Development of small-scale specialty nickel powder production process

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Cobric Chemicals Inc. (a developer and provider of innovative by-product management solutions) haspartnered with Sheridan College and SMART Metal Powders (a sole proprietorship providing expertise to themetal powders industry) to design and develop a scalable process to produce high-purity, micron-sized nickelpowder via nickel carbonyl technology. The process - when designed, optimized and controlled effectively -can yield specialty nickel powders that have niche market applications in a number of renewable energyindustries such as solar photovoltaic panels, rechargeable batteries and both solid oxide and molten carbonatefuel cells, as well as electronic materials used in mobile phones and flat panel displays. The process involvesthe production and decomposition of nickel tetracarbonyl under certain controlled process conditions.Specifically, the objective of this project is to design and control a process known as the Mond process to yieldspecialty powders that are not available commercially, yet are requested by end users in the renewable energyand electronics industries. Based on experience, the industry partners for this project believe that carbonyltechnology is capable of making these products. The experimental as well as theoretical modeling workproposed in this project (which is a continuation of a successful NSERC Engage grant) will address severaldesign uncertainties associated with a demonstration-scale plant that could be scaled to a commercially-viablebusiness venture.