A workshop on innovation research in the aluminum industry was organized at Alcoa, Mosjøen, December 5th. Alcoa is one of the SFI Metal Production industry partners. A delegation from NTNU and SINTEF visited Alcoa to discuss progress in ongoing research.
Visitors from Trondheim (NTNU and SINTEF) were representatives from the SFI management and researchers from the project HighEFF.

Project managers presented recent results, and future plans were discussed in groups with participants from both organizations. 

Alcoa was a great host for the delegation from Trondheim. The seminar program also included a tour on the smelter site, highly appreciated by participants visiting Alcoa for the first time. We are looking forward to continuing the collaboration and wish to thank Alcoa for receiving us and making the seminar a success.

Shokouh Haghdani started as a Postdoctor at the Centre in December 2019. Shokouh’s preliminary project title is “Influence of structure on slag viscosity”, and Professor Kristian Etienne Einarsrud is her supervisor.

Shokouh got her PhD from the chemistry department at NTNU.

The project aims at developing thermodynamic viscosity models for slag systems. The models will be linked to the structure of slags using Raman spectroscopy that characterizes internal structures experimentally. In addition, a rotational viscometer will be employed for measuring viscosity (when applicable) to validate viscosity models. We would like to perform these steps for three industrial systems, namely Mn-, Ti- and Si-related slags. 

Welcome to SFI Metal Production!

Monday 25. November 2019 SFI Metal Production centre organised a half-day workshop with focus on filtration.

Pyrotek's Director of Technology and responsible for Bonded Particle Cartridge Filter came all the way from US to speak and attend. The topics where in addition to cartridge filters, priming, and recent research and development. The workshop was attended by 5 Hydro representatives, 2 from Aloca and 2 from Pyrotek in addition to the NTNU and SINTEF representatives.

The SFI Scientific committee (SC) members were invited to the autumn meeting, and a separate SC meeting was organized the following day.



From left: SC members Jean-Pierre Birat and Margaret Hyland, SFI management Aud Værnes and Gabriella Tranell. SC member Markus Reuter had left when the picture was taken and In-Ho Jung participated by skype.

The SFI Metal Production autumn meeting was held in Trondheim November 5-6.

Photo: Lauriane Bieber

In May 2019, the Scientific and Organization Committees at SAM 13 in Pisa, Italy, awarded The Jean-Sébastien Thomas Prize of 2019 to Halvard Tveit (Elkem) and Leiv Kolbeinsen (NTNU) for the paper entitled “The (love and hate) role of entropy in process metallurgy”. Congratulation to Halvard and Leiv!

The Jean-Sébastien Thomas Prize (JSTP) has been established in tribute to the former Head of the Global R&D Sustainability department who died in December 2014. Jean-Sébastien was an eminent member of the Sustainable Development community, recognized both within ArcelorMittal and among his peers. The Jean-Sébastien Thomas Prize rewards the most innovative paper – relating to methodology, experience or results – presented at the annual Society & Materials (SAM) conference.

The international Dross and Packaging Recycling Workshop was arranged May 15-16 in Trondheim as a part of SFI Metal Production’s activities. When announced this event, this workshop seemed to be pretty popular and we needed to minimise number of participants to around 40 in order to get a productive workshop. Except from SINTEF and NTNU twelve companies: Hydro, Alcoa, Novelis, Linde Gas, Norsk Metallgjenvinning, Gränges, Kavli, Metallco, Infinitum, Real Alloy, Constellium and Trimet Aluminum and two interest organisations: European Aluminium and Aluminium Association participated in this workshop.

The goal for these two days was to review recent problems and developments in dross and aluminium packaging recycling to a better understanding where more research or technical effort is most needed.

The enthusiastic participants worked hard during these two days and carried out four workshop session together. The first on Recyclable aluminium including collection, the second on Remelting Technologies and the third on Dross, Saltcake and the fourth and last on Quality and use of recycled Aluminium & Dross.

Anne Kvithyld, in your opening talk you presented the goal for this workshop. Did you reach them? “Yes, I feel we succeeded very well in discussing problems, developments and constraints. I am humble to expert group knowledge and amazed by their engagement.”

The program shows a push against the future perspective in all the presentations and workshop sessions. Do you have something of special interest you want to mention in this connection? "Generally new legislation, old problems – with the need to test out several upcoming technologies”

The organiser at SINTEF Industry, Anne Kvithyld and Berit Fossum, did a tremendous work with this workshop and got a lot of positive feedback in the finishing questionnaire. Thanks to the participants and the organisers for making this workshop to a success!

