 per barrel, attaining a level last seen in October 2014.
The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude hit its highest level in more than seven years earlier this month, fuelled by easing concerns about the Omicron Covid variant and geopolitical tensions.
Russia sanctions?
The United States and Britain on Sunday flagged new and "devastating" economic sanctions against Russia, as Washington and its NATO allies step up efforts to deter any invasion of Ukraine.
Fears of an imminent invasion have grown in recent days, despite denials from Moscow and pleas from Ukraine's president to avoid stirring "panic" over the massive Russian military build-up on the border.
A Russian invasion of Ukraine would lead to "very hard sanctions" against Moscow, according to Bjarne Schieldrop, analyst at SEB.
"It would halt exports of natural gas to Europe even more. Natural gas and power prices in Europe would be much higher than the current extremely high prices we have now," he told AFP.
----Besides the geopolitical uncertainties, analysts have noted that OPEC nations and other key producers are struggling to meet targets to lift output by 400,000 barrels a month, adding to the upward pressure on prices.
"OPEC+ underperformance and inaction support elevated oil prices as the group has underdelivered against its stated production targets by hundreds of thousands of barrels," Rystad Energy analyst Louise Dickson said.
The grouping "has committed to a passive role in the conversation despite external pressure primarily from the US, to increase production and ease fuel prices," she added.
Schieldrop also noted that top producer Saudi Arabia in the last meeting "made it clear that they will not step up production beyond their cap to cover losses by other members. No rescue there."
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220131-top-oil-producers-to-meet-amid-record-crude-prices
Ukraine tensions jumble up Germany's energy puzzle
Issued on:
Berlin (AFP) – Rising tensions with Moscow over Ukraine have exposed Germany's problematic dependence on Russian gas, inflaming an already heated debate over soaring energy prices.
As Germany pursues its target to transition to cleaner energy sources over the next decade, Europe's biggest economy has counted on gas temporarily filling the gap while it builds up its sun and wind energy capacity to replace nuclear and coal plants.
But with Russia now providing 55 percent of Germany's gas imports -- up from 40 percent in 2012 -- Berlin's best-laid plans may well go awry if Moscow were to march on Ukraine.
With gas making up 26.7 percent of Germany's total energy consumption and heating one in every two households, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government has admitted that if sanctions had to be imposed on Russia, they will also hit the German economy.
More precisely, the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was set to double supplies of cheap natural gas from Russia to Germany, now hangs in the balance.
In a warning hailed by the United States as "very, very strong", German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has said the pipeline will be part of a sanctions package if Russia made a move on Ukraine.
Long viewed as a problem by Western allies and Ukraine, the 10-billion-euro ($12 billion) pipeline had been seen by former chancellor Angela Merkel's government as a key stop-gap option while Germany shifts to renewables.
But critics have repeatedly warned that it would only serve to increase German dependence on Russian energy, and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has branded it a "dangerous geopolitical weapon of the Kremlin".
Yet weaning Germany off Russian energy will be painful.
"If we give up Russian gas and Nord Stream 2, it won't be lights out immediately, but it will be expensive, it will exacerbate unanswered gas supply questions for the future, and we'll have a problem," warned chairman of the mining, chemistry sector union IG BCE, Michael Vassiliadis.
With time pressing, the German government is launching a massive programme to build wind turbines covering two percent of the country's land surface, and require the installation of solar panels on roofs.
"Phasing out the burning of fossil fuels also strengthens Europe in geopolitical terms and protects the climate," Economy Minister Robert Habeck said earlier this month.
But with the nuclear energy phase-out due to be complete by year's end and coal power also to be halted by 2030, Germany will have to make up the difference by raising its gas capacity by a third over the next eight years, according to the Fraunhofer economic institute.
More
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220131-ukraine-tensions-jumble-up-germany-s-energy-puzzle
Finally, did Covid supply disruption change the global economy permanently?
Just-in-time gives way to "buy everything you can" as U.S. supply disruptions persist
Fri, January 28, 2022, 5:45 PM
By Timothy Aeppel
(Reuters) - Stephen Bullock eight months ago gave up on the idea of buying raw materials and parts only shortly before they were needed on his assembly line.
