Sustainable Metallurgy

The global imperative for carbon neutrality and the accelerating demand for secondary batteries, particularly in the electric vehicle (EV) sector, have intensified for transformative recycling strategies. My focus has been on a novel hydrogen plasma reduction method, capable of swiftly recovering valuable metals from spent battery cathodes within one minute. Demonstrating its versatility, alloys such as Invar, high entropy alloys, and TiAl were successfully designed in a streamlined process. This research highlights a simple, rapid, and environmentally friendly pathway for directly upcycling battery waste into high-performance alloys. 

In preparation.

Hydrogen plasma reduction was explored as a selective pre-processing strategy for sustainable recovery of iron and vanadium from vanadium-rich titanomagnetite ores. The process rapidly transforms iron oxides into high-purity metallic iron, simultaneously concentrating vanadium and titanium into a separable oxide residue. Advanced characterization elucidated nanoscale phase transformations and the preferential segregation of trace elements. By avoiding intermediate phases typical of conventional methods, hydrogen plasma reduction improves reaction rates and overall energy efficiency. The mechanically separable vanadium-rich oxide layer generated by this method facilitates subsequent extraction processes. Integrating hydrogen plasma reduction with existing electric arc furnace technology offers an economically viable and environmentally sustainable pathway for resource recovery from complex ores.

Materialia. 44, 102580. (2025)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtla.2025.102580