39th International Conference and Exhibition ICSOBA 2021
Overview
- The 39th International Conference and Exhibition of ICSOBA (The International Committee for Study of Bauxite, Alumina and Aluminium) was held from 22 to 24 November 2021 online. The conference covered bauxite, alumina, bauxite residue, carbon for aluminium electrolysis, aluminium production, and aluminium recycling in a variety of technical sessions.
- Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the ICSOBA 2021 was held as a virtual event to ensure the health, safety and comfort for all delegates, in line with our vision to be “the technology conference of the aluminium industry, for the aluminium industry”.
- With over 300 delegates registered for the conference, 39 corporate members and 15 sponsors the organizers of ICSOBA 2021 are humbled by this realization.
- The program included 10 high-caliber keynote speakers and 98 technical papers presented in two parallel sessions. In addition, two virtual plant tours of Alba Smelter and EGA Al-Taweelah Refinery were organized, as well as a discussion panel on strategic supply of alumina.
- For the first time this year several companies were invited to present their profile between the technical sessions. GEA, Jingjin Environment Protection, NALCO, Tokai Cobex, Eqip, ABC Flex and Trimet benefited from this opportunity.
- A complete set of documents (TRAVAUX book No. 50, presentations, exhibitor documents, recorded Question and Answer sessions, etc.,) were still available for download until recently on the vFairs partner’s platform (https://icsoba2021.vfairs.com/en/). As usual, all papers published in the TRAVAUX book, as well as the presentations, will be accessible from the ICSOBA website at https://icsoba.org/proceedings/.
- ICSOBA was fortunate to have Alba as the Host Sponsor fully committed and motivated to support ICSOBA in this endeavor. Now, more than ever, during these challenging times, we deeply appreciate the staunch support of various businesses and individuals. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have contributed to the conference this year. In addition, the organizers are deeply grateful to the partners and sponsors who have worked with us at all stages of this important industry event.
Virtual Lobby of ICSOBA 2021
Auditorium of ICSOBA 2021
Agenda of ICSOBA 2021
Exhibition hall of ICSOBA 2021
Networking lounge of ICSOBA 2021
Download center of ICSOBA 2021
Green Aluminium and China
Abstract
Roland Héquet
Vice President Hydrogen Strategy & Origination,
John Cockerill, Seraing, Belgium
Short Bio
Large Scale Green Hydrogen Production to Help Decarbonizing the Aluminium Sector.
Julian Kettle
Senior Vice President, Vice Chair Metals and Mining,
Wood Mackenzie, London, United Kingdom
Short Bio
The Energy Transition and the Challenge of Supply Development.
Alcoa’s Advance Sustainably Strategy: The Alcoa Pathway to Sustainability in the Aluminum Industry.
Abstract
Manasa Prasad Mishra
Director, Projects & Technical,
National Aluminium Company Ltd, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
Short Bio
Waste Management in the Indian Aluminium Industry - Key to Circular Economy.
Abstract
Pernelle Nunez
Deputy Secretary General, Director-Sustainability,
International Aluminium Institute, London, United Kingdom
Short Bio
Sustainability in the Aluminium Industry – Challenges and Opportunities.
Uday Patel
Senior Research Manager Global Aluminium Markets,
Wood Mackenzie, London, United Kingdom
Short Bio
Aluminium Market Outlook: A Tectonic Shift or a Temporary Blip.
Abstract
Fiona Solomon
Chief Executive Officer,
Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, Melbourne, Australia
Short Bio
ASI - Responsible Production, Sourcing and Stewardship of Aluminium.
Abstract
Souleymane Traoré
Chief Executive Officer,
Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée – CBG, Conakry, Guinea
Environmental, Social and Governance Strategies Should Be Central to African Mineral Value Chains.
