The Expert Forum is Europe’s leading raw materials innovation and education exchange that connects stakeholders and actors from various parts of different raw materials value chains. This highly collaborative environment culminates in producing radically new ways of addressing raw materials sustainability across the supply chains.
Over three days, technical experts from industry and academia will gather to debate the technological advancements and business opportunities to explore industry needs in terms of innovation and education, identify partner interests, and promote matchmaking and consortia formation for project proposal submission.
Register here: https://eitrawmaterials.eu/expert-forum/
On 20 April 2022, Federal Minister Elisabeth Köstinger visited the research facilities of the Montanuniversität Leoben that are working on pyrolysis for the production of hydrogen. These activities are located in the “Resources Innovation Center” (RIC Leoben), to which Minister Köstinger promised funding of three million Euros, divided between the years 2022 – 2028. The focal points of the funding agreement are activities on the following areas:
The Resources Innovation Center Leoben will work on research topics (dissertations) on these themes, involving research funding from Austrian, European and global funding programmes (FFG, Horizon Europe, EIT RawMaterials). “Crisis security requires raw materials. Not all raw materials are infinitely available everywhere, which is why the Resources Innovation Center (RIC) at the Montanuniversität Leoben is an important institution that we are supporting in its work with three million Euros. Research is already being carried out here to find scientific answers to future challenges in the form of innovations,” said Elisabeth Köstinger.
A guideline for engineers about earth limitations – 2021-2022
In 2009, former director of the Stockholm Resilience Center Johan Rockström led a group of 28 internationally renowned scientists to identify the nine processes that regulate the stability and resilience of the Earth system. The scientists proposed 9 quantitative planetary boundaries:
Crossing these boundaries increases the risk of generating large-scale abrupt or irreversible environmental changes. Since then the planetary boundaries framework has generated enormous interest within science, policy, and practice. Over the course of 10 lectures, international experts will introduce the audience to the concept of the 9 planetary boundaries within which humanity can continue to develop and thrive for generations to come.
Patrick joined the team of the RIC Leoben in July 2019 as sustainable development coordinator. He is responsible for the activities in the UniNEtZ project, a joint project of all higher education institutions of Austria for an integrated anthology of options for the Austrian government for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. In particular Patrick is responsible for the coordination of Montanuniversitaet’s Sustainable Development Goal 12 – “Responsible Consumption and Production” partnership, in collaboration with Johannes Kepler Universitaet. He is an active part in the development of the sustainability agenda of RIC.Patrick studied mechanical engineering at Montanuniversitaet Leoben. During his studies he worked at Materials Center Leoben as a student researcher for over 4 years, where he calculated material and friction behaviour of rails by using finite elements methods combined with contact mechanics knowledge. His passion for societal needs and development have led him into his current position.
Upscaling of two step dust recycling process for EAF dust
Zinc is mainly used for the galvanization of steel products to protect them against corrosion. After the lifetime of these products (e.g. car bodies or construction elements) they return to the steel mill as scrap, if recycled. The Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) is the common recycling facility for this purpose and uses up to 100% scrap. Within this process, roughly 20 kg of zinc containing dust is produced per ton of steel, ending up in 1.3 mio tons of so called EAF dust per year in Europe. At present, only about half of this amount is treated in huge centralized facilities, recovering only zinc.
The novel ‘2sDR’ (two-step dust recycling) process represents the first zero-waste technology for zinc recycling and offers a flexible, environmental friendly and effective solution for steel mills to operate their own recycling process avoiding transport or disposal costs.
The process consists of two steps, using two different metallurgical technologies: The material is clinkered in a short rotary kiln to remove harmful elements and then reduced in an Electric Arc Furnace. Zinc is extracted via the off gas as Oxide and can be sold, iron occurs in form of an alloy that is reused in iron and steel industry. The residual slag can be used for construction purposes.
During the project duration, this process will be up scaled to semi-industrial size, technological and financial viability will be proven. Based on the outcome of this project, the technology is brought to market and the first recycling plant using the proposed ‘2sDR’technology shall be erected in Austria.
01/2020 – 12/2021
EIT RawMaterials – Upscaling
Montanuniversität Leoben (Lead), ARP GmbH, DMT, Politecnico di Milano, Primetals Technologies Austria GmbH, Marienhütte GmbH, Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute
Chair of Nonferrous Metallurgy – Michael Auer
Total: € 1.081.654
Montanuniversität Leoben: € 345.674
