Investor That Can See The Future

Chapter 424

Professor Homin Kim said looking at us.

“For now, we call this battery JN battery.”

“JN Battery? Did you have my name on it?”

In principle, JH would be correct, but as I write my English name as ‘Jinu’ according to the pronunciation, I also write the abbreviation as JN.

Professor Homin Kim burst out laughing at my question.

“Haha, I thought you would. Previously, it was an OTK battery, this time it was a JN battery. It wasn’t built that way, but a large amount of geratinium goes into this battery, and the element symbol for geratinium is Jn.”

“Oh, I see.”

I knew it was named after my name and I almost liked it.

“Actually, it has nothing to do with it. Originally, I had no intention of experimenting with geratinium, but because your name and abbreviation are the same, I did it just in case.”

Taehyung patted my shoulder.

“Then it’s all thanks to him.”

“Haha, that’s it.”

Professor Homin Kim began the explanation in earnest.

“Do you know ash earth?”

“Of course I do.”

Rare Earth Element.

As the name suggests, it is very rare in the natural world, and the amount of mining and trading is small. However, even a small amount can influence the performance of the material, and it is absolutely necessary, so it is called ‘industrial vitamin’.

Currently, China is the dominant player in the global rare earth market. China’s share of the earthworm market is over 80 percent.

In fact, it dominates the global market.

Since the market share is overwhelming, rare earths are sometimes used as weapons. As a representative example, when Japan and the Senkaku Islands dispute broke out in 2010, China banned the export of rare earths and received Japan’s unconditional surrender. (After that, other countries including Japan reduced imports of rare earths from China, and the Chinese economy was on the contrary. was hit)

Even now, if the US imposes trade-related pressure, China is responding by reducing its rare earth exports.

Professor Homin Kim listed element symbols on the blackboard.

“Rare earths are Sc, Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu. There are a total of 17, including lanthanides, 15, and scandium and yttrium. As you know, the most traded among these is neodymium belonging to the lanthanides. It is common among rare earths, but since it does not exist as a pure substance in nature, it has to undergo a separate extraction process.”

“Five! i See.”

Taek-gyu nodded his head eagerly and looked at me.

‘You went to Korea University, so you know this much, right?’

I nodded my head eagerly and answered with a look in my eyes.

‘no. How does the Department of Liberal Arts know that?’

Still, I think I’ve heard about neodymium while analyzing the raw material market. Was it used to make magnets?

A brief description of each rare earth was followed for about 30 minutes.

About the time Taek-gyu was starting to fall asleep, Professor Ho-min Kim put down the marker and said.

“… … However, this geratinium produces less than lutetium. In the first place, it hardly exists in nature, and the process of extracting pure substances is very difficult.”

No matter how expensive rare earths are, they are not as expensive as gold.

Lutetium, a representative expensive rare earth, is about half the price of gold. However, in the case of pure geratinium, the current market price is about $ 230,000 per kilogram. Considering that 1 kilogram of gold exceeds $ 50,000, it is four times more expensive.

Since these materials are used as the main material for batteries, it is not surprising that the price jumps 300 times.

“Geratinium is rarely used in industry. There is not much reason to use geratinium, and almost anything can be substituted with other rare earths.”

“i See.”

When you think about it, it’s normal.

In order to be actively used for industrial purposes, a certain amount of supply must be made and the price must be right. It is rare because it is expensive, and because it is expensive, it is not used.

The important thing is that even though it is rarely used, the price is that low. But what if we try to mass-produce JN batteries with this?

Naturally, according to the law of supply and demand, prices skyrocket several times or tens of times from now.

“Did you notice if you had heard this far? There is a bigger problem than supply and demand.”

From the moment the price rises, speculative capital around the world will rush in like a moth, causing the price to skyrocket even more.

This isn’t the first time this has happened.

Before the financial crisis, when oil prices soared endlessly, speculative capitalists did not even have enough borrowed crude oil storage tanks to fill them up, so they kept tankers full of crude oil floating in the sea.

They buy as much as possible and then sell them when the price rises to make a profit.

As the price of cobalt rose due to an increase in battery production, speculative capital also jumped in here, and the price of cobalt soared more than fourfold in a short period of time.

Speculative capitals manipulated international prices by buying and selling cobalt. However, the price of cobalt, which seems to rise endlessly, has plummeted by more than 80% since the release of OTK batteries, and speculators who jumped into speculation belatedly jumped into the river together.

I nodded.

“I guess speculators around the world will pile up warehouses full of geratinium and wait for the price to rise.”

That’s why you said that the price would jump tens of thousands of times if it goes into mass production.

“Well, it would be difficult to run a factory even if you rake up all the geratinium currently on the market anyway. Therefore, mass production is considered impossible.”

Only then did I understand why the atmosphere of the other researchers was calm. JN Battery is an invention that will change the world.

However, no matter how good an invention is, it is of no use if it cannot be commercialized.

Taek-gyu asked.

“What if you find a mine with massive deposits of geratinium?”

Professor Homin Kim shook his head.

