Metallurgical Research & Technology 2015 Best Paper Award (January 2016)

Now in free access!

We are delighted to announce the winner of the Metallurgical Research & Technology 2015 Best Paper Award.

The Metallurgical Research & Technology Best Paper Award honors the author(s) of a paper of exceptional merit dealing with research and/or industrial aspects in metallurgy and bringing an outstanding contribution to the field. All articles published during the current year prior to the award, including Short Communications, Regular articles, Reviews and Topical contributions, can be considered for an award. The editorial committee meets every year, in December, to judge the best papers according to the criteria of originality, innovation, significance to the research community, industrial relevance, technical excellence, impact, and clarity of presentation.

The authors of the awarded articles are offered a book from the EDP Sciences catalogue. In addition, they are given the possibility to publish a press release about their work and/or their laboratory/team. Finally, the selected articles are turned into free access so that all readers can have a chance to read them.

First prize winner

About the article

Steel makers have to propose steel grades with narrower composition ranges, lower guaranteed contents of certain residuals and controlled inclusion size distributions to obtain reproducible and well adapted service properties. These metallurgical results can only be reached by a strict control of elaboration processes and also of products used during steel making. In this context, refractory materials have a crucial impact at different levels:

• The control of solute elements such as carbon, sulphur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, …
• The prevention of non-metallic inclusions.

This paper reviews the effects of refractories on inclusionary cleanliness and quality of steel products. It mentions all the important developments that will limit the contribution of refractory products concerning oxide cleanliness, steel desulphurisation, Ca treatments of alumina de-oxidation inclusions, carbon pick up for ultra-low carbon steel, clogging phenomena and atmospheric oxidation, in conjunction with efforts of the metallurgists to produce clean steels.

About the author

Jacques Poirier is Professor at the University of Orleans (Polytech) and Head of the research group: Refractory Materials, design and corrosion, CEMHTI – CNRS, Fr

He worked in the steel making industry (Arcelor Group) for 17 years.

Pr. Poirier has published over 110 papers. He has given over 250 oral presentations (over 30 invited conferences). He has contributed to 10 book chapters or books on refractory ceramics. He holds 11 patents. He contributes to the development of new global technological solutions in the refractory field including best practices, high temperature advanced ceramics, design of reactor linings, energy savings and environmental issues.

He promotes educational activities: teaching refractories of researchers, experts and engineers, cooperates actively with ceramic international organizations (FIRE federation) and serves on the advisory boards of scientific journals.

Second prize winners (exaequo)

About the article

This work was performed to out-sheen the previous works on low grade chalcopyrite ore elsewhere, wherein the microbial specificity and temperature were the factors that primarily were thought to be affecting the solubilization of copper from such low tenor and hard rock material. Mesophilic leaching using natural bacteria results in a passivating layer forms on the mineral surfaces that prevents further leaching.

The current work displayed the ability of a thermophilic pyritic sulfur degrading bacteria isolated from a coal mine dump to bioleach copper from a low grade Indian chalcopyrite ore (0.3% Cu). With its prevalent ability to preferentially attack pyrite (a major phase in the ore, 85% copper recovery was obtained using <50µm particles at 20% (w/w) pulp density, pH 2.0, 75oC. The copper dissolution was facilitated by iron(III) available in the leach liquor because of bacterial oxidation of pyrite present in the ore under acidic conditions, which was corroborated by the XRD phase identification and SEM studies.

