40th International Conference and Exhibition ICSOBA 2022
Overview
- The 40th International Conference and Exhibition of ICSOBA (The International Committee for Study of Bauxite, Alumina and Aluminium) was held from 10 to 14 October 2022 at the Radisson Blu Park hotel in Athens, Greece and online.
- The conference covered bauxite, alumina, bauxite residue, carbon for aluminium electrolysis, aluminium production and sustainability in a variety of technical sessions. The program included 11 high-caliber keynote speakers and 123 technical papers.
- The Conference obtained support from Mytilineos, the host sponsor and attracted over 300 delegates from 34 countries.
- The selection of Athens, Greece for the 40th International Conference and Exhibition ICSOBA 2022, follows ICSOBA’s practice of rotating the venue of its international meetings to countries that play an important role in the global aluminium industry. This was the second ICSOBA conference in Athens and the third in Greece in the history of ICSOBA.
- The conference was for the first time organized for a hybrid audience, with the in-person part held in Athens and the virtual part online in as real-time broadcast of all presentations for the delegates who could not attend in-person. However, all conference presenters traveled to Athens to deliver their presentation physically.
- To continuously innovate and contribute to a better practical knowledge sharing within the industry, live streaming of the conference from a single platform (Whova) was introduced this year enabling interaction between on-site and online participants.
- ICSOBA, in its vision and commitment to cooperate with other conferences and better serve the aluminium industry, joined forces this year with the 4th International Bauxite Residue Valorization and Best Practices Conference (BR2022) and with the Final RemovAL Cross-Fertilisation Workshop, coordinated by European Aluminium Association (EAA); the latter took place on 10 October 2022. The International Aluminium Institute (IAI) also benefited from this gathering of technologists from around the world to hold its Bauxite & Alumina Committee Meeting and a Workshop on Decarbonization in Refining on 9 October 2022.
- During the Conference, an Exhibition of latest technologies, equipment and other devices for the bauxite, alumina and aluminium industry took place with 7 participating companies. The last day of the conference saw field trips to Agios Nikolaos alumina refinery and smelter.
- As usual, all papers published in the TRAVAUX No. 51 conference proceedings, as well as the presentations, will be accessible from the ICSOBA website at https://icsoba.org/proceedings/.
- In addition to publication in TRAVAUX No. 51, all ICSOBA authors were invited to submit their manuscript to a topical collection in the Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy (JSM): https://www.springer.com/journal/40831 with a 2020 impact factor of 2.35.
- The forum proved once again that ICSOBA provides a unique platform to information exchange on the latest innovations and contributes profoundly to knowledge dissemination in our industry.
- We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have contributed to the conference this year. In addition, we are deeply grateful to the partners and sponsors who have worked with us at all stages of this important industry event. With 42 Corporate Members and 15 Sponsors (Mytilineos, EGA, Rio Tinto, Hydro, Alba, Hatch, Hindalco, Nalco Water, Tokai Cobex, Fives, Metso:Outotec, Rain Carbon, Simonsen, Sohar Aluminium, Trimet) the organizers of ICSOBA 2022 are humbled by this realization.
Conference Group Photo
the Athens Theater
Confernece BR-2022
Keynote Speakers:
KN02 - Aluminium Heritage
Abstract
Ron Knapp
Former International Aluminium Institute (IAI) secretary general, International adviser, office of the Chairman,
China Hongqiao Group Limited, Hongkong, China
Short Bio
KN04 - China Hongqiao Group – A Leading Global Aluminum Producer Moving From Heavy To Zero Carbon
Abstract
Les Edwards
Vice President Production Control and Technical Services,
Rain Carbon Inc., Covington, LA, USA
Short Bio
KN06 - Quantifying the Carbon Footprint of the Alouette Primary Aluminum Smelter
Abstract
Anupam Agnihotri
Director,
Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Research Development & Design Centre (JNARDDC), Nagpur, India
Short Bio
KN07 - Framework to Drive Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy in Indian Aluminium Sector
Abstract
KN08 - Performance Improvement in Alumina Refineries
Abstract
KN09 - The Outlook for third Party Bauxite Trade and the Potential Impacts of Country Policies
Abstract
Pierre Meynard
Ron Knapp
Les Edwards
Anupam Agnihotri
Chris Baker
Alan Clark
Uday Patel
Lavinya Kugaswaran
Pierre Meynard
President,
Institute for the History of Aluminium, Paris, France
Biography
Pierre Meynard. After graduating in Law and from Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences-Po), he started at Pechiney in 1977 where he held management positions at various industrial sites until 1992. After a mission at the cabinet of the Ministry of Labour and Employment of the French Government in 1994 he joined the executive committee of the Carbone Lorraine group, which became Mersen. Back at Pechiney, he became Director of management of the group's executives. After the merger with Alcan, he was appointed Chairman of Affimet then, in 2005, Managing Director of Pechiney SA. He became Chairman of Alcan France in 2007 then Chairman of Rio Tinto France from 2011 to 2016. He was also Chairman of Sciences-Po Alumni from 2010 to 2016 and Chairman of the France-Canada Chamber of Commerce from 2007 to 2016.
