The Sustainable Way of Producing Metals

Join the South West WA Branch in-person and online for their March Tech Talk, The Sustainable Way of Producing Metals: bio-metallic iron, bio-rutile, green iron and green rutile.

About this event

The current pyrometallurgy process requires large amounts of coal to produce metals, such as iron, synthetic rutile and others from their respective oxide minerals.

There are ongoing concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and carbon waste generated in these processes. To minimise the impact of these emissions, a renewed focus on a sustainable way of producing these metals is needed. Using renewable fuels in pyrometallurgy can minimise raw materials wastage and greenhouse gas emissions to an extent. Increased demand has been seen in recent years for green hydrogen as an alternate reductant in the reduction process with the goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions.

This presentation will provide insights into the production of bio-metallic iron, bio-rutile, green iron, and green rutile from oxide minerals using reduction techniques.

Speaker/s

William Spencer

Specialist Metallurgist - Product Prediction

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William Spencer, MAusIMM CP (Met) is a Metallurgical Engineer in the role of Specialist Metallurgist - Product Prediction at Rio Tinto. William is completing his PhD in Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering at Murdoch University. In 2018, William received his master’s degree in Metallurgy from Western Australian School of Mines, Curtin University. He has arrays of working experience as a process engineer in many industries, including steel making, mineral processing, and pyro/hydrometallurgy. William’s recent research aim is to understand and develop new alternative reduction technologies that can minimise/eliminate carbon footprint in reduction processes, utilising biofuels/hydrogen gas to produce bio-metals/green metals from oxide minerals.