The Future Role of Nickel Alloy

With growing urbanization and migrations of population, the demand for more housing units, better transportation, and more energy is also unstoppable. While it is not common knowledge, nickel has a great role in filling in those needs through its versatility.

However, a lot of myths about this material have been spread, preventing nickel from reaching its full potential as a viable element that can help meet and sustain the needs of the future generation. Hence, there is a call for establishing a reliable supply chain for innovative nickel and nickel alloy applications. With that, here are some of the amazingly high potential applications of nickel that would be driven by the need of the entire society to save limited resources and fight climate change.

The Battery Revolution

One of the megatrends across industries is the transition to battery energy storage and battery power for everything electric-like cars. Only very few people know that behind the popular lithium-ion batteries is the main ingredient that is nickel. Yes, it is nickel alloy called nickel-metal hydride and nickel-cadmium that compose lithium batteries. These batteries contain almost 80% nickel, making the trend so attractive to the nickel industry.

Water Distribution

This is another high potential application for nickel as water authorities are seeking to improve water distribution around the globe. In fact, the current trend favours the use of nickel-containing stainless steel as a replacement for the old infrastructure of water systems in major cities in developing countries. Studies have shown the ability of this material in preventing water leakage, particularly in seismic and water-stressed areas, helping to resolve one of our most pressing problems.

Marine Scrubbers

Lastly, nickel alloy is also seen to be very significant in satisfying stricter environmental regulations for marine engines, especially in marine scrubbers. The highly corrosion-resistant nickel-containing alloys that contain up to 50% nickel are found to be a cheaper yet very effective solution for marine scrubbers that have a very harsh internal environment. Shipowners can prevent potential risks of failure associated with with marine scrubbers by using nickel alloy.

These three areas are just some of the amazing opportunities for nickel and there are a lot more. Stay tuned to our future updates.