He is now President of the Institute for the History of Aluminum.
Ron Knapp
Former International Aluminium Institute (IAI) secretary general, International adviser, office of the Chairman,
China Hongqiao Group Limited, Hongkong, China
Biography
Ron Knapp joined China Hongqiao Group in January 2020, following 11 years as Secretary General of the International Aluminium Institute (London). Previous roles include Executive Director of the Australian Aluminium Council (2002 to 2008), Chief Executive of the World Coal Institute London (1997 to 2001) and senior positions with the Minerals Council of Australia (1987 to 1996). Prior to these appointments, Ron was an economist with the Australian Government (1976 to 1987). Ron is an Australian with a small beef cattle farm in Australia.
Les Edwards
Vice President Production Control and Technical Services,
Rain Carbon Inc., Covington, LA, USA
Biography
Les Edwards is Vice President of Production Control and Technical Services at Rain Carbon Inc. in the US. He has been with Rain Carbon since 1998 and is responsible for Production Planning and Control and Technical Service functions which includes Customer Technical Support and R&D activities. He is also actively involved in improving sustainability performance across the company. Les has authored or co-authored over 30 technical papers and is a regular attendee and contributor to industry technical conferences like ICSOBA.
Anupam Agnihotri
Director,
Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Research Development & Design Centre (JNARDDC), Nagpur, India
Biography
Anupam Agnihotri is the Director of Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Research Development & Design Centre, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Mines, Government of India. He has more than 30 years of experience in Aluminium R&D and working on SDG 12 initiatives for the nonferrous sector in India. As a head of the institute, he has spearheaded many R&D initiatives for Indian Aluminium Industry for energy/material conservation, low-cost material/equipment development, and value addition to industrial waste. An Indian Institute of Technology- Kanpur alumnus, he has a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Materials and Metallurgical Engineering. Served as a visiting faculty at the University of Quebec in Canada and the Hungarian Research Institute under the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), he is presently involved in the national-level project on the nonferrous metal scarp framework and circular economy for the nonferrous sector
Chris Baker
Director – Refining Technology,
Alcoa, Perth, Australia
Biography
Chris Baker is Director – Refining Technology for Alcoa, where he is responsible for a team providing research and development, and subject matter expert level technical support, to Alcoa’s refining operations globally. Chris has more than 25 years’ experience in Alumina refining, and innovation and sustainability have always been key interests. Chris holds a bachelor of science degree with honours in physical and inorganic chemistry, and a PhD in Materials Science, both from the University of Western Australia.
Alan Clark
Founder and director,
CM Group, Glenelg, South Australia
Biography
Alan Clark is founder and Managing Director of the CM Group, a privately owned research advisory specialising in the analysis of global base and minor metals industries. Alan is a metallurgical engineer (University of South Australia) with an MBA specialising in Management of Technology (University of Melbourne) and over 30 years’ industry experience. Alan began his career as a research engineer with RioTinto Aluminium (formerly Comalco), later taking on roles with RioTinto in research, process improvement and marketing, before establishing Clark & Marron in 1999, later becoming the CM Group in 2011.
Uday Patel
Senior Research Manager, Global Aluminium Markets,
Wood Mackenzie, London, United Kingdom
Biography
Uday Patel has over 30 years of experience in the metals & mining sector covering Aluminium and other metals. He joined Wood Mackenzie in 2014 and is Senior Research Manager, Global Aluminium Markets. His industry experience includes Outokumpu, 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.
Lavinya Kugaswaran
Environment (Bauxite & Alumina) Program Manager,
International Aluminium Institute, London, UK
Biography
Lavinya Kugaswaran is the program manager of the Bauxite & Alumina Committee with the International Aluminium Institute. Prior to this, Lavinya led the Just Transition Initiative for EIT Climate-KIC, across three European regions on behalf of the European Commission. Lavinya’s industry experience includes tunnelling and mining with Gold Fields Australia and Northern Star Resources as a Geotechnical Engineer. Lavinya is alumna of Camborne School of Mines and the University of Manchester.
