Powders and hydrogen in the beautiful Austria – PYOMET personnel visits Vienna and Leoben
The visit consisted of presentations introducing the current activities in Process Metallurgy Research Group (Oulu) and in Research Group of Powder Metallurgy (TU Wien), and a laboratory tour showcasing the facilities and experimental equipment of Powder Metallurgy Unit. The visit was led by university Professor and head of the Powder Metallurgy Group, Christian Gierl-Mayer, and Professor Raquel De Oro Calderon accompanied with doctoral researcher Nico Moser, who have been guiding and helping Sonja Pöyhtäri with her research and experimental work in TU Wien.
Doctoral researcher Sonja Pöyhtäri taking a sample out of a tube furnace in a TU Wien lab.
The Powder Metallurgy Group in TU Wien is focused on steel and nonferrous powder components, especially on hard metals, powder metallurgical steels, sintering processes and metal injection molding of special materials. During her stay, Pöyhtäri has been focusing on hydrogen reduction of cobalt oxides, carbonates, and hydroxides utilizing thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and tube furnace built especially for H2 reduction experiments of powders. The collaboration has been very fruitful and beneficial for Pöyhtäri’s research concerning hydrogen reduction kinetics of different cobalt compounds and her stay in TU Wien will continue until the end of November 2024. The research is part of TOCANEM2 project and most of the cobalt samples are provided by Jervois Kokkola. The meeting also generated ideas for future collaboration between University of Oulu and TU Wien.
Heikkinen, Hietava and Pöyhtäri also visited K1-MET facilities and Montan University in Leoben (MUL), Austria. K1-MET is a metallurgical competence center for ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy, working especially in the field of sustainable metal production. In the organized hybrit meeting, Prof. Susanne Michelic, Dr. Peter Presoly and M.Sc. Daniel Ernst introduced the research areas of ferrous metallurgy in Montan university. Activities of K1-MET were introduced by HPSR team leader Dr. Michael Zarl, Dr. Johannes Rieger and Prof. Michelic. From Oulu,s side, short presentations about Process Metallurgy Research Group and Pöyhtäri’s research in TU Wien were given by Heikkinen, Hietava and Pöyhtäri before discussion about collaborative projects and topics with K1-MET and MUL. This productive discussion led to multiple different topic ideas in the field of iron and steelmaking and will be further addressed in the near future. Visitors also got the chance to see and ask about the laboratory facilities and operations in MUL and the HPSR (Hydrogen Plasma Smelting Reduction) facilities located in Voestalpine Stahl factory area in Donawitz.
Scenery from beautiful Leoben.