ERA-MIN Research Agenda

European Research Area - Network on the Industrial Handling of Raw Materials for European Industriesroadmap of the "ERA-MIN" eranetNon-energy and non-agricultural raw materials underpin the global economy and our quality of life. They are vital for the EU's economy and for the development of environmentally friendly technologies essential to European industries. However, the EU is highly dependent on imports, and securing supplies has therefore become crucial. A sustainable supply of mineral products and metals for European industry requires a more efficient and rational consumption, enhanced substitution and improved recycling. Recycling from scrap to raw materials has been rapidly gaining in quantity and efficiency over the last years. However, continuous re-use cannot provide alone the necessary quantities of mineral raw materials, due to i) recycling losses, ii) the worldwide growing demand in raw materials, and iii) the need of "new" elements for the industry. To fully meet future needs, metals and mineral products from primary sources will still be needed in the future. Most of them will continue to be imported from sources outside Europe; but others can, and should, be produced domestically. Advanced research and innovation are required to improve the capacity of existing technologies to discover new deposits, to improve the efficiency of the entire geomaterials life cycle from mineral extraction to the use as secondary resource of products at the end of their industrial life, and to reduce the environmental footprint of raw materials extraction and use. Research and innovation must be made to acquire knowledge as well, and to improve our basic understanding of all engineering and natural processes involved in the raw materials life cycle, as well as the coupling of these processes. Finally, research has to go beyond the present-day economic and technological constraints, and it should be closely associated with training and education in order to maintain existing skills and to share the most recent developments with the industrial sector. A long-term vision of research is necessary in order to have the capacity of evaluating the environmental and societal impacts of present and developing industrial activities and to imagine tomorrow's breakthrough concepts and technologies that will create new industrial opportunities. These objectives require the input of contrasted scientific and technical skills and competences (earth science, material science and technology, chemistry, physics, engineer, biology, engineering, environmental science, economy, social and human sciences, etc). An important challenge is to gather all these domains of expertise towards the same objective. The ERA-MIN Research Agenda aims at listing the most important topics of research and innovation that will contribute to i) secure the sustainable supply and management of non-energy and non-agricultural raw materials, and ii) offer opportunities of investment and employment opportunities in the EU

Modeling and Simulation of Metallurgical Processes in Ironmaking and Steelmaking

In recent years, improving the sustainability of the steel industry and reducing its CO2 emissions has become a global focus. To achieve this goal, further process optimization in terms of energy and resource efficiency and the development of new processes and process routes are necessary. Modeling and simulation have established themselves as invaluable sources of information for otherwise unknown process parameters and as an alternative to plant trials that involves lower costs, risks, and time. Models also open up new possibilities for model-based control of metallurgical processes. This Special Issue focuses on recent advances in the modeling and simulation of unit processes in iron and steelmaking. It includes reviews on the fundamentals of modeling and simulation of metallurgical processes, as well as contributions from the areas of iron reduction/ironmaking, steelmaking via the primary and secondary route, and continuous casting

Challenges and Prospects of Steelmaking Towards the Year 2050

The world steel industry is strongly based on coal/coke in ironmaking, resulting in huge carbon dioxide emissions corresponding to approximately 7% of the total anthropogenic CO2 emissions. As the world is experiencing a period of imminent threat owing to climate change, the steel industry is also facing a tremendous challenge in next decades. This themed issue makes a survey on the current situation of steel production, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions, as well as cross-sections of the potential methods to decrease CO2 emissions in current processes via improved energy and materials efficiency, increasing recycling, utilizing alternative energy sources, and adopting CO2 capture and storage. The current state, problems and plans in the two biggest steel producing countries, China and India are introduced. Generally contemplating, incremental improvements in current processes play a key role in rapid mitigation of specific emissions, but finally they are insufficient when striving for carbon neutral production in the long run. Then hydrogen and electrification are the apparent solutions also to iron and steel production. The book gives a holistic overview of the current situation and challenges, and an inclusive compilation of the potential technologies and solutions for the global CO2 emissions problem

ECOS 2012

The 8-volume set contains the Proceedings of the 25th ECOS 2012 International Conference, Perugia, Italy, June 26th to June 29th, 2012. ECOS is an acronym for Efficiency, Cost, Optimization and Simulation (of energy conversion systems and processes), summarizing the topics covered in ECOS: Thermodynamics, Heat and Mass Transfer, Exergy and Second Law Analysis, Process Integration and Heat Exchanger Networks, Fluid Dynamics and Power Plant Components, Fuel Cells, Simulation of Energy Conversion Systems, Renewable Energies, Thermo-Economic Analysis and Optimisation, Combustion, Chemical Reactors, Carbon Capture and Sequestration, Building/Urban/Complex Energy Systems, Water Desalination and Use of Water Resources, Energy Systems- Environmental and Sustainability Issues, System Operation/ Control/Diagnosis and Prognosis, Industrial Ecology

