The Great Enabler
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THE MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO NICKEL AND ITS APPLICATIONS |
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STAINLESS STEEL is replacing cast iron in applications such as these wastewater treatment plant gates in
the U.S. state of Alabama.
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The use of nickel and nickel-containing stainless steels and alloys continue to increase worldwide. Some applications are novel and others are commonplace. But even the old uses of nickel contribute to higher demand. That's because they are being applied in areas of the globe where they have not been used previously. Consider China, the largest developing economy in the world, where the use of nickel tripled in the five-year period from 1997 to 2002.
Demand for nickel in the developing areas of the world continues to increase because governments are interested in infrastructure that is durable and long-lasting. Companies in the chemical, oil & gas, water treatment, food processing and other sectors are using modern, corrosion-resistant capital equipment in various parts of the developing world. And the people who live there are interested in hygienic, attractive cookware, tableware, portable electronics and household appliances -- all of which contributes to greater demand for nickel.
Meanwhile, in the developed world, seemingly mundane but novel applications of nickel, such as the use of stainless steel for control gates in wastewater treatment facilities in the United States (see story here >>), exemplify how stainless steel is replacing higher-cost, heavier materials that do not perform as well. This raises an important point about the increasing use of nickel: although the applications of nickel and nickel-containing materials are often site-specific, such as the wastewater treatments in the United States, they also have positive implications worldwide.
Reducing demand for electricity by making air conditioning more efficient (story >>) or lowering the amount of soot released into the air by diesel-fuelled cars or trucks (story >>) results in cleaner air for everyone. Similarly, improving the integrity of welds in a chemical processing vessel (story >>) lowers the risk of the releasing toxic chemicals into the environment. Finding new ways to join superalloys together using non-traditional welding techniques promises to reduce the impact that air travel has on the natural environment (story >>). And using thousands of nickel-cadmium batteries in one central facility in an electrical grid reduces the likelihood of power outages, which can disrupt the daily lives of people in isolated communities (story >>). All of these applications of nickel and nickel alloys improve the lives of people in a specific area while also improving the global environment in which we all live.
Another benefit of nickel is that at the end of the useful life of a product, the metal can often be fully
recycled. Therefore, the benefits to future generations of bringing more "new" nickel into play are not
diminished. In certain areas, however, nickel is not being recycled to the degree that it could be, an
example being nickel-plated plastics in products used in television sets, computers, kitchen appliances, and
hundreds of other consumer goods. Fortunately, researchers in Japan have devised a technique that separates
the plated nickel from the plastic at the end of the product's life without the use of chemicals (story >>). The technique promises to make even this, often decorative
use of nickel of benefit to mankind.
pwhiteway@nickelinstitute.org
Editor
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