Peter Charles is a journalist and writer who covers battery-material recycling, urban mining, and the growing use of microreactors in industry. With 10 years of experience in industrial reporting, he explains new technologies and industry changes in clear, simple terms. He holds both a BSc and an MSc in Electrical Engineering, which gives him the technical knowledge to report accurately and insightfully on these topics.
Microreactor technology is no longer science fiction. Tiny channels and continuous flow systems are being used in labs and pilot plants to make pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, and specialty materials. But moving from clever lab tricks to millions-of-kilograms-per-year production is about more than chemistry — it’s […]
Have you ever wondered whether it’s better to have many small machines working together or one big machine doing the same job? In chemical processing, that question turns into a practical engineering, economic, and environmental puzzle: should you build a bank of microreactors operating in […]
If you’ve ever baked a cake, you know the difference between following a recipe step-by-step and tossing everything together and hoping for the best. Chemical manufacturing faces the same problem: repeatability. At small scale, a chemist can tweak things and get great results. But when […]
Scaling a microreactor from lab bench to factory floor is a lot like taking a boutique bakery and turning it into a chain of busy stores. In the lab, you can babysit a single loaf. In production, you must feed dozens of ovens, keep quality […]
Choosing the right material for a microreactor is like choosing the right material for a bridge: the wrong pick can lead to costly repairs, safety headaches, or an unusable design. Microreactors bring unique demands — tiny channels, high surface-to-volume ratios, and sometimes extreme chemical or […]
Microreactors aren’t just a niche lab toy; they’re a toolbox that can change how many chemical processes are done. But the path from promising lab data to a humming factory floor is full of bumps. This expanded article digs into more reaction classes, real-world constraints, […]
Batteries are everywhere: phones, solar home kits, motorbikes, UPS units, and increasingly, electric two- and three-wheelers. When those batteries die, they don’t vanish — they become a stream of hazardous waste and a potential source of valuable materials. Setting up reliable collection and logistics for […]
Think about the millions of batteries that will reach their end of life in the coming years. Electric vehicles, laptops, power tools, and grid storage systems will generate a tidal wave of packs and cells. Disassembling those packs safely and cheaply is one of the […]
If you’re asking whether hydrometallurgical recycling can outcompete pyrometallurgical recycling at scale, the honest answer is: it depends. Hydrometallurgy generally wins on material recovery, lithium capture, and greenhouse-gas intensity, while pyrometallurgy wins on robustness and throughput for mixed, dirty feeds. The real choice for a […]
We all hear the promise: recycle batteries, save the planet. But what does that actually mean in numbers — for greenhouse gases (GHG), for water use, and for the electricity needed? And does it matter whether we’re recycling factory scrap (material that never left a […]