Nickel

Nickel is a fundamental base metal. Approximately 2m tons of metal are produced every year.

Nickel  main applications are:

• Austenitic stainless steel (65%).
• Superalloys (e.g., Inconel 600) or nonferrous alloys (e.g., cupronickel)(12%). Both families of alloys are widely used because of their corrosion resistance. The aerospace industry is a leading consumer of nickel-base superalloys.  Turbine blades, discs and other critical parts of jet engines are fabricated from superalloys.  Nickel-base superalloys are also used in land-based combustion turbines, such those found at electric power generation stations.
• The remaining 23% of consumption is divided between alloy steels, rechargeable batteries, catalysts and other chemicals, coinage, foundry products, and plating (9%).  

ELSA successfully produced nickel metal from both electroless and electrolytic coating bathes.

The process was using iron, zinc or a mixture iron/zinc balls as sacrificial metals.

Laboratory experiments were confirmed by cycles on the pilot with larger volumes.

Lixiviation of nickel containing industrial wastes was investigated with success and the produced solutions were treated at a pilot scale to recover nickel.

• Pilot experiments on various nickel containing solutions