The research and education activities in the Resources, Energy & Environment group are focused around metal and alloy production, refining and recycling, with emphasis on elements such as silicon, manganese, aluminum, iron and rare earth elements. The group aims to enable sustainable metal production and processing. This involves a holistic, circular, view of the value chain, in which the interdependency between raw materials, energy use, production processes and recycling routes – with associated environmental impacts- is imperative. The group operates state-of-the-art experimental laboratories for a wide range of applications and scales. Our research can be categorised in the following themes:

• Process modelling and improvement
• Metal production and raw materials
• Thermodynamics and kinetics
• Refining and recycling
• Emissions and environment

Videos

Study Resources, Energy & Environment (YouTube external link in Norwegian)

The Norwegian Aluminium Production (YouTube external link)
How Norway became one of the most eco friendly aluminium producers in the world

The Norwegian Ferroalloy Industry (YouTube external link)
Norway's ferroalloy industry and their contribution to the circular economy

What is the EXTREME program? (YouTube external link)

Process modelling and improvement

Contact: Kristian E. Einarsrud

Metal producing process are resource- and energy intensive, yet, metals are an integral part of society and a necessity for reaching the UN sustainability goals. As such, there will always be room for process improvements. Owing to the high temperatures and otherwise hazardous conditions occurring in a furnace during operations and high investment costs, improvements are typically incremental.

Numerical- and mathematical models in combination with industrial expertise and selected key experiments has proven to be a cost-effective strategy to realize these improvements. Multiple scenarios and consequences can be verified, visualized and evaluated simultaneously, making it easier to asses and prioritize technical solutions.

Our activities involve computational fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, kinetics, multi-physics and pragmatic modelling, utilizing both commercial, academic and in-house software.

Metal production and raw materials

Contact: Merete Tangstad, Jafar Safarian, Gabriella Tranell

Metal producing process are resource- and energy intensive, yet, metals are an integral part of society and a necessity for reaching the UN sustainability goals. The group is working continuously with producing metals at lower environmental costs through both continuous process improvements and step-change process innovations. Over time, the raw materials are also gradually decreasing in quality, as they are finite.

Experimental work to simulate high temperature processes is performed in the high temperature laboratories at the department. This work gives both fundamental and applied thermodynamic and kinetic data and, most importantly, helps to elucidate mechanisms in the industrial processes. Studies into how different materials behave in the process allows for a change to more sustainable raw materials with a lower energy consumption. Process models are used to set the data into larger contexts.

Ongoing projects

• BioCarbUp
• Controlled tapping
• CaNAl
• PreMa - Energy efficient, primary production of manganese ferroalloys through the application of novel energy systems in the drying and pre-heating of furnace feed materials
• ENSUREAL - Integrated cross-sectorial approach for environmentally sustainable and resource-efficient alumina production
• HydroMetEC - Hydrometallurgy in raw materials utilization

The PreMa Project Pilot experiments (YouTube external link)
Reduction of energy consumprion and CO2 emissions in ferromanganese production

Thermodynamics and kinetics

Contact: Jafar Safarian, Ragnhild Aune

Thermodynamic and kinetic studies are crucially important to produce/process materials. The thermodynamics of metallurgical reaction systems are extensively studied in the group through both fundamental experimental research and theoretical investigations, supported by tools such as FACTSage, HSC Chemistry and Thermocalc.

The kinetics of the metallurgical reactions is studied through experimental work and modelling to determine the key process rate parameters such as activation energies and mass transfer coefficients. We have well-equipped laboratories with state-of-the-art facilities to do kinetics studies in different scales; micro to macro. In addition to establishing fundamental knowledge about the mechanisms of reactions, the obtained kinetics data can be used to improve the processes or design new processes.

Refining and Recycling

Contact: Gabriella Tranell, Ragnhild Aune, Jafar Safarian

Efficient metal refining is essential to achieve purities required in advanced metal and alloy products. Our activities are mainly focused on metals such as aluminium and silicon grade silicon, with expertise in slag refining, reactive gas refining, vacuum refining, filtration and hydrometallurgical refining. Our well-equipped laboratories are laboratories can facilitate experimental refining studies for these techniques in gram to 10´s of kilogram scales.

Metal recycling is essential to a resource efficient, economic and low carbon materials life cycle. In the research group, we address a range of recycling issues and materials – from end-of-life electronic waste, aluminium packaging to secondary material streams such as aluminium dross, slags and sludges from silicon and ferroalloy production.

Ongoing projects

• Circular Aluminium Packaging in Norway – Alpakka
• RemovAL - Removing the waste streams from the primary Aluminum production in Europe
• ReSiLex - Reducing the EU dependence on critical raw materials for solar panel production
• SisAl Pilot - Silicon production with low environmental impact using secondary aluminium and silicon raw materials
• SisAl- Flag valorisation

Emissions and environment

Contact: Gabriella Tranell

Metal production and processing inevitably comes with emissions to air, water and soil. Through our research, we aim to develop processes with reduced emissions of both greenhouse gases and other pollutants such as SO₂, NO_x, PAH, dust and heavy elements. As such, an important competence element in the group is the determination of mechanisms, as well as kinetics of formation, of such species. Accurate measurement of industrial emissions through advanced methods such as GC, FTIR, various dust sensors etc., is one of the core activities within the research theme. We also collaborate closely with the Industrial Ecology group at NTNU to establish comprehensive frameworks for environmental impact assessments of industrial metal production processes.

Ongoing projects

• PAHssion- Industrial efforts towards zero emissions of PAH
• SiNoCO₂ - Silicon production with no CO₂ emissions
• Reduced CO₂ emissions