Partners

SINTEF is the largest independent contract research organization in Scandinavia and the 4th largest in Europe with approximately 2000 employees (70% of them are researchers). One of SINTEF's business areas participating in the present proposal is SINTEF Materials and Chemistry (MC), which offers high competence within materials technology, applied chemistry and applied biology. The research division performs research and development, advanced consultancy and laboratory services. SINTEF MC works closely with industry in development of advanced materials, products, processes and new tools, and seeks out new, environmentally friendly processing methods that will increase productivity and raise quality standards. SINTEF is one of the top 20 research organizations in the European Framework Programs with more than 273 projects between 2007 and 2013. Currently SINTEF MC participates in 36 EU-financed projects as a partner, and coordinates 10 projects. Expertise in metallurgy and especially in metal production is evident from coordination of the REE4EU project and participation in the REECover, Scale and Platirus projects. SINTEF are the project coordinators (WP9 leader) and participate to WP2 in the pre-reduction testing and upscale. SINTEF also participate to the demonstration WP. Moreover, SINTEF lead the valorisation routes’ assessment (WP5), mostly for the alumina applications. They will also take care of the technical and environmental monitoring (WP6, task 6.1) and the dissemination plan and tools (WP8, task 8.1).

ALUMINIUM OF GREECE (AoG) was founded in 1960, in order to take advantage of Greece's important bauxite deposits for the production of alumina and aluminium. The Company established its plant at Agios Nikolaos in Biotia. AoG has been the driving force behind the development of the aluminum-processing sector in Greece. The annual production capacity of this industrial complex is 750,000 tons of alumina and 160,000 tons of aluminium. This sector employs both, directly and indirectly, around 40,000 people; it processes over 250,000 tons of aluminium annually and generates revenue of more than 2 billion Euros, which represents 1.7% of GNP. AoG is committed to the constant satisfaction of all the needs and expectations of its clients, by offering products such as alumina and primary aluminium metal - and relevant services to meet their quality requirements. In order to achieve this capital goal, the company manages several products and services-related processes, taking advantage of all performance enhancement opportunities. The Continuous Progress approach involves the definition of ambitious goals, with their achievement being the object of consistent, controlled management programs. The Quality Management system covers all the company's activities and is certified by an independent certification body, in order to ensure its conformity to the International Standard ISO 9001. The company has also participated in numerous national and EU projects, concerning the optimization of its energy efficiency, the reduction and exploitation of its wastes and the reduction of its GHG emissions. AoG is the largest vertical integrated primary aluminium producer in Europe, owning bauxite mines, alumina refinery and aluminium smelter plants and recently having installed a 334 MW co-generation plant producing electrical energy from LNG. High temperature steam from this co-generation plant is used in the alumina refinery, saving valuable resources through industrial symbiosis. AoG in the project will be the industrial demonstrator (WP4) and key stakeholder for the new process, participating also in the hydrometallurgical design (WP3). AoG will supply bauxite ore, bauxite ore tailings, bauxite residue from the alumina refinery and carbon by-products from the aluminium smelter to the project. Furthermore AoG will utilize its ENEXAL pyrometallurgical pilot plant and its SCALE hydrometallurgical pilot plant in the project to demonstrate the process in industrial conditions. AoG wll also participate to non-technical WPs to take the Pedersen process to the next level after the project (WP7, WP8).

NTNU is the largest university in Norway, and has the main national responsibility for higher education in engineering and technology. In addition to engineering and the natural and physical sciences, the university offers advanced degrees in other academic disciplines ranging from the social sciences, the arts, medicine and health sciences, teacher education, architecture and fine art. NTNU has three campuses in the cities of Trondheim, Gjøvik and Ålesund in Norway. NTNU is governed by a board of 11 members, two are elected by and among the students. The university has 6700 employees of which 4050 are in education and research and 39 per cent are women. The annual budget of NTNU is around 900 million Euros. The university consists of 14 faculties and 70 departments, with approximately 39000 students in 2016. There is around 400 PhD dissertations at NTNU each year. It has more than 100 laboratories, which are extensively used for both research and education. The NTNU library has 17 branches, 2 million printed volumes, 950 000 electronic booWS, 16 000 electronic journals, 3 000 printed journals and 450 databases. NTNU is coordinating 19 projects in the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme and 7 projects in Horizon 2020. Sponsorship and cooperation with Norwegian and international business and industry is also important to be addressed for the university. NTNU will be the leader of WP2 in pyrometallurgical designs and will deeply participate to WP3 in hydrometallurgical design. They will also participate to WP4 (task 4.1 and 4.2) to ensure the upscaling of the technologies proposed. Non-technical activities, such as clustering with EU initiatives (WP7), publications and assistance to events (WP8), are also in the scope of their actions.

