Field notes The Energy Transition for the Rest of Us

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Waste and recycling

9 notes · Catalyst 8 · Steel For Fuel 1

  1. Catalyst · 26 Mar 2026 The state and future of nuclear waste with Jen Shafer, professor in the nuclear science and engineering program, Colorado School of Mines What is US nuclear waste actually made of, what is happening to it, and does a new wave of reactors change the problem?
  2. Catalyst · 24 Jul 2025 Repurposing EV batteries for grid storage with Colin Campbell, chief technology officer, Redwood Materials When is it better to put a worn-out electric vehicle battery back on the grid than to shred it for the materials inside it?
  3. Catalyst · 24 Apr 2025 The geopolitics of rare earth elements with Ahmad Ghahreman, co-founder and CEO, Cyclic Materials China controls the rare earth supply chain more completely than any other critical mineral, and has started using that control as leverage. Can a supply chain be built outside it?
  4. Catalyst · 23 Jan 2025 The climate-ag grab bag with Mike Grunwald, journalist and author of the forthcoming book ‘We Are Eating the Earth’ Food and land are about a third of global emissions and are on track to consume far more land by 2050. What actually fixes that?
  5. Catalyst · 2 Dec 2024 From biowaste to ‘biogold’ with Julio Friedmann, chief scientist, Carbon Direct There is only so much biomass, and every use of it competes with every other use. What should we actually do with it?
  6. Catalyst · 26 Apr 2024 Building a supply chain for rare earth elements with Ahmad Ghahreman, CEO and co-founder, Cyclic Materials What would it actually take to build a rare earth element supply chain outside China?
  7. Catalyst · 4 Apr 2024 Understanding the growing world of battery recycling with Dan Steingart, chair of the earth and environmental engineering department, Columbia University Battery recycling is technically well understood, so why is it such a hard business, and what would a recycler have to do to make it work?
  8. Catalyst · 13 Feb 2024 2024 trends: batteries, tax credits, and the cost of capital with Nat Bullard, independent climate tech analyst and writer, formerly chief content officer at BloombergNEF What do the 2023 data actually say about how decarbonization is going, and where have the binding constraints moved?
  9. Steel For Fuel · 21 Dec 2023 What’s the best use for our ‘waste’ biomass? by Andy Lubershane, Partner and Head of Research, Energy Impact Partners Of all the things that could be done with the biomass agriculture, forestry and food systems throw away, which is the best?