© Hydro Aluminium AS

Aluminium activities coordination meeting and visit to Karmøy Technology Pilot,  24 - 25 June

The SFI leader group represented by Aud Wærnes, Arne Petter Ratvik, Anne Kvithyld, Gabriella Tranell and Leiv Kolbeinsen met with representatives for the aluminium industry, Nancy Holt, and Trond Furu (Hydro), Ketil Rye and Harry Salvesen (Alcoa) and Anders Sørhuus (GE) to discuss results obtained, as well as activities and priorities for the aluminium industry during the second half of SFI Metal Production. The visit was completed by an extensive visit to the electrolysis pilot plant, as well as the foundry.

Thank you to Nancy for organizing the visit and the generous reception and tour by Hydro Karmøy.

Wednesday August 21

• Professor Haijuan Wang, University of Science and Technology Beijing, China
• Senior Lecturer Dr. Robert Cromarty, University of Pretoria, Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering, South Africa
• Professor Gabriella Tranell (administrator of the committee),  Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTNU

Haley Hoover started as a PhD candidate at the centre in August 2019. Haley's preliminary project title is “Resitivity of Partially Transformed Materials in the FeSi/Si Process”, and Professor Merete Tangstad is her supervisor.

Perfluorcarbon (PFC) gases are extremely potent greenhouse gases (GHGs) and industrial emissions contribute to global warming. Read more about what PFCs are and how they are formed, how PFC emissions have significantly lowered over the last 30 years and how continuous online monitoring can help limit and control emissions further in this blog post at #SINTEFblog. Written by Thor Anders Aarhaug, Senior Researcher at SINTEF and SFI Metal Production associate.

On June 5th, a workshop on scaling/fouling in the metal industry was organized. Both the industry and academia contributed with presentations, covering a broad variety of topics. The presentations provided insight on the fundamental understanding of scale formation mechanisms, industrial experiences with scaling and fouling and recent PhD results. It is clear that this topic is relevant for all branches of the metal industry. The workshop was concluded with a plenary discussion on the way forward within this field in the SFI and other projects.

Thank you to the participants for interesting presentations and fruitful discussions!

Lina Hockaday and Rodney Jones have been visiting Trondheim this Spring as a part of the INTPART project Metal Production. Lina has been here for 1,5 month and Rodney for two week and the exchange has been valuable for all parts. Thank you for the visit and welcome back!

Lina Hockaday is currently a Senior Engineer at Mintek’s pyrometallurgy division and has a background in chemical engineering and extractive metallurgy. She is enrolled for a part-time PhD in mechanical engineering at the University of Stellenbosch with her research topic being “The solar thermal treatment of manganese ores”. She is also Work Package 2 leader in the EU funded PreMa project, tasked with demonstrating concentrating solar thermal preheating of manganese ores. Lina visited NTNU and SINTEF as part of the INTPART project and for cooperation in the PreMa project.

Rodney Jones is a Senior Technical Specialist in the Pyrometallurgy Division at Mintek, as well as an Honorary Adjunct Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is a Past President of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM).  He paid a short visit to NTNU and SINTEF as part of the INTPART project Metal Production. While in Trondheim, he met with the organising committee of Infacon XVI (International Ferro-Alloys Congress), which will be held in Norway in June 2021.  Rodney chaired the previous Infacon event in Cape Town in 2018 and his experience from the last Infacon Congress is of great value for the Norwegian organising committee.

Kristian Etienne Einarsrud visited Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC) in May as a part of the CaNAl INTPART project between Canada and Norway. This is a network project for International Partnership for Excellent Education, Research and Innovation.

“Thanks to the CaNAl INTPART project, Norwegian and Canadian researchers alike have the possibility to make shorter and longer stays in Canada and Norway – respectively. Given the sound reputation of Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC) and a history of working in parallel but not (yet) together on aluminium reduction topics – I could not let this chance pass.” 

The visit was organized by Prof. Kiss who had proposed a full program during my stay, including visits to the group of Prof. Kiss – GRIPS – Groupe de Recherce en Ingenierie des Procédés et Systèmes  (the Research Group for Process and Systems Engineering)  and CURAL – Centre Universitaire de Recherce sur l’Aluminium (The University Center for Aluminium Research), the Rio Tinto Aluminium smelter in Alma and the Canadian National Research Council Aluminium Technology Center – CNRC-ATC. In exchange, we contributed to a full afternoon devoted multiphase flow modelling in aluminium production as well as information on CaNAl, IMA and SFI Metal Production – highlighting in particular our cross-disciplinary and cross-industrial traditions at NTNU and in the SFI.

