Asia is producing more than 80% of the metals produced in the world, where China is the main producer. Japan is also an important metal producer and is also known as having very high quality in their production methods. It can be mentioned that Kashima Work is the only Mn-ferroalloy producer in the world that is using external pre-reduction and preheating units. South Africa and Norway both have strong industries focusing on metal production: South Africa has major raw material reserves utilized in the production of ferroalloys and Norway has a strong standing when it comes to renewable energy, and has subsequently developed a related metal production industry which is globally at the forefront technologically. Presently, these countries are at the forefront of research and development related to the before-mentioned research areas. Closer cooperation in research and education would benefit all countries significantly.
The project Thanos will bring strengthen the knowledge within the fundamental disciplines important for producing end developing materials needed for a sustainable future. This will be done through workshops, networking and exchange of personnel between the partners. It is also a goal to make this knowledge more accessible towards the new generations of engineers and scientists through improved education methods. The partners are the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and SINTEF in Norway, MINTEK and North West University in South Africa, University of Science and Technology Beijing in China and Tokyo University in Japan.
The participating partners has cooperated in arranging 3 international conferences (Infacon 2021, Silicon for Chemical and Solar Industry 2022 og Furnace Tapping (TMS) 2022)). In addition it started a new conference within International Conference on enhanced use of Thermodynamic data in Pyrometallurgy Teaching and Research (2022) in Johannesburg, South Africa. Seminars to extend the cooperation within environmental solutions like H2 (2023), biomass (2022) and thermal energy storage (2023) has also been arranged in the project, in addition to thermodynamic for the production of Mn and Si. More generally, project participants was engaged in a panel debate regarding student developement, environmental challenges and academia-industrial cooperation in the Science Forum South Africa 2020.
Though a slow start on the exchange program due to Covid, three MSc-students exchanges to and from NTNU and Nort West University was obtained with a timeframe of 6 months each, with a common supervision and publication of the results. Regarding the senior personel, all partners contributed to an exchange stay at NTNU in the time frame of 1 month each, as well as exchange stay at University of Tokyo from NTNU.
- As both the course TMT4155 and TMT4306 are based on research based teaching, the courses has continuously updated with the progress of the project. Some examples that are included in the teaching is examples from thermal energy storage or general thermodynamic materials like energy and mass balances.
- One EU application with North West University is in progress and will be submitted the 7th of February 2024. A continuance of the work done in Thanos will be be added to the project. Due to changes in both the cooperation with China as well as confidentiality issues, no partners was added in KSP projects. Lastly a SFI is applied for with exchange with some of the partners. This has not yet been determined.
- Some quantitative outcomes: 10 common papers (journals and conferences), 9 common international conferences, schools and seminars, 3 long term MSc exchange, 1 PhD exchange and 6 one months senior scientists-exchanges.
Asia is producing more than 80% of the metals produced in the world, where China is the main producer. Japan is also an important metal producer and is also known as having very high quality in their production methods. It can be mentioned that Kashima Work is the only Mn-ferroalloy producer in the world that is using external pre-reduction and preheating units. South Africa and Norway both have strong industries focusing on metal production. South Africa has major raw material reserves utilized in the production of ferrochromium (FeCr) and FeMn. Norway has a strong standing when it comes to renewable energy, and has subsequently developed a related metal production industry which is globally at the forefront technologically. Presently, these countries are at the forefront of research and development related to the before-mentioned research areas. Closer cooperation in research and education would benefit all countries significantly.
The topics of research in the INTPART project will be:
i. Enhanced use of thermodynamic data
ii. Fundamental reaction mechanisms for material production.
The educational parts of the INTPART project will be:
iii. Developing educational methods to be used in the courses TMT4306 Metal production, TMT4326 Refining and Recycling; TMT 4275 Thermodynamics and TMT 4155 Heterogeneous Equilibrium and phase diagram, as well as courses at the partnership institutions. The main focus will be to enhance the interest and the availability of thermodynamic methods and data for the students.