Instead, he told his purchasing manager to "just buy everything you can," and they could store the excess, said Bullock, chief executive of Power Curbers Companies, a maker of heavy equipment used to build concrete sidewalks and other infrastructure projects.
Roughly two years into a pandemic that has snarled supply chains across the globe, U.S. companies are scrambling not just to produce enough to feed current demand - but to also refill inventory shelves. That buildup was key to the fourth quarter’s hefty 6.9% annualized growth in gross domestic product, with inventory investment contributing 4.9 percentage points, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.
Spending shifted during the pandemic from services to goods, a boom that has strained supply chains and emptied warehouses. Excluding inventories, GDP grew at a more modest 1.9% rate in the latest period.
This boom in demand, coupled with shortages, has fueled a wave of inflation that increased at a pace last year not seen in nearly 40 years. This set the stage for the Federal Reserve to now look towards raising interest rates in March.
Bullock, whose company is based in Salisbury, North Carolina, said supply chain problems have continued to grow worse in recent months - not better.
Ditching the "just-in-time" inventory model in favor of building up supply to buffer stocks only made sense, he said, referring to a system that aims to buy parts and materials shortly before they're needed - to minimize the cost of holding supplies. Just-in-time has evolved into a standard worldwide in the era of globalized trade, one embraced across corporate America - until COVID-19's emergence upended it. Since the pandemic struck, many businesses found the system left them stranded when orders that normally took weeks suddenly took months to arrive.
Bullock's goal now is to snap up materials like steel whenever he can. "We've had to get creative in where to put all of it," he added. "We're using all the nooks and crannies to house those incoming items."
More
https://www.yahoo.com/news/just-time-gives-way-buy-174513605.html
Global Inflation/Stagflation Watch.
Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Shipping companies are giving maritime workers bonuses worth as much as triple their annual salary
Fri, January 28, 2022, 4:24 PM
Major shipping companies are offering workers bonuses worth as much as three years' salary in an effort to keep talent in an industry that is known for labor code violations, long months away from family, and high suicide rates.
COSCO Shipping, a Chinese state-owned company, gave workers year-end bonuses of about 30 times their monthly salary, Chinese Media group Caixin Global reported. Similarly, the Taiwanese shipping companies Evergreen Marine handed out bonuses as high as 40 times its workers' monthly pay, while Wan Hai paid out bonuses worth a full year's salary or about $36,093.
In 2021, global cargo carriers are estimated to have generated a record $150 billion in profits. The boom in online shopping and resultant supply-chain crisis during the pandemic have made the shipping industry an increasingly lucrative sector. Shipping backlogs have allowed maritime companies to boost their rates from $2,000 to as high as $20,000 for 40-foot shipping containers in the past two years.
Despite record profits, global carriers face difficulties keeping workers. On Wednesday, the annual Seafarers Happiness Index found that seamen's levels of unhappiness reached all-time lows in 2021 and that many seafarers over the age of 35 were not intending to return to sea.
"We are sleepwalking to a manning crisis," Yves Vandenborn, director of loss prevention at Standard Club, said in the press release. "Resentment is brewing amongst this critical workforce due to the lack of shore leave, uncertainty of trip duration, draconian COVID testing and general lack of recognition."
In November, Hong-Long-based company Wah Kwong Maritime Transport warned they were facing difficulty staffing ships due to flagging retention and application rates.
More
https://www.yahoo.com/news/shipping-companies-giving-maritime-workers-162407858.html
Miami's lure during Covid sends housing prices through the roof
Issued on: 30/01/2022 - 02:16
Miami (AFP) – Miami resident Maria Ruby learned last month that her rent will shoot up 65 percent in February. She cannot afford it and does not know where to go.
Her plight illustrates an unexpected effect of the coronavirus pandemic: Miami is seeing some of the highest housing cost increases anywhere in the United States.
Metropolitan Miami was already a lure even before Covid, with its warm weather, white sand beaches and absence of state -- though not federal -- income tax.
It is a sophisticated, cosmopolitan city that is attractive to European and Latin American investors.
