Why Nornickel wants to spend $100m on palladium-based technologies

Approximately 50% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions come from the Asia–Pacific region, and the situation is getting worse as global warming in the region has exceeded the global average. The innovative palladium solutions that Nornickel is currently working on will address the region's key challenges.

Problems addressable with palladium technologies:

• improving water treatment for over 2 billion people,
• accelerating the transition to sustainable feedstocks, and
• facilitating the implementation of green energy projects to reduce harmful emissions.

Nornickel will spend around $100 million on research and development of innovative palladium applications by the end of 2030.

Dmitry Izotov, Head of Nornickel’s Palladium Centre, presented on this vital subject at the Leveraging Digital Innovation for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific plenary session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), held at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok.

Currently, most water is disinfected with chlorine, which poses significant environmental risks in production, transport and storage. A palladium alloy catalyst combined with electrolysis technology allows the disinfectant to be produced close to the water supply, reducing environmental risks.

The raw material for the production of biodegradable packaging is currently glycolic acid, which is derived from formaldehyde, a dangerous carcinogen. The new palladium-based catalyst eliminates the need for carcinogenic formaldehyde and provides better raw material yields. Palladium technology helps manufacturers simultaneously tackle three challenges:

1. meet increasingly stringent environmental regulations,
2. reduces production costs, and
3. improve safety.

Palladium has an enormous potential to improve the performance of green technologies and make them cheaper to implement. It is highly catalytic, hydrogen permeable and, when combined with other elements, has good optical properties. In particular, palladium is already being actively used in the automotive industry to develop emission control systems.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning play an important role in accelerating material development processes. Nornickel actively uses digital technologies to predict the structures and properties of materials and determine the parameters most optimal for the consumer.

But tight international cooperation in the development of digital technologies is needed at all levels and is crucial to accelerate the adoption of green technologies and achieve sustainable development goals.