NIT Srinagar event highlights hydrogen plasma smelting for low-carbon nickel and green metal transition

NIT Srinagar hosted an Alumni Back to Campus programme where Dr. Ing Ubaid Manzoor from the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials spoke on sustainable metallurgy and the green energy transition. He argued that the shift to clean energy depends heavily on metals like nickel, copper, and cobalt, and that conventional metal production remains carbon intensive. Dr. Manzoor noted that producing one tonne of nickel can generate 22 to 28 tonnes of CO2. He presented hydrogen plasma smelting reduction (HPSR) as an alternative that uses electricity and reactive hydrogen to extract metals from low-grade ores and deep-sea nodules, potentially reducing process emissions. The talk stressed that decarbonizing industry requires redesigning production systems, not just swapping fuels. For anyone tracking industrial emissions or critical mineral supply chains, the event points to a technology worth monitoring as it moves from research toward scale.