But the pandemic made Miami even more of a mecca. Strict lockdown rules in other parts of the United States and the rise of working from home for a company that could be far away caused many people to up and move to the south of Florida.
They flocked from northeastern cities such as New York and Boston, as well as from California, and found cheaper rent and Republican politicians eager to get the state economy running again after the ravages of Covid lockdowns.
"They started coming to South Florida in droves," said Jennifer Wollmann, board chair of the Miami Association of Realtors.
"Our weather, business-friendly state and open spaces are very attractive for people coming from states that were cold and shut down," she said.
The effect quickly became apparent. People with better paying jobs than the going rate in south Florida caused housing prices to shoot up.
A study released in December by Realtor.com said metropolitan Miami saw the steepest rent hikes last year in America.
Median rent in November -- it did not specify what kind of dwelling -- was $2,800, up a whopping 44 percent from the same month of 2020.
More
Auto industry could see billions in losses if interest rates spike
Thu, January 27, 2022, 8:21 PM
The prospect of rising interest rates has the automotive industry on edge.
If the Federal Reserve decides to increase interest rates, as it suggested it would soon this week, automotive experts say the industry could lose $22 billion in sales.
Consumers could also purchase 150,000 fewer new vehicles and 500,000 fewer used ones, experts said.
Those expected rate hikes are likely to happen at the end of the central bank's next policymaking meeting — and almost exactly two years after it slashed rates to zero in response to the emergence of a fast-spreading coronavirus that threatened to destabilize the entire financial system.
Hiking rates would likely affect several U.S. sectors along with the automotive industry, with some analysts contending the increase will trigger more uncertainty in the auto world.
Tyson Jominy, vice president of data and analytics at the consumer intelligence company J.D. Power, said usually there is an automotive roadmap for when interest rates spike and decrease, but little precedent exists for a global pandemic and an auto supply-chain shortage.
“We don’t have a lot of experience with increasing rates with nothing to sell,” Jominy said.
The global chip shortage seems to be coming under control, but there are still widespread worries about other supply chain disruptions affecting rubber, plastics and steel, which has made it difficult to manufacture vehicles, NBC News reported. Wall Street has underscored concerns about rising interest rates and inflation.
More
https://www.yahoo.com/news/auto-industry-could-see-billions-162610097.html
Column: Zinc squeeze worsens as a second European smelter closes
January 28, 2022 2:42 PM GMT
LONDON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - The year has not got off to a good start for European zinc buyers.
Premiums for physical zinc are at record highs as the market scrambles for metal after the closure of a second zinc smelter due to high power costs.
Nyrstar is placing its Auby smelter in France on care and maintenance, citing "historically high" European electricity prices which show no signs of abating.
Glencore has already closed its Portovesme zinc plant for the same reason.
The unexpected curtailment of the two plants has blown a 260,000-tonne hole in the European zinc supply chain.
----Premiums for physical zinc in Antwerp and Rotterdam have doubled since last October to $320-380 per tonne over the LME cash price.
The cost of getting hold of spot zinc in Northern Europe has now surpassed the previous peak dating back to 2005, according to Fastmarkets which assesses the premiums.
Southern European buyers are paying yet more, although the Italian premium has stopped rising and is now holding steady at $380-420 per tonne.
Europe's power crisis and the resulting hit on regional zinc smelters has happened so fast it has completely wrong-footed the market.
----Low stocks have left European buyers particularly exposed.
LME warehouses across Europe hold just 1,350 tonnes of zinc, split between 1,325 tonnes at the Spanish port of Bilbao and 25 tonnes at the Dutch port of Vlissingen. Only 50 tonnes is actually available, the rest awaiting physical load-out.
LME registered stocks in the United States are higher at over 33,000 tonnes but that hasn't stopped local premiums rising in sympathy with Europe. Fastmarkets has just lifted its assessment of the Midwest premium for 18-23 cents per lb to 20-24 cents.
It's a rational price reaction, given both regions will now be competing for imports.