Products and Services

Today’s global economy offers more opportunities, but is also more complex and competitive than ever before. This fact leads to a wide range of research activity in different fields of interest, especially in the so-called high-tech sectors. This book is a result of widespread research and development activity from many researchers worldwide, covering the aspects of development activities in general, as well as various aspects of the practical application of knowledge

Computational thermal, chemical, fluid, and solid mechanics for geosystems management.

This document summarizes research performed under the SNL LDRD entitled - Computational Mechanics for Geosystems Management to Support the Energy and Natural Resources Mission. The main accomplishment was development of a foundational SNL capability for computational thermal, chemical, fluid, and solid mechanics analysis of geosystems. The code was developed within the SNL Sierra software system. This report summarizes the capabilities of the simulation code and the supporting research and development conducted under this LDRD. The main goal of this project was the development of a foundational capability for coupled thermal, hydrological, mechanical, chemical (THMC) simulation of heterogeneous geosystems utilizing massively parallel processing. To solve these complex issues, this project integrated research in numerical mathematics and algorithms for chemically reactive multiphase systems with computer science research in adaptive coupled solution control and framework architecture. This report summarizes and demonstrates the capabilities that were developed together with the supporting research underlying the models. Key accomplishments are: (1) General capability for modeling nonisothermal, multiphase, multicomponent flow in heterogeneous porous geologic materials; (2) General capability to model multiphase reactive transport of species in heterogeneous porous media; (3) Constitutive models for describing real, general geomaterials under multiphase conditions utilizing laboratory data; (4) General capability to couple nonisothermal reactive flow with geomechanics (THMC); (5) Phase behavior thermodynamics for the CO2-H2O-NaCl system. General implementation enables modeling of other fluid mixtures. Adaptive look-up tables enable thermodynamic capability to other simulators; (6) Capability for statistical modeling of heterogeneity in geologic materials; and (7) Simulator utilizes unstructured grids on parallel processing computers

XVIII International Coal Preparation Congress

Changes in economic and market conditions of mineral raw materials in recent years have greatly increased demands on the ef fi ciency of mining production. This is certainly true of the coal industry. World coal consumption is growing faster than other types of fuel and in the past year it exceeded 7.6 billion tons. Coal extraction and processing technology are continuously evolving, becoming more economical and environmentally friendly. “ Clean coal ” technology is becoming increasingly popular. Coal chemistry, production of new materials and pharmacology are now added to the traditional use areas — power industry and metallurgy. The leading role in the development of new areas of coal use belongs to preparation technology and advanced coal processing. Hi-tech modern technology and the increasing interna- tional demand for its effectiveness and ef fi ciency put completely new goals for the University. Our main task is to develop a new generation of workforce capacity and research in line with global trends in the development of science and technology to address critical industry issues. Today Russia, like the rest of the world faces rapid and profound changes affecting all spheres of life. The de fi ning feature of modern era has been a rapid development of high technology, intellectual capital being its main asset and resource. The dynamics of scienti fi c and technological development requires acti- vation of University research activities. The University must be a generator of ideas to meet the needs of the economy and national development. Due to the high intellectual potential, University expert mission becomes more and more called for and is capable of providing professional assessment and building science-based predictions in various fi elds. Coal industry, as well as the whole fuel and energy sector of the global economy is growing fast. Global multinational energy companies are less likely to be under state in fl uence and will soon become the main mechanism for the rapid spread of technologies based on new knowledge. Mineral resources will have an even greater impact on the stability of the economies of many countries. Current progress in the technology of coal-based gas synthesis is not just a change in the traditional energy markets, but the emergence of new products of direct consumption, obtained from coal, such as synthetic fuels, chemicals and agrochemical products. All this requires a revision of the value of coal in the modern world economy

Applications and Experiences of Quality Control

The rich palette of topics set out in this book provides a sufficiently broad overview of the developments in the field of quality control. By providing detailed information on various aspects of quality control, this book can serve as a basis for starting interdisciplinary cooperation, which has increasingly become an integral part of scientific and applied research