The National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) is the oldest and most prestigious technical educational institution in Greece. Over the last 30 years NTUA is actively participating in many national and international research and development projects. Today NTUA has more than 7000 students, employs 700 persons as academic staff and more than 2500 researchers. Based on Euro Research Ranking Data, NTUA reached 10th place in 2010 between educational organizations and 3rd position on Networking Rank (Reputation). Last year only, was coordinating or participating in 67 European projects and the last decade was funded from European Commission 400Μ€. NTUA is a Partner in EIT Raw Materials. Laboratory of Metallurgy, School of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering The Laboratory of Metallurgy (LabMet) has experienced significant progress in the last 30 years in terms of research and development projects in various fields, like extractive metallurgical process development, rehabilitation of sites polluted from mining and metallurgical industries, thermodynamic studies of metallurgical systems, mathematical modelling, simulation of metallurgical and environmental protection processes, synthesis of inorganic polymeric materials from mining and metallurgical wastes, networking in the areas of mining, ornamental stones and processing. All these activities have led to the gain of considerable expertise and international reputation. In the last 10 years alone the LabMet has been involved in more than 30 National and European research projects, attracting in total more than 10 million Euros in funding and producing more the 300 scientific publications in international journals and international scientific conferences. The Laboratory of Metallurgy currently employs 6 members of academic staff, 5 senior engineers holding Ph. D. degree and over 15 postgraduate students. The approved research funding of the laboratory for the last 3 years was 6 million euros. NTUA LabMet has significant expertise in both BR treatment technologies having developed several processes and initiated several project (among others the recent ENEXAL project) as well as in REE metallurgy where it coordinates the EURARE ‘flagship’ project. Recent RTD results from EURARE include leaching REE with Ionic Liquids as well as low temperature electro-recovery of REEs. NTUA will undertake the hydrometallurgical processing of slags (WP3), after the reductive smelting of raw materials, including leaching with Na2CO3 solutions, precipitation of tri-hydrated alumina and calcination in order to produce dehydrated alumina. In addition, NTUA will assist AoG in performing the pilot scale tests (WP4). Non-technical activities, such as clustering with EU initiatives (WP7), publications and assistance to events (WP8), arealso in the scope of their actions.

KON Chem. is a private owned company which offers services in the field of acid based Processes. The company has special know how for acid handling, treatment and regeneration. This includes process know how for acid based mining, separation of elements from the acidic solution as well as acid regeneration technologies to close the process loop. A main USP of KON Chem. is the dense network to manufacturer of special acid resistant equipment and the detail knowledge about the possible operation conditions of the equipment. KON Chem will participate to WP4 in the tasks related to upscaling the hydrometallurgical processing of slag and the further upscaling activities (task 4.4). KON Chem will also participate to exploitation and dissemination activities (WP7 and WP8).

AdMiRIS Company is an engineering and consulting firm, specialized in the fields of energy, raw materials sector, industrial and infrastructure market. The pool of expertise and experience, with a unique range of technologies and an established know-how, creates innovative and profitable solutions for a sustainable future. The mission, objectives and strategies of AdMiRIS Company is focused on fundamental and applied research activities, development of innovative solutions targeting in sustainable raw materials extraction, processing and utilization, energy saving strategies and industrial processes optimization. The company provides also life cycle assessment (LCA), cutting-edge services in environmental foot printing, eco design, sustainable supply chains and environmental communication by using SimaPro and GaBi software.AdMiRIS employs high experienced engineers, most of them holding M.Sc. or Ph.D. degrees, who have industry-recognized credentials in the fields described and participated in more than 30 National or EU Research projects in the last decade. An engineering group has specialties in negotiations in multi-cultural environments, lobbying, government liaison, consultancy, innovation, Co-specialization alliances and Business Development. Its members have gained a considerable expertise on scientific and overall management of research projects starting from Fifth Framework Program.

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OT provides leading technologies and services for the Sustainable use of Earth’s natural resources. As the global leader in minerals and metals processing technology, OT has developed many breakthrough technologies over the decades for our customers in metals and mining industry. OT also provides innovative solutions for industrial water treatment, the utilization of alternative energy sources and the chemical industry. With a global network of sales and service centers, research facilities and over 4800 experts, OT generated annual sales of approximately EUR 1.2 billion in 2015. OT shares are listed on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki. OT’s core activities are in WP3, in which he participates to the design of the alumina hydrates precipitation from the pregnant alkaline solution and leads the design of the calcination process of alumina hydrate precipitates.Then, OT, will participate of the demonstration activities for the hydrometallurgical part and the upscaling studies, leading the calcination task 4.3. Non-technical activities, such as clustering with EU initiatives (WP7), publications and assistance to events (WP8), are also in the scope of their actions.