More
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
New MERS-related virus NeoCoV may be more lethal, transmissible - study
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF Published: JANUARY 28, 2022 13:37 Updated: JANUARY 28, 2022 14:30
A new lethal virus known as NeoCoV has been discovered, and it may be more transmissible - with one mutation - according to a new study by Chinese scientists from Wuhan, though some experts are cautioning that further study is needed. It has not yet made the leap to humans.
According to the study, which is in preprint and is therefore not yet peer-reviewed, the NeoCoV variant is a type of coronavirus originally discovered in South Africa. However, it isn't entirely new. According to the researchers, the NeoCoV variant is linked to the MERS-CoV virus, also known as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), which had outbreaks in several countries in the Middle East before.
Like other coronaviruses, which refers to a type of virus and not specifically to COVID-19, it is not unprecedented for it to exist in animals as well as humans. Right now, NeoCoV is only known to spread among bats, but can it transmit to humans?
According to the Wuhan researchers, the answer is yes, and it is only one mutation away from becoming dangerous for human life.
Further, according to the study, antibodies targeting both SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, and MERS-CoV were not able to stop NeoCoV.
However, the World Health Organization (WHO) cautioned against making such conclusions before further study can be done.
"Whether the virus detected in the study will pose a risk for humans will require further study," the organization told Russian news agency TASS, adding that it "works closely" with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN Environment Program (UNEP) in order to "monitor and respond to the threat of emerging zoonotic viruses."
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/coronavirus/article-694885
Explainer-Scientists on alert over rising cases caused by Omicron cousin BA.2
Sun, January 30, 2022, 1:06 PM
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The highly transmissible Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus - the most common form of which is known as BA.1 - now accounts for nearly all of the coronavirus infections globally, although dramatic surges in COVID cases have already peaked in some countries.
Scientists are now tracking a rise in cases caused by a close cousin known as BA.2, which is starting to outcompete BA.1 in parts of Europe and Asia. The following is what we know so far about the new subvariant:
"STEALTH" SUBVARIANT
Globally, BA.1 accounted for 98.8% of sequenced cases submitted to the public virus tracking database GISAID as of Jan. 25. But several countries are reporting recent increases in the subvariant known as BA.2, according to the World Health Organization.
In addition to BA.1 and BA.2, the WHO lists two other subvariants under the Omicron umbrella: BA.1.1.529 and BA.3. All are closely related genetically, but each features mutations that could alter how they behave.
Trevor Bedford, a computational virologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center who has been tracking the evolution of SARS-CoV-2, wrote on Twitter on Friday that BA.2 represents roughly 82% of cases in Denmark, 9% in the UK and 8% in the United States, based on his analysis of sequencing data from the GISAID database and case counts from the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford.
The BA.1 version of Omicron has been somewhat easier to track than prior variants. That is because BA.1 is missing one of three target genes used in a common PCR test. Cases showing this pattern were assumed by default to be caused by BA.1.
BA.2, sometimes known as a "stealth" subvariant, does not have the same missing target gene. Instead, scientists are monitoring it the same way they have prior variants, including Delta, by tracking the number of virus genomes submitted to public databases such as GISAID.
----MORE TRANSMISSIBLE?
Some early reports indicate that BA.2 may be even more infectious than the already extremely contagious BA.1, but there is no evidence so far that it is more likely to evade vaccine protection.
Danish health officials estimate that BA.2 may be 1.5 times more transmissible than BA.1, based on preliminary data, though it likely does not cause more severe disease.
In England, a preliminary analysis of contact tracing from Dec. 27, 2021, through Jan. 11, 2022, by the UK Health Security Agency (HSA) suggests that household transmission is higher among contacts of people infected with BA.2 (13.4%) compared with other Omicron cases (10.3%).
The HSA found no evidence of a difference in vaccine effectiveness, according to the Jan. 28 report.
More
https://www.yahoo.com/news/explainer-scientists-alert-over-rising-130643664.html
Easier to produce COVID vaccine shows promise in trials; nasal spray vaccine booster works in mice
January 28, 20229:37 PM GMT
Jan 28 (Reuters) - The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review.
New COVID-19 vaccine could be manufactured like flu shots
A COVID-19 vaccine that can be produced locally in low- and middle-income countries is yielding promising results in early clinical trials, researchers say.
