In search of new areas of use for palladium

The Norilsk Nickel’s plans are to develop about 120 new materials for high-tech industries by 2030, which is expected to increase global demand for palladium, one of the metals produced by the group, by 40 tons per year. Dmitry Izotov, director of the palladium center of the mining and metallurgical company Norilsk Nickel, spoke about this in an interview with Chinanews.com.

“We conduct fundamental research in collaboration with research institutes to study and discover new properties of palladium and the metal applications in various fields. The main goal is to develop and commercialize new products for use in ‘green’ technologies such as hydrogen, solar energy, biofuels, ‘green’ chemicals, electronics and food technology,” he said.

Research into new applications of this metal is expected to increase global demand for it by about 14 percent over a five-year horizon.

Dmitry Izotov also noted that the reason for the company’s activity in this direction is the objective it set to achieve the highest possible carbon neutrality of its metals, and this requires to replace at least 84 percent of the energy sources used today (mainly hydrocarbons) with new, renewable ones (hydrogen, sun, biofuels, and so on). However, at the current level of the technology development, their share can hardly exceed 25 percent.
“The main challenge is the slow pace of the implementation of new technologies in the industrial sector due to higher costs and technical limitations. Our center is developing more efficient palladium-based materials and alloys to reduce costs and speed up the large-scale implementation of ‘green’ technologies,” says Izotov. 
An example of such a solution is the catalyst developed by Norilsk Nickel for a hydrogen electrolyzer. The company replaced 30 percent of iridium with palladium, which, on the one hand, made it possible to reduce the cost of the device (palladium costs several times less than iridium), and on the other hand, it was possible to increase productivity five times while maintaining its service life.

There are examples of replacing platinum with palladium in fuel cell catalysts. These metals are close in price (platinum is a little more expensive), but devices with palladium work three times more efficiently.
In addition, Norilsk Nickel has developed a number of new chemical products, for example, the glycolic acid-based catalysts for the production of skin care products, FDCA for biodegradable packagings, and the elements for water purification. Additionally, the company is making prototypes of new palladium-based thin-film solar cells, which are expected to increase the efficiency of solar energy generation. 

The global demand for palladium is now about 290 tons (200 tons of primary palladium and 90 tons of recycled metal), of which 240 tons are for production of autocatalysts. Norilsk Nickel produces over 40 percent of the global palladium, about 85 tons.

Theodor Lisovoy, Editor in Chief, Rough&Polished