The history of Luvena S.A. starts in the first half of the 20th century. The company suspended the activity only once —in 1939 —and remained inactive during the whole 2ndWorld War. The company represents only Polish capital (100%). Its shareholders are private individuals. Currently, it is one of the most important fertilisers manufacturers in Poland, holding the second position in phosphorus and compound fertilisers market (market share, according to Polish Chamber of Chemical Industry, is estimated as 19% of the general sales value. Yearly sales value was 313,000 tonnes in fiscal year 2014/2015. The basic offer is built based on a diverse range of universal and specialised compound fertilisers. There are granulated fertilisers, blendings, dusty fertilisers (30 agricultural fertilisers and 18 gardening fertilisers), as well as wood, textile, and chemical impregnants sold in business-to-business relation (for ceramics industry, for use in processing of glass, iron, aluminum, and catalysers used in textile industry for finishing). The company also exports its products, mostly to Germany, but also to Czech Republic, Hungary, Belgium, and Lithuania.Research activity has been performed in Luvena S.A. since the foundation of the company. Currently, it takes place in Research and Development department and is mentioned in the registration document of the company (Research and development works in technical and life sciences) There are currently 6 involved in research and development activity, and yearly expenditure for this activity is ca. 1.8 million PLN. The Research and Development Department has a laboratory, where works on new fertilisers and on improving the existing ones are conducted. Lately, Ecological Fertiliser, Lubofos for green areas, Luboplon Kalium and sulphate-magnesium Luboplon have been elaborated, as well as Fobos M4, Fobos M1. What is more, the company actively and systematically cooperates with numerous partners, including scientific units, higher education institutions and associations. The key partners are: Wrocław University of Technology —Institute of Inorganic and Mineral Fertilizers Technology, Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Poznań University of Life Sciences —Industrial Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Building Research Institute, Stanisław Staszic Scientific Association, Warsaw Agricultural University —Faculty of Wood Technology, Institute of Natural Fibers, Institute of Wood Technology, Centre of Advanced Chemical Technologies of AMU, Instytut Uprawy Nawożenia i Gleboznawstwa, Poznań University of Technology, Łódź University of Technology. Research and development activity of the company is also visible in constitution and involvement in UMA foundation. The common initiative of the company (then under the name of Z. Ch. Luboń) was the creation of Wielkopolska Centre of Advanced Chemical Technologies, the activity of which allows the company to cooperate with numerous Polish scientific units and chemical industry companies (POCH Gliwice S. A., Zakład Chemiczny „Silikony Polskie” sp. z o. o., „IPOCHEM” sp. z o. o. and more). Luvena’s main activities will be to characterise the grey mud obtained and to look for applications for fertilisers, cements’ formulations and high added value applications (WP5). Non-technical activities, such as clustering with EU initiatives (WP7), publications and assistance to events (WP8), are also in the scope of their actions.

The scope of the Company’s operations is the production of a full range of foundry materials in factories located in Starachowice, the provision of services in Poland and in other countries of the European Union, and the trade of foundry materials and compounds. In production operations the Company and its co-operators offer a complex customer service, including design, the production of foundry equipment and the creation of castings, their machining and heat treatment, as well as painting, assembly and shipment. The technological process is under thorough monitoring regarding the quality of burden materials, the fast analysis of the chemical composition of compounds, and of moulding sands and casting dimensions.The strategy enables the Company to compete with the best foundries of developed countries and ensures high (higher than the average for the foundry industry) profitability of operation. The strategy ensures meeting all clients’ requirements and expectations with respect to the design of casting constructions, the selection of highly-efficient compounds, and just-in-time delivery of components -ready machined sub-assemblies for the assembly line. Odlewnie Polskie S.A. provides its clients with the advice of highly qualified staff. 31 employees hold a higher degree in engineering, 16 a higher degree in economics and 11 a higher degree in law orother specializations. The Company employs 10 foundry engineers in its technology team who are graduates of prestigious Polish universities of technology and who have specialized in foundry engineering. Odlewnie will take care of characterising the iron produced in the ENSUREAL process (WP5) and provide the most suitable applications. Non-technical activities as networking (WP7) and disseminating the project’s results (WP8) are foreseen.

Bluemetals GmbH is a new engineering company founded in 2019. The main topic of Bluemetals is engineering for sustainable metallurgy. Bluemetals is specialized in design and dimensioning of submerged arc furnaces (SAF) and metallurgical smelting plants, including process optimization, consulting, innovative measurement technology and improvement in energy efficiency and energy flexibility. Further topics of Bluemetals are recycling, support for R+D-projects, pilot plants, hydrogen technology and logistics