About the authors

Dr Abhilash is Scientist in the Waste Recycling and Utilisation Group of CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur, INDIA and Assistant Professor in Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR-NML). His doctoral dissertation is in the area of Biohydrometallurgy of Uranium Ores. He is the recipient of Fellow of Society of Applied Biotechnology, India; Young Scientist Awards of Indian Science Congress Association; Indian Nuclear Society (DAE); Association of Microbiologist, India; Biotech Research Society of India; Young Metallurgist Award by Ministry of Steel and Mines, Govt of India. He is affiliated to various International professional bodies like ASM, SFAM, SIM, ISEB, AMI, BRSI, etc. Dr. Abhilash in his less than 10 years R&D career has published over 65 papers in SCI Journals and Nat./Int. Conference Proceedings. He has 10 patents filed to his credit. He is Editor to 3 books published by Allied Publishers, India; Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland and CRC Press, US; Author of 1 book by Lambert Academic Publishing House, GmBH; Editor to 2 lecture compendiums, and contributed many chapters in books by national and international publishers. He has guided 35 Post Graduate Thesis in the field of mineral and microbial biotechnology. He is project leader/manager for various government and industrial sponsored projects in the area of Waste Recycling and Utilization and Mineral Biotechnology/Environmental Microbiology, sponsored by Indian govt and industrial partners. His areas of interest include hydrometallurgy, bioleaching, bioremediation, biosynthesis, microbial corrosion, and waste management (metal scraps, effluents, E-waste, etc).

A. Ghosh is a Research Scholar in the Waste Recycling and Utilisation Group of CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur, INDIA. His filed of interests includes bioleaching, bioremediation, and microbial characterization. He has published three papers, 1 book chapter and has two patents filed under his credit.

Dr B.D.Pandey served as Chief Scientist & Head of Metal Extraction & Forming Division, CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML), Jamshedpur, and Professor, AcSIR (Academy of Scientific & Innovative Research)-NML, India. While working at CSIR-NML for over 33 years, he has contributed significantly in the area of extraction of non-ferrous metals from both primary and secondary resources, including the extraction of rare-earths. He has received several medals and awards such as the Best Mineral Engineer Award of IIME & Distinguished Researcher Award (Int. Conf. Non-ferrous Metals, India). He served as Invited Scientist with Korea Institute of Geo-science and Mineral Resources (KIGAM), Daejeon under the Brain-pool scheme of Korea Govt., Russian Institutes (IGIC, Moscow & Science Centre of Siberian Branch, RAS, Krasnoyarsk) and Paris Tech., France. He is on the Editorial Board of Int. journals such as Hydrometallurgy, and Metals & Materials Int., and has been the Editor-in–chief of Int. J. Non-ferrous Metallurgy. His areas of research include Chemical beneficiation, Hydro-& Bio-hydro-metallurgy & bio-remediation, Sulphation roasting, and Waste processing, Recycling & Environmental management. He has published over 130 research papers in leading international journals in the above areas and above 85 papers in Int. Conf. proceedings.

About the article

The transverse corner crack is one of the main quality problems in the slab surface during the continuous casting process of micro-alloyed steel. The slabs with these defects are cut off the corner off-line by flame which not only causes the waste of energy, materials, human resources and the increasing of storage area, but also made hot charge and hot delivery impossible and the energy consumption of the heating process increased dramatically. A chamfered mold and the supporting technology are developed for removing the transverse crack. In industrial tests, the defects have significantly been reduced more than 95% by using chamfered mold compared with those in the conventional mold.

About the group

The National Engineering Research Center of Continuous Casting Technology (NERC-CCT) was found in 1994, its predecessor was the continuous casting center of China Iron and Steel Research Institute. 59 technicians and developers in the center: 2 members of Chinese Academy of Engineering, 13 professors, 22 Senior Engineers. In addition, there are 30 postdoctoral, doctor candidates, postgraduate students and domestic iron and steel enterprise's additional studies in continuous casting center.

About the authors

Peng Hu: born in 1986. He is a doctoral candidate in metallurgy engineering in Northeast University and China iron and steel research institute. The aim of his doctoral thesis contributes to understanding of edge seam defect on hot rolling strip surface. The forming mechanism of this defect is researched by finite element method and physical thermal simulation. Then, the defect was improved by method of slab shape designing, and this method is verified on industrial rolling mill.

Hui Zhang: born in 1963. He has worked for 25 years in continuous casting, investigating the new technology and process. He is vice director and Professor of NERE-CCT now, responsible for technology development on continuous casting and management. He is the member of Chinese Society for Metals.