Congratulations to Tizir and KPN Reduced CO2 with the ENOVA funding to this important and ambitious project!

KPN Reduced CO2 is investigating the possibility to substitute fossile reductants with hydrogen in metallurgical processes including ilmenite production. This is now one step closer to industrialisation.  The Norwegian ilmenite upgrader, TiZir ,one of the partners i KPN Reduced CO2 have now received  261 mill. NOK in support from ENOVA to build a pilot and demonstration plant for pretreatment of ilmenite by hydrogen.

SINTEF and NTNU have received funding from the Research Council for laboratory equipment related to Metal Production and Recycling. The equipment will enable advanced research in both pyro-, hydro- and electrochemical production.

The primary objective of the investment is to provide laboratory equipment supporting research in the transition to green, circular and sustainable metallurgy. SINTEF, with Dr Arne Petter Ratvik is the project owner and Professor Gabriella Tranell, co-director at SFI Metal Production, is leading the project from the NTNU side.

-We are very pleased with the awards from the Research Council. With this funding we are one step closer to transition to green, circular and sustainable metallurgy! The proposed infrastructure will expand upon existing infrastructure at NTNU and SINTEF.

Congratulations to SFI research area leader Anne Kvithyld with the publication of the book Principles of Metal Refining and Recycling. The book provides a self-contained introduction to the field of purification and recycling of metals. 

The scientific principles in the treatment of the various metals are the same. The importance of using a clean and properly alloyed metal is described in detail. The text covers thermodynamics, physical and transport properties, mixing, mass transfer and numerical models. It describes methods for removal of dissolved impurity elements, particles, and inclusions. It considers important aspects of the solidification process, remelting and adding of alloys. Recycling, future challenges and specific processes for each metal are discussed in detail. 

Authors are Thorvald Abel Engh (NTNU), Geoffrey Sigworth (GKS engineering) and Anne Kvithyld (SINTEF), and the work has been partly funded by SFI Metal Production. The book is a greatly extended update of the 1992 book Principles of Metal Refining by T. A. Engh. It includes in particular the subjects of metal recycling, ferrous and non-ferrous metal refining, and metalloids like silicon.

The Research Council of Norway has granted Elkem NOK 16 million to develop a new concept for silicon production where all direct CO2 emissions are eliminated. This may become a game changer for the global silicon industry. Elkem already uses 83% renewable electricity in its operations and aims to be part of the solution to combat climate change. Silicon is a critical material for digital technologies and the green transition.

The project will run from 2022-2024. Elkem is project owner and Aasgeir Valderhaug is project manager. The Norwegian R&D institutes SINTEF and NORCE, and the pilot test centre Future Materials, will be research partners. Senior research scientist Eli Ringdalen participates in the project from SFI Metal Production.

The SFI Metal Production autumn meeting was held in Trondheim November 2-3. Due to the corona virus situation, we have not been able to organize physical consortium meetings the last two years. This time we could invite to a hybrid meeting, and about 50 participants from industry and academia met physically at Royal Garden Hotel. In addition 40 participants attended the meeting online.

The 16th International Ferro-alloy Congress – INFACON XVI - was arranged as a digital conference on the 27th to 29th September from Trondheim. The intention of INFACON is to stimulate technical interchange on all aspects of silicon/ferroalloy production. The vision for the three-day conference was "CO2 free ferroalloy production". The presentations reflected the vision with a major focus on decreasing CO2 emissions, clean technologies, recycling including energy efficiency, modelling, emissions (reduce the PAH exposure risk etc.) and Markets.

Congratulations to Professor Gabriella Tranell for receiving the special award from Elkems Research Fund. The winner of the award was presented 28 September, 2021 at the opening of the INFACON XVI conference. Tranell receives the award because of her broad research and contribution to the Ferrosilicon/Silicon industry.

Dr. Erlend Lunnan Bjørnstad successfully defended his thesis August 18th. Erlend did an excellent presentation at the trial lecture: “Electrolytic production and refining of silicon, fundamentals and state of the art " followed by the presentation of his PhD thesis “Oxidative Ladle Refining of Metallurgical Grade Silicon: Refining of Ca and Al Impurities”.

Daniel Clos at SFI Metal Production defended his thesis in May 2021. In this blog he presents the main results from his important research on "Formation of Hard Grey Scale (HGS) on the Surface of a Cold-finger in the Aluminium Production Industry".

Dr. Daniel Perez Clos successfully defended his thesis May 26th. Daniel did an excellent presentation of the trial lecture: “Mechanisms of ash transport and adhesion on cylindrical tubes in crossflow" followed by the presentation of his PhD thesis “Formation of Hard Grey Scale (HGS) on the Surface of a Cold-finger in the Aluminium Production Industry”.

The MOLTEN  2021 Conference was organized February 21-25, 2021. Several SFI Metal Production members contributed with presentatations at the conference. MOLTEN 2021 was a virtuel event and all presentations had to be recorded and made available at the virtual conference platform. SINTEF researcher Vincent Canaguier's presentation turned out to be one of the top 5 most viewed presentations! The title of his presentation was Foaming during silicomanganese reduction.

The organizer writes that Vincent's enthusiastic presentation helped to make the event a great success! A prize (USD 100) will be transferred to the winner. Congratulations to Vincent!

Attila Kovacs has successfully defended his thesis for Doctor of Philosophy at Oxford University. Attila has been working on fundamental mathematical modelling of alumina dissolution. Highlights from his work involve the identification of characteristic time scales for the freezing-melting-dissolution process as well as determining under which conditions alumina rafts may form. The supervision of Attila has been a successful joint venture between scholars at Oxford and NTNU as well as key researchers in Hydro and NORCE. 

Congratulations to Dr. Kovacs!

The Horizon 2020-project SisAl Pilot is coordinated by SFI Metal Production Professor Gabriella Tranell. The project has now made a video that gives information about the innovative pilot.

Enjoy watching the video available on the project website.

The project is an innovative pilot for Silicon production with low environmental impact using secondary Aluminium and silicon raw materials. The project aims to demonstrate a patented novel industrial process to produce silicon (Si, a critical raw material), enabling a shift from today’s carbothermic Submerged Arc Furnace (SAF) process to a far more environmentally and economically sustainable alternative: an aluminothermic reduction of quartz in slag that utilizes secondary raw materials such as aluminium (Al) EoL scrap and dross, as replacements for carbon reductants used today.