Abstract
Paul Adkins
Roland Héquet
Julian Kettle
Pascal Lavoie
Manasa Prasad Mishra
Pernelle Nunez
Uday Patel
Fiona Solomon
Souleymane Traoré
Hans Erik Vatne
Paul Adkins
Managing Director,
AZ China Limited, Hong Kong
Biography
Paul Adkins is the Managing Director of AZ China Ltd. and has many years of experience in the aluminium industry. He previously worked for Alcoa, Alcan Australia, and Tomago Aluminium. At the end of 2004, Alcan appointed him to set up its Global Sourcing office in Beijing. Upon completion of that project, he elected to stay in Beijing, eventually establishing AZ China. Paul has an MBA from University of Newcastle in Australia and frequently speaks at industry-related conferences.
Roland Héquet
Vice President Hydrogen Strategy & Origination,
John Cockerill, Seraing, Belgium
Biography
Roland Hequet is Vice-President Strategy & Origination of John Cockerill Hydrogen.
After getting a Master’s degree in engineering and general management, Roland has taken several managerial positions in large multi-national companies. He has spent his career in Europe, the USA and other parts of the world.
Julian Kettle
Senior Vice President, Vice Chair Metals and Mining,
Wood Mackenzie, London, United Kingdom
Biography
Julian Kettle is Senior Vice President, Vice Chair Metals and Mining at Wood Mackenzie. Julian brings 30 years of experience in the analysis of metals and mining where he is responsible for senior stakeholder engagement and relationships. He is a recognised authority on the aluminium industry across the value chain from bauxite mining through to end-use analysis. His in-depth understanding of the key factors influencing the industry and issues that stakeholders face is of critical importance in his work providing strategic advice to clients.
Julian regularly presents to senior industry and financial community stakeholders Wood Mackenzie analysis across the value chain of the metals and mining space, covering aluminium, copper, lead, nickel, zinc, iron ore, steel and coal. He specialises in market environment assessment, expert witness, raw materials sourcing, contract pricing, portfolio optimisation and strategic advisory relating to brownfield and Greenfield investments in the metals and mining space.
Prior to joining Wood Mackenzie, Julian worked in British Aerospace Commercial Aircraft Division, where he was a development engineer responsible for the development and evaluation of advanced materials and processes for aerospace applications. Julian holds a BSc (Hons) in Metallurgy and Microstructural Engineering from Sheffield Hallam University.
Pascal Lavoie
Director-Smelting Manufacturing Excellence,
Alcoa, Montreal, Canada
Biography
Pascal Lavoie is Director –Smelting Manufacturing Excellence at Alcoa. Pascal’s career is connected with light metals production from the very beginning, starting at Noranda’s Magnola magnesium smelter as Process Engineer. When Magnola was curtailed, he moved to Noranda New Madrid smelter as Metallurgical Process Engineer and obtained a Six Sigma black belt certification. In 2006, Pascal joined the Light Metals Research Centre of the University of Auckland (LMRC) as Manager – International projects and then Chief Engineer where he led teams conducting more than 40 industrially-based R&D projects.
Returning to Canada as consultant in 2012, he provided support to smelting operations, engineering of reduction technologies, control and production systems. Pascal joined Alcoa in 2018, where he now leads technical support for all aspects of aluminium smelting across Alcoa’s global manufacturing footprint. Pascal Lavoie holds a bachelor’s degree in Materials and Metallurgical Engineering from Université Laval, Québec and a PhD in Chemicals and Materials Engineering from the University of Auckland.
Manasa Prasad Mishra
Director, Projects & Technical,
National Aluminium Company Ltd, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
Biography
Manasa Prasad Mishra is Director, Projects & Technical at NALCO, India. He is a member of the Board of the Company and handles the ongoing projects like brownfield expansion project of alumina refinery, Utkal coal mines project and the Joint Venture projects. He is also responsible for R&D function and various Business Development initiatives of the Company. Prior to the present assignment, he was head of the Smelter & Power Complex of NALCO, wherein the responsibility encompassed activities like production, quality control, R&D, finance, materials management, Human Resources, Corporate Social Responsibility and other administrative functions of the Complex. As head of Business Development function of the Company, he was associated with many business initiatives like Greenfield, Browfield expansions, down-stream aluminium projects and renewable energy projects. He had also worked in various areas in the Smelter & Power Complex in NALCO and had spear-headed many initiatives like computerized maintenance management system, Quality management system, etc. during the formative years of the Company.
