Onlykashmir.in News Desk
The Alumni Association of NIT Srinagar, in collaboration with the Office of the Dean of Alumni and International Affairs, organised an Alumni Back to Campus programme at the Hi-Tech Hall of the institute. The featured speaker was alumnus Dr Ing Ubaid Manzoor, Project Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials in Germany.
The programme was hosted by Prof M. A. Shah, Dean of Alumni and International Affairs, along with Ms Toyiba, Joint Secretary-II of the Alumni Association. During the interactive session, Dr Manzoor said that “the green energy transition is fundamentally a materials and metals transition,” pointing to the growing demand for critical metals such as nickel, copper and cobalt in batteries, renewable energy technologies and modern infrastructure.
He highlighted the carbon-intensive nature of conventional metal production, noting that producing one tonne of nickel can generate roughly 22 to 28 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. This, he said, makes it necessary to develop sustainable and energy-efficient alternatives to conventional metallurgical processes.
Drawing on his research published in Nature and Science Advances, Dr Manzoor discussed Hydrogen Plasma Smelting Reduction, an innovative technology that combines electrical energy, reactive hydrogen chemistry and high-temperature processing. The method is designed to extract critical metals from low-grade nickel laterites and deep-sea polymetallic nodules. He explained that it offers an alternative to conventional carbon-based extraction by integrating reduction, melting and separation into a single electrically driven process.
Dr Manzoor stressed that sustainable metallurgy requires more than replacing carbon with hydrogen. What is needed, he said, is a fundamental redesign of metal production systems through cleaner energy, process integration and resource-efficient technologies. The message was aimed squarely at the engineering students in the audience, many of whom will enter industries that sit at the centre of the global energy transition.
Prof Shah said the programme gave students an opportunity to engage with advanced materials research and to understand the role of scientific innovation in addressing global environmental challenges. He emphasised the importance of alumni engagement in inspiring young engineers and connecting academic learning with developments in global research.
For a institution in Srinagar, the session offered a direct link between campus learning and cutting-edge work being done abroad by one of its own graduates. Alumni programmes of this kind give students a first-hand view of research careers, and the focus on metals and clean energy reflects a subject that is likely to shape engineering and materials science for years to come.