The laboratories on the UQAC campus ranged from lab scale electrolysis cells and room temperature models equipped with for instance particle image velocimetry – PIV – to an industrial scale friction stir welding rig able to join 18 meter long pieces.  Experiences and possibilities related to both measurement of thermal properties and carbon, including a small-scale anode baking furnace, were discussed and demonstrated.  The facilities presented could easily be extended to other metals and could be a starting point for new activities for other partners of the SFI – also beyond aluminum.

The region of Saguenay is home to the only fjord in Canada – in that sense – even if you are far away, you will still feel at home – a notion further founded by the great hospitality of our new friends at UQAC. 

Dr. Artur Kudyba is our latest employed postdoc researcher at the Centre. Arturs’s preliminary project title is “Treatment and utilization of Al dross for other materials production”, and associated Professor Jafar Safarian is his supervisor.

Artur got his PhD degree in materials science and engineering from Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Science of Polish Academy of Sciences, Cracow. For the last 15 years he has been working at the Centre for High Temperature Studies at the Foundry Research Institute in Cracow with experimental research on the behavior of liquid metals and alloys (based on Al, Mg, Zn, Sn, Si) in contact with various refractories (oxides, carbides, nitrides or borides). His research mainly focused on the analysis of physicochemical and structural properties. In addition, he was involved in designing and building of new high temperature experimental devices (furnaces) dedicated to investigation of wettability and reactivity in various metal/ceramic systems.

Associated Professor Kristian Etienne Einarsrud (NTNU) got the award “2019 TMS LMD Young Professional Development” at TMS 2019  in San Antonio, Texas last week.  This award is set by TMS to enhance the professional development and growth of young, dynamic and committed members through leadership opportunities and networking. Congratulation!

Are Bergin (Hydro ASA, NTNU) was honored for excellence in the 2019 Technical Division Student Poster Competition at TMS 2019. His poster “Conventional and Low Phosphorous Ceramic Foam Filters (CFFs) - Chemical Reactivity and Thermal Stability” got the award in the Light Metal Division poster competition. Congratulation!

Are Bergin is an Industrial PhD at NTNU with Professor Ragnhild E. Aune as main supervisor and is one of the PhD’s associated to SFI Metal Production.

The last and the most exciting part of the mandatory SFI Midway Evaluation took place on March 6th. A panel of two specialists, manager Isabel Geldenhuys (Mintek, South Africa) and professor Bart Blanpain (KU Leuven, Belgium) and two generalists, professor Mary O'Kane (O'Kane Associates, Australia) and dr. Mattias Lundberg (Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, Sweden) visited the Centre for a day.

Within this day the Centre management, RD-leaders, Executive Committee and Dean at the NV Faculty had interesting hours together with the well-informed Panel. The Panel had their own session with PhD and postdoc and they also found place for a short lab tour. The day turned out to be a positive day with fruitful discussions combined with genuine and reflective questions from the Panel. Thanks to all the participants for contributions during the day and to all Partners in the Centre for the preparation in advance!

Professor In-Ho Jung from Seoul National University replace Professor Emeritus Oleg Ostrovski as a member of Scientific Committee (SC) for SFI Metal Production.  Prof. Jung is also Adjunct Professor at McGill University and co-developer of FactSage. SFI Metal Production is honoured to have Prof. Jung as a member of our Scientific Committee (SC).

Professor In-Ho had a two-days visit in Trondheim this week where he was introduced to the Centre and the on-going research activities. Prof. Jung told us he was pleased with the visit and that he is happy to serve as a member of SC. Both the Centre and Prof. Jung are looking forward for extensive collaboration within the centre activities, but also in other collaboration areas.

We hereby congratulate PhD candidate Massoud Hassanabadi who got an award for his oral presentation “Characterization of Alumina Based Ceramic Foam Filters (CFFs) by Evaluation of Permeability within the CFF Blocks” at INCAL 2019. Co-authors were Professor Ragnhild E. Aune (NTNU) and Dr. Shahid Akhtar (Hydro). INCAL 2019 (The 7th International Conference & Exhibition on Aluminium) was arranged in the capital city Odisha, Bhubaneswar in India 31st January - 3rd February.

Professor Aune together with Akhtar and Hassanabadi, made the most of their time in India and also arranged a meeting with Dr. Tapan Kumar Chand, the Chairman & MD at National Aluminium of India, in order to discuss about the collaboration between NTNU and universities in India.