“That would be great, but it is highly unlikely. Geranium is still found in rare earth mines. The amount is just so small. Even if a new mine is discovered, the percentage of geratinium buried there will not be significantly higher.”

This is similar to rare earth mines.

Rare earths are only mined together in mines where several minerals are buried. And in order to mine these rare earths, they literally plow the mines. Adding chemicals to separate certain rare earths from other minerals is a bonus.

“Even if you are really lucky to find a massively buried mine, extracting the pure substance is a problem. 70% of that price is the cost of extracting what is mixed with other minerals. The other way is to create a similar substance through synthesis… … It’s not easy either. First of all, stability will be an issue. As you know, chemicals are sensitive to even the smallest changes.”

If this had been easy, I would not have used rare earths at all.

Even now, many researchers are tearing their heads out to develop a technology that can replace or avoid expensive rare earths.

Wouldn’t it be thanks to these people that we can enjoy the benefits of civilization?

Professor Homin Kim said while scratching his head.

“I won’t be too disappointed. Other than this, we are continuing to research ways to replace it with new materials. Maybe we can use this opportunity to find something new.”

* * *

I kept thinking about it even after I returned from work.

A prototype is just a prototype after all. In order to solve the problem of heat generation and stability, mass-produce and secure marketability, it is necessary to invest time and manpower to continue research.

In most cases, this process fails.

This is also the reason why Kodak made the world’s first digital camera and Nokia made and discarded a smartphone.

It is because they decided that it would not be profitable if they continued to invest.

So what about JN batteries?

Yuri came up to the CEO’s office with a bunch of his materials.

“I have found the material you mentioned.”

“Thanks.”

I looked through the data on the global battery market.

Currently, the battery market is growing at an average annual rate of over 20%. This growth is of course due to the rapid growth of the electric vehicle market.

Innovation is not an entirely new concept. Developing an existing product is also innovation.

A smartphone is nothing more than a combination of existing functions into one mobile phone. However, the world has changed from the moment NPL announced NPHONE.

The same goes for OTK batteries.

OTK batteries have advanced the era of electric vehicles by 5 years. Thanks to advances in battery technology, electric vehicles have been able to outperform internal combustion engines in almost every way.

So, how will JN batteries, which are 20 times better than OTK batteries, be used in industry?

In fact, increasing the battery capacity is very simple. If you use two or two batteries and three batteries, the usage time will be doubled.

The problem is weight and volume.

If you want to use a long-lasting phone, can’t you just carry a brick-sized smartphone?

This is especially true for products whose weight and volume cannot be increased indefinitely. A typical example is drones.

A drone is an airplane that is operated without a human being.(Read more @ wuxiax.com)

The fields of use are also diverse. Military use such as reconnaissance and attack, agricultural application of pesticides and fertilizers, surveillance of forest fires or coastal accidents, lifesaving use of rescuing people in danger areas or delivering medicines, filming of movies and dramas, children playing with for toys and so on.

Delivery services using drones are already being tested, and drones that can carry people have recently appeared.

More than 20 companies are already developing the technology, and prototypes have been unveiled at CES. Iver plans to start transporting passengers using manned drones from next year.

Perhaps within a few years, the era of flying taxis will open beyond taxis on the road.

Drones are powered by batteries and motors to reduce weight and size. So when the OTK battery was launched, the drone industry welcomed it with open arms.

The problem is that it is difficult to fly for more than an hour even with an OTK battery. If you load a courier or a person here, the flight time will be cut by less than half.

JN Battery can solve this problem.

If commercialization is possible, wouldn’t it be possible to make not only drones but also airplanes powered by batteries?

This is beneficial not only for efficiency, but also for safety.

Birdstrike is one of the most common and fatal aviation accidents. A flying bird is sucked into the engine.

At this time, there is no solution other than expelling the birds. However, if the driving method is changed to a battery and a motor, it is possible to eliminate the engine altogether.

Wouldn’t it be possible to take on a new challenge in the global aviation market dominated by Boeing and Airbus by making electric planes?

If OTK battery opened the electric vehicle market, JN battery is the key to opening a new era of mobility beyond automobiles.

It could completely change the entire industry.

Taegyu said.

“Can’t we just solve the price?”

“So that’s the problem that can’t be solved.”

Hydrogen batteries, which have more than four times the capacity of conventional lithium-ion batteries, are already being used for military purposes. The reason this good technology is not widely used in the private sector is because there are problems with the price or mass production process.

“If there was a lot of geratinium, the JN battery could be made,” said, “If there is uranium that does not emit radioactivity during nuclear fission, it would make a safe nuclear power plant.” “If people had wings, they could fly.” How is it different from saying, ‘If my father gave me the building, I could play and eat’?”

There is no uranium that does not emit radioactivity during nuclear fission, and humans have no wings. And my dad is not the owner of the building.

I came to a conclusion.

“As long as my father doesn’t have a building, he has to study hard and get a job, so unless we can solve the problem of price and production of geratinium, commercialization is impossible.”