Organising and Technical Committee |
|
|---|---|
| Keynote, Sustainability | Subject Organiser - Michel Reverdy Reviewers - Michel Reverdy and Vinko Potocnik |
| Bauxite, Alumina, Bauxite Residue | Subject Organisers - Andrey Panov, Thymis Balomenos Reviewers - Alan Clark, Andrey Panov, Bijoy Satpathy, Efthymios Balomenos, Frank Feret, Georgy Banvolgyi, Ken Evans, Linus Perander, Monique Delaney, Roberto Seno, Sebastien Fortin, Seyit Avcu, Sharif Jahanshahi, Stephan Beaulieu, Wlademir Penna |
| Aluminium | Subject Organisers - Vinko Potocnic Reviewers - André-Felipe Schneider, B.K. Kakkar, Dagoberto Severo, Kristian Etienne Einarsrud, Suresh Dubey, Yasar Kocaefe and Vinko Potocnik |
| Carbon | Subject Organisers - Houshang Alamdari Reviewers - Camilla Sommerseth, Donald Ziegler, Duygu Kocaefe, Gøril Jahrsengene |
ICSOBA 2022 President
Spiros Kasdas
Vice-Chairman, Mytilineos
Short BioThe importance of ICSOBA’s role is illustrated by the “bauxite to aluminium” production activity of the 2022 conference host, Mytilineos S.A. It has preserved its competitiveness over 5 decades through successive operational and technological improvements. In this journey, ICSOBA's events and "Travaux" papers have been a valuable source of inspiration
Spiros Kasdas
Vice-Chairman, Mytilineos
Biography
Spiros Kasdas is currently Vice-Chairman of Mytilineos S.A. During his over 50-year professional experience, he has worked as plant manager of Aluminium of Greece (AOG), as head of the Pechiney Primary Aluminium Research, as CEO of Tomago /Australia, as head of the Pechiney and later on Alcan Primary Aluminium Technology and as General manager of the Mytilineos Metallurgy BU, Chairman of the mining company Delphi - Distomon and CEO of AOG. He has graduated from the Polytechnic School of Athens with a degree in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.
Special focus on Bauxite Residue valorisation in association with redmud.org
The 4th International Bauxite Residue Valorisation and Best Practices Conference focused on the efforts that have already successfully reached high technological readiness. There were 12 presentations, with a particular format: 20 min dedicated on slides, 20 min on live or recorded presentation of the pilot plant scale installation and 20 min for questions. We believe that by doing so, we bring the community closer together and we accelerate the big-scale use and application of bauxite residue.
On-site participants of ICSOBA conference in Athens had the opportunity to attend BR2022.
For more information, please visit https://conference2022.redmud.org/.
Final RemovAL Cross-Fertilisation Workshop
The Final RemovAL Cross-Fertilisation Workshop, organized by European Aluminium, took place on 10 October as a freely accessible hybrid event.
RemovAL is an EU H2020 project which aims to valorise bauxite residue, spent pot lining and other waste through new innovative processing routes. This final event mainly focused on presenting how to turn bauxite residue and other aluminium industrial residues into valuable resources. In this context, non-technological enablers, cross-fertilisation opportunities between EU projects and industry, and other aspects (policy, societal) were discussed for boosting the sustainability and circularity of alumina refineries.
For more information please visit https://european-aluminium.eu/resource-hub/removal-cross-fertilisation-conference/.
2022 Conference Satisfaction Survey
An online satisfaction survey (which begun in 2016) was again carried out shortly after ICSOBA 2022. As this conference was the first ICSOBA hybrid conference with a physical part after several years, a significant number of 42 questions relating to the onsite and virtual aspects of the conference were asked. The feedback that the ICSOBA Board obtained from the survey is highly valuable and can be summarized as follows:
- A response rate confirms strong interest of ICSOBA delegates to provide feedback. 132 answers were collected (42 % response rate) which ensures a good representativity of the results.
- The survey attendance was a perfect 50/50 split between Bauxite & Alumina stream and Carbon & Smelting.
- With 38 % response rate, producers were again the most represented.
- The overall rating of the conference “very good” was 78 % and only 2.5 % was “under average”.
- We noted with great satisfaction that the rating of the quality of technical papers increased again (80 % for innovative content and 73 % for applicability). Networking was highly appreciated (78 % with only 2% under average) and many comments requested more time and proper “Networking breaks”
- Whova platform obtained an overwhelming support (90 %) with many good comments for further improvements.
- The forecast to attend next year’s conference is 72 %, well above the 56 % “historical rating“. 96 % of respondent will recommend ICSOBA conference!
The ICSOBA Board of Directors needed such comprehensive feedback on hybrid ICSOBA 2022 to influence future ICSOBA events to adopt the most efficient and beneficial format.
We received many suggestions regarding all points, from the field trip organization to the conference content and activity development outside of the yearly conference.
Our strategy to pursue alliance with other conference organizers is overwhelmingly supported (83 %).
This gives us great confidence for an improved format in the future. Your contribution is greatly appreciated, and we thank you for your participation in the survey.