The NDV-HXP-S vaccine, developed at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, uses an engineered version of the harmless Newcastle disease virus studded with coronavirus spike proteins to teach the immune system to recognize and attack the virus that causes COVID. Using blood samples from trial participants, researchers found that NDV-HXP-S induces proportionally more antibodies that can neutralize the virus and fewer non-neutralizing antibodies than the current mRNA vaccines from Moderna (MRNA.O) or Pfizer (PFE.N)/BioNTech , they reported on Friday on medRxiv ahead of peer review.
"The NDV-HXP-S vaccine induced neutralizing antibody responses against wild type (the original) SARS-CoV-2 that matched what we see after mRNA vaccination, but the proportion of neutralizing antibodies in the response was higher for NDV-HXP-S," said Mount Sinai's Florian Krammer. The vaccine can be manufactured like flu vaccines at low cost in chicken eggs at influenza vaccine manufacturing plants around the world, his team said. Early clinical trials with a live version are underway in Mexico and the United States, while an inactivated version is being tested in Vietnam, Thailand and Brazil, a spokesperson said. Mid-stage trials of the inactivated vaccine have also been completed and pivotal randomized trials are being planned.
More
Next, some vaccine links kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada. The links come from a most informative update from Stanford Hospital in California.
NY Times Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
Regulatory Focus COVID-19 vaccine tracker. https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker
Some other useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus resource centre
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Rt Covid-19
Centers for Disease Control Coronavirus
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
The Spectator Covid-19 data tracker (UK)
https://data.spectator.co.uk/city/national
Technology Update.
With events happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section. Updates as they get reported.
Eco-friendly micro-supercapacitors using fallen leaves?
Date: January 27, 2022
Source: The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Summary: A research team has developed a graphene-inorganic-hybrid micro-supercapacitor made of leaves using femtosecond direct laser writing lithography. The advancement of wearable electronic devices is synonymous with innovations in flexible energy storage devices. Of the various energy storage devices, micro-supercapacitors have drawn a great deal of interest for their high electrical power density, long lifetimes, and short charging times.
A KAIST research team has developed a graphene-inorganic-hybrid micro-supercapacitor made of leaves using femtosecond direct laser writing lithography. The advancement of wearable electronic devices is synonymous with innovations in flexible energy storage devices. Of the various energy storage devices, micro-supercapacitors have drawn a great deal of interest for their high electrical power density, long lifetimes, and short charging times.
However, there has been an increase in waste battery generation with the increases in the consumption and use of electronic equipment as well as the short replacement period that follows advancements in mobile devices. The safety and environmental issues involved in the collection, recycling, and processing of such waste batteries are creating a number of challenges.
Forests cover about 30 percent of the Earth's surface, producing a huge amount of fallen leaves. This naturally occurring biomass comes in large quantities and is both biodegradable and reusable, which makes it an attractive, eco-friendly material. However, if the leaves are left neglected instead of being used efficiently, they can contribute to fires or water pollution.
To solve both problems at once, a research team led by Professor Young-Jin Kim from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Dr. Hana Yoon from the Korea Institute of Energy Research developed a one-step technology that can create porous 3D graphene micro-electrodes with high electrical conductivity without additional treatment in atmospheric conditions by irradiating femtosecond laser pulses on the surface of the leaves without additional materials. Taking this strategy further, the team also suggested a method for producing flexible micro-supercapacitors.
They showed that this technique could quickly and easily produce porous graphene-inorganic-hybrid electrodes at a low price, and validated their performance by using the graphene micro-supercapacitors to power an LED and an electronic watch that could function as a thermometer, hygrometer, and timer. These results open up the possibility of the mass production of flexible and green graphene-based electronic devices.
Professor Young-Jin Kim said, "Leaves create forest biomass that comes in unmanageable quantities, so using them for next-generation energy storage devices makes it possible for us to reuse waste resources, thereby establishing a virtuous cycle."
This research was published in Advanced Functional Materials last month and was sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs, the Korea Forest Service, and the Korea Institute of Energy Research.
I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for ten years.
Warren Buffett.
