Can this nickel-eating plant help solve the battery crisis?

DW Planet A July 25, 2025
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DW Planet A

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We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess. If you have any story ideas or leads, please contact us at [email protected]. This is a Deutsche Welle YouTube channel. Deutsche Welle is Germany's international broadcaster, producing TV, radio and internet programming for you in 30 languages – wherever you are in the world. Channel lead: Kiyo Dörrer Supervising editors: Kiyo Dörrer, Joanna Gottschalk, Malte Rohwer-Kahlmann

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Using plants to get metals out of the ground is known as "phytomining". Decades after it was first developed, green-thumbed entrepreneurs are trying to finally make it a business out of hyperaccumulator plants. Will they succeed? #PlanetA #Nickel #RareEarths Credits: Reporter: Jonas Mayer Video Editor: Neven Hillebrands Supervising Editors: Kiyo Dörrer, Adam Baheej Adada Factcheck: Kirsten Funck Thumbnail: Em Chabridon Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:51 How does it work? 3:32 This versus conventional mining 5:49 The business case 8:05 Challenges 9:59 What now? Read more: The most comprehensive book on phytomining: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-58904-2 ARPA-E about their phytomining research: https://arpa-e.energy.gov/news-and-events/news-and-insights/how-could-phytomining-bolster-us-critical-mineral-supply-chains The first patent on a phytomining process from 1995: https://patents.google.com/patent/US5711784A/en The IEA’s Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2025: https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/a33abe2e-f799-4787-b09b-2484a6f5a8e4/GlobalCriticalMineralsOutlook2025.pdf The phytoremediation research in Chernobyl: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/es980788%2B We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. We'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess. Follow Planet A on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dw_planeta?lang=en

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