Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials have developed a CO2-free and energy-saving process to extract nickel for batteries, magnets and stainless steel.
The transition from fossil fuels to electricity is a key component in reducing CO2 emissions and thus curbing climate change. Nickel is indispensable for electrification, particularly in the transport and industrial sectors. Nickel is needed for batteries, magnets, and stainless steel. According to forecasts, nickel demand is expected to double by 2040. However, conventional nickel production currently generates around 20 tons of CO2 per ton of nickel – a significant environmental burden. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials (MPI-SusMat) in Düsseldorf have now achieved a breakthrough. They have developed a CO2-free, energy-efficient process for nickel extraction that also enables the use of previously neglected, lower-grade ores.
"If we continue to produce nickel conventionally and use it for electrification, we are simply shifting the environmental impact from the transport sector to the metallurgy sector," explains Ubaid Manzoor, a doctoral student at the MPI-SusMat and lead author of the publication. Together with his colleagues, he developed a process in which nickel is extracted from ores in a single step using hydrogen plasma – entirely without carbon. Including the CO2 emissions generated during the mining and transport of nickel ores, the new process reduces CO2 emissions by 84 percent. Furthermore, when using renewable energy sources, the process is up to 18 percent more energy-efficient, as the repeated heating and cooling of the ores, as is common with conventional processes, is avoided.
To date, the industry has predominantly relied on high-quality ores, as extracting nickel from lower-quality ores is technically much more challenging. Nickel occurs in complex silicates or iron oxides. Conventional processes therefore require several energy-intensive steps: calcination, smelting, reduction, and refining. With their new process, the Max Planck scientists can also process low-quality ores—which account for around 60 percent of the world's nickel reserves—in a single arc furnace into a high-quality nickel product, known as ferronickel.
“Using hydrogen plasma and controlling the thermodynamics within the arc furnace, we are able to convert the complex crystal structure of the minerals into simpler ionic forms – even without catalysts,” explains Professor Isnaldi Souza Filho, group leader at MPI-SusMat and corresponding author of the study.
The process not only reduces emissions and energy consumption, but also expands the range of usable nickel ores – a win for the economy and the environment. The next step is to scale the process for industrial application. "The reduction of the ores occurs exclusively at the reaction surface – not in the entire molten bath. For implementation on an industrial scale, it is therefore crucial that the unreduced melt continuously reaches the reaction surface," says Manzoor. "This can be achieved using high-current arcs, electromagnetic stirring systems, and gas pulses." These methods are already established in industry, which facilitates integration into existing production facilities.
The new process for producing green nickel lays the foundation for a more environmentally friendly electrification of the transport sector. The resulting ferronickel can be used directly in stainless steel production or—after further processing—for battery materials and high-performance magnets. The slag produced during the reduction process can also be reused, for example, for cement or bricks in the construction industry. The process is also transferable to other metals such as cobalt, which also plays a key role in electromobility and energy storage.
original publication
U. Manzoor, L. Mujica Roncery, D. Raabe, IR Souza Filho: Sustainable nickel enabled by hydrogen-based reduction. In: Nature (2025), DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08901-7
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