Nornickel promotes palladium in India

The development of hydrogen production offers great prospects worldwide, and India could become a major centre of production: according to current forecasts, it will produce 5 million tonnes by 2030 and 25 million tonnes by 2050. Hydrogen in India will be in demand in three key sectors: iron and steel, chemicals and transport.

But Indian industry will need innovative materials and technologies. These include palladium, which can absorb 900 times its own volume of hydrogen and release it at low temperatures. It can also easily split hydrogen molecules into atoms that can pass through it unhindered, unlike other gases. For this reason, Nornickel has been developing palladium-based materials for hydrogen power generation for many years. For example, a catalyst developed by the company for an electrolyser has tripled its yield, while the use of palladium in a proton exchange membrane has increased its throughput capacity by a factor of four.

Based on palladium's capabilities and India's potential as a hydrogen energy hub, Nornickel presented its research at the Hydrogen Technology Expo in Delhi. As the world's leading producer of palladium, Nornickel laid the foundations for cooperation with Indian companies involved in hydrogen production and consumption in various fields, ranging from the aforementioned ferrous metals, chemicals, and transport to microelectronics, solar energy, and synthetic diamond synthesis.