Pernelle Nunez
Deputy Secretary General, Director-Sustainability,
International Aluminium Institute, London, United Kingdom
Biography
Pernelle Nunez is Deputy Secretary General, Director of Sustainability at the International Aluminium Institute. Pernelle has over 10 years of experience in the metals and mining industry. She began her career at CRU where she was a part of the consulting team and worked on a range of market strategy and valuation projects across the base metals, aluminium and iron ore markets. Pernelle joined the International Aluminium Institute in 2015. She is responsible for the Institute’s broad sustainability work program and has worked on a range of collaborative industry projects including; life cycle impact assessment, environmental footprint analyses, sustainable waste management and GHG emissions accounting.
Pernelle was a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 2019 Methodology Report Update to the 2006 National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Guidelines. She is also responsible for the IAI’s work on bauxite mining which encompasses issues such as biodiversity and community engagement. Pernelle holds a MSci Geology (Hons) from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College London and a Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Value Chains from the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership.
Uday Patel
Senior Research Manager Global Aluminium Markets,
Wood Mackenzie, London, United Kingdom
Biography
Uday Patel has 30 years of experience in the metals & mining sector covering Aluminium and other metals. He has joined Wood Mackenzie in 2014 and is Senior Research Manager, Global Aluminium Markets. His industry experience includes Ma’aden Saudi Arabia, DUBAL where he contributed to the startup of EMAL phases 1 and 2. During his career he has also worked on a range of projects across the entire aluminium value chain, including detailed market studies, cost analyses and strategic advisory work for clients including rolled producers, aluminium processing companies and financial organizations. Uday is a graduate of the London Business School’s executive management programme, Sussex University and the University of Exeter.
Fiona Solomon
Chief Executive Officer,
Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, Melbourne, Australia
Biography
Fiona Solomon Fiona is the Chief Executive Officer of the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI), which she joined in March 2015 with the responsibility for leading the development and implementation of ASI’s strategy and operations. Her career has specialised in building new and innovative initiatives in mineral supply chains over more than twenty years. She was previously Director – Standards Development at the Responsible Jewellery Council from 2007 to 2015, where she developed a certification program for gold, diamonds and platinum group metals which has been adopted by more than 1000 companies across the supply chain from mine to retail. She has served as a Board Member of the ISEAL Alliance and a founding member of the OECD’s Multi-Stakeholder Steering Group for responsible mineral supply chains. From 1997, Fiona worked for ten years at Australia’s CSIRO, leading research into mining and sustainability, and was also seconded to WWF to manage a multi-stakeholder project on the feasibility of mine-site certification. She has a Bachelors degree (Hons 1) in mechanical engineering and a PhD in philosophy of technology, both from the University of Queensland, and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Souleymane Traoré
Chief Executive Officer,
Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée – CBG, Conakry, Guinea
Biography
Hans Erik Vatne
Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer,
Norsk Hydro ASA, Oslo, Norway
Biography
Hans Erik Vatne is Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer at Norsk Hydro. He has 25 years of experience within the aluminium industry in Hydro, holding positions in R&D, production manager and plant manager in rolling, Head of Business Unit Remelters and lately Chief Technology Officer. He is also board member of the faculty of natural sciences at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and chairman of the portfolio board for energy, transport and low emissions of the Research Council of Norway. Hans Erik Vatne holds a Master degree in Physics and a PhD in Metallurgy, both from The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Сompanies that have submitted abstracts of technical papers:
ORGANIZING and TECHNICAL COMMITTEE
With Michel Reverdy as Program Director the ICSOBA 2021 Technical Committee was composed as follows:
| Subject | Subject organizer | Reviewers |
|---|---|---|
| Keynote | Michel Reverdy | According to subject |
| Bauxite, Alumina, Bauxite Residue | Andrey Panov Carlos Suarez Thymis Balomenos |
Steven Healy, George Banvolgyi, Stephan Beaulieu, Patrick James, Ajamu Duncan, Evandro Leao, Gokhan Demir, Helen Adamson, Frank Feret, Bijoy Satpathy, Andrey Panov, Carlos Suarez, Thymis Balomenos |
| Aluminium Reduction Technology | Vinko Potocnik | Stephan Broek, André-Felipe Shneider, Dagoberto Severo, Yashar Koçaefe, Kristian Einarsrud, Vinko Potocnik, BalK Kakkar |
| Carbon | Houshang Alamdari | Duygu Kocaefe, Gøril Jahrsengene |
ICSOBA 2021 President
Dr. Abdulla Habib
Chief Operating Officer, Aluminium Bahrain
Short BioAluminium is the metal of the future. As the world’s largest aluminium smelter ex-China, we believe in partnering with industry-specific associations such as ICSOBA that will enable us to exchange and transfer knowledge as well as best practices. Through this, we aim to achieve efficient and cost-effective solutions that will help us stay ahead of the curve in an ever-changing global environment. This in turn will translate Alba’s Vision ‘To be the number one aluminium supplier for the generations to come.
