skip to content

Materials Chemistry Group

 

Professor Geoffrey Brooks of Swinburn University, Australia will be presenting an exciting talk on Tuesday 31st October at 11 am in A&B Meeting Room (Large).

 

Manufacturing Metal and Ceramics on the Moon

 

An overview of recent work at Swinburne University and CSIRO looking at fundament thermodynamics and kinetics of making materials on the moon using regolith as the ore. Recent work using solar thermal sintering and vacuum vaporisation will be described within the context of the general challenges facing humanity in establishing materials manufacturing on the surface of the moon.

 

You are all welcome to attend.

 

Additional News from IOM3

Professor Brooks is visiting the UK in order to receive the Prestigious Bessemer Gold Medal.  

It is a pleasure also to report that Prof Brooks will be giving the prestigious IOM3 talk on Fri 3rd Nov in Sheffield.

Professor Geoff Brooks from Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia (Bessemer Gold Medallist for 2023) will present his Sir Henry Bessemer Lecture – The Future of Bessemer's Dream - at the Cutlers’ Hall in Sheffield on Friday 3 November starting at 18:00. Prof. Brooks is an internationally renowned expert on Oxygen steelmaking and much of his current work is focused on the decarbonisation of the BOS steelmaking route. A precis of the lecture is given below.

Bessemer’s great innovation from 170 years ago took steel from kilogram to tonnage scale production rates in one giant leap. Now, the push is towards decarbonisation, as the international steel industry contributes between 7 to 10% of the human made CO2 and the industry is under significant pressure to decarbonise as part of a general shift towards renewables. The two dominant steelmaking processes are currently the Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) and the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF). Professor Brooks will examine key issues facing these technologies, in particular; (i) the need to make the BOF a more versatile reactor in terms of feed materials, (ii) re-thinking the EAF to deal with Hydrogen DRI, (iii) and the introduction of Melter/Smelting furnaces to remove gangue from Hydrogen DRI processes. Can we be as innovative as Bessemer in meeting these challenges?

The lecture is aimed at a general audience as well as technical specialists. It is free to attend and open to all. Advance registration is not required.

The SMEA Annual Dinner will follow the Bessemer Lecture and will incorporate the presentation of the IOM3 annual iron and steel medals awarded in recognition of contributions made by individuals to the Iron and Steel Industry (as detailed earlier). Pre-pandemic, the SMEA Annual Dinner was one of the principal social events for the metals’ industry in the South Yorkshire area. It provides an excellent opportunity for individual networking and to meet up with old friends and colleagues. The dinner and the lecture are separate events so there is no requirement to attend both.

Drinks will be available in the bar from 19:00 with dinner being served at 20:00. Dress code is lounge suits and smart evening wear. Tickets are £45 inc. VAT per person. If you are interested in attending, booking forms can be obtained from the SMEA treasurer, Andrew Kirton-Vaughan, at treasurer@smea1894.com