Dr. Abdulla Habib Ahmed
Chief Operating Officer, Aluminium Bahrain
Biography
Dr. Abdulla Habib Ahmed is currently Chief Operations Officer, Aluminium of Bahrain (Alba). His work experience includes 25 years in various roles in Reduction Lines, R&D and Customers Technical Support. He has PhD in Chemical Engineering and Master in Aluminium Smelting and MBA from ESSEC/ French Arabian School and had his higher education from University of New South Wales, Australia.
Student Grants
No student awards were considered at the virtual ICSOBA 2021 conference. However, for the last several years ICSOBA (registered in the province of Quebec) supports JER (Journée des Étudiants) conference organized by The Aluminium Research Centre – REGAL and offers a monetary funding. The REGAL brings together 36 regular members, 45 collaborator members from the public and private sectors, and about 170 students.
2021 Conference Satisfaction Survey
An online satisfaction survey (which begun in 2016) was carried out again following Virtual ICSOBA 2021. As this conference was the second consecutive of its kind, a significant number of 39 questions dealt with the virtual aspect of the conference. The feedback that the ICSOBA Board obtained from the survey is highly valuable. With ICSOBA 2020 as a reference the main results could be summarized as follows:
- A response rate confirms strong interest of ICSOBA delegates to provide feedback. 99 answers were collected which ensures a good representativity of the results.
- The main feedback is a very strong support to ICSOBA decision to go virtual in 2021. The choice to use a virtual platform rather than a “simple” webinar type conference was supported by 91% of the respondents. Connection to and navigation within the vFairs platform was very well rated. Organization of the Q&A session by block of 4 speakers was also fully supported (85%).
- The survey attendance was 30% for Bauxite & Alumina stream with 67% for Carbon and Smelting.
- With a 55% ratio, producers were again the most represented with the highest participation ever.
- Conference agenda in a flipbook format was highly rated. The absence of duplication of session was greatly supported at the level of 86%, thanks to the on-demand capability. Video on-on-demand was very much appreciated (78%) as well as resource downloading (81%), but some delegates experienced difficulties downloading multiple documents. For the virtual event, the audio and video quality of the broadcast is a must, on which we cannot compromise.
- The results on exhibition confirm those of the last year: our delegates value an exhibition (67%), but none of the proposed formats is clearly preferred. The new feature of “Company Presentation” was well received with some good improvement suggestions.
- We noted with great satisfaction that the technical quality of articles (79%) and 73% for innovative content has improved further compared to previous years.
- The forecast to attend next year Conference is 86%, back to the 2019 value and well above the 56% “historical rating“.
- The bi-annual Newsletter is confirmed as the preferred communication channel with same % as last year (42%)
The ICSOBA Board of Directors needed comprehensive feedback on Virtual ICSOBA 2021 to influence future ICSOBA events to adopt the most efficient and beneficial format. We received many suggestions regarding all points; this gives us great confidence for an improved format in the future. Your contribution is greatly appreciated, and we thank you for your participation.