NEWS
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Members of the FLOW project will present the project and results via posters and oral presentations on various international conferences:
2nd International Conference on Construction Materials for a Sustainable Future (CoMS_2020) taking place in Bled, Slovenia (from April 15th to April 17th, 2020). Postponed to 20th to 21st April 2021
7th International Slag Valorisation Symposium, Shifting gears to a climate-neutral & resource efficient society; virtual conference; 27th-29th April 2021.
15th Ceramics Congress (CIMTEC 2020) taking place in Montecatini Terme, Italy (June 15-23, 2020). June 20-29 2022
More information follows after the event and on FB page.
PAST EVENTS:
FINAL Consortium meeting
Yesterday, on 23rd of April 2021, the partners from the FLOW project had the last meeting...3 years passed like a blink of an eye.
A lot of great achievements and two final products developed, confirming the project's success!
SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT! 👏👏👍👍
Now, we are already looking towards new projects and goals.
7th Consortium meeting
On Thursday, 9th March 2021, the 7th consortium meeting of the partners of the FLOW project took place, where we presented the activities by individual work packages and the work plan for the final months of the project duration.
As part of the project, we want to explore new possibilities for recycling inorganic industrial waste to obtain new products. The focus of research is mainly on waste slag containing aluminosilicates in reactive (glassy) form, where alkaline activation technology can be applied. The main goal of this project is to develop new light alkali-activated foams based on secondary raw materials.
Article "Alkali Activation of Metallurgical Slags: Reactivity, Chemical Behavior, and Environmental Assessment" selected as "Editors' Choice Articles"
Great news! Our paper has been selected and listed on the page of "Editors' Choice Articles".
🌐 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/materials/editors_choice
Alkali Activation of Metallurgical Slags: Reactivity, Chemical Behavior, and Environmental Assessment
📃 https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/14/3/639
"Editor's Choice Articles" is a new element in the official website, which is aimed to collect and exhibit the excellent papers chosen by Editorial-in-Chief from all Sections. For the Section "Materials Chemistry", Associate Editorial-in-Chief Professor Bontempi has selected 4 articles from volume 14 issue 3, and we are pleased that our paper is involved too.
45th ICACC congress
Between the 8th and 12th February 2021, the 45th international conference and exposition on Advanced Ceramics and composites virtual meeting took place, where prof. Isabella Lancellotti had an invited lecture entitled "The reactivity, chemical behavior and environmental evaluation of different slags pre and post alkali-activation". ICACC 2021 was organized by the ACerS Engineering Ceramics Division, and welcomed 835 attendees, with approximately 54 % from outside the United States. The program chair was Hisayuki Suematsu, a professor overseeing the EDI Laboratory at Nagaoka University of Technology.
3rd International Conference on Technologies & Business Models for Circular Economy (TBMCE)
The 3rd International Conference on Technologies & Business Models for Circular Economy (TBMCE) conference was held on December 15th 2020. The conference was devoted to presentations of circular economy concepts, technologies and methodologies that contribute to the shift of business entities and society as a whole to a more responsible, circular management of resources. The organizing committee prepared an exciting and informative conference programme including panel discussions, plenary and keynote sessions, oral and poster presentations on a variety of topics, and not forgetting exciting social programmes for participants (a group of R&D teams, experts, innovators, researchers, decision-makers, state authorities, representatives of other stakeholders, and the general public) from all around the world. The results of the FLOW project were presented by dr. Katja Traven via poster presentation and conference paper entitled: "The influence of different fibres quantity on mechanical and microstructural properties of alkali-activated foams".
6th Consortium meeting
On Friday, 2nd October 2020, the sixth consortium meeting of the partners of the FLOW project took place, where we presented the activities by individual work packages and the work plan for the coming months.
As part of the project, we want to explore new possibilities for recycling inorganic industrial waste to obtain new products. The focus of research is mainly on waste slag containing aluminosilicates in reactive (glassy) form, where alkaline activation technology can be applied. The main goal of this project is to develop new light alkali-activated foams based on secondary raw materials.
Workshop: HOW TO APPROACH THE MARKETING OF INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS AT DIFFERENT TRL LEVELS
On Wednesday, July 8, 2020, the Slovenian partners of the FLOW project at the Civil Engineering Institute of Slovenia organized a workshop entitled "How to approach the marketing of innovative products at different TRL levels".
The main motivation for organizing this workshop was the fact that within many projects the development of a new, innovative products and services takes place, but the vast majority remain unused. Therefore, the workshop focused on this issue from the point of view of researchers who develop new products as well as from the point of view of industrial partners who could market such products. We have highlighted the issue of t.i. "Valley of Death" or how to bridge the gap between products developed to TRL 4 and TRL 7 (TRL = from "Technology Readiness Level").
The introductory words were provided by the coordinator of the FLOW project, dr. Vilma Ducman, then dr. Katja Traven presented light alkali-activated foams - a product that is developed as part of the project, and Mark Češnovar prepared exhibition examples of various foams, which participants could also see for themselves. The focus of the workshop was rounded off by excellent lecturers, first dr. Amadea Dobovišek from the company Publi Una, who presented different marketing strategies and then the coordinator of the project SRIP - Krožno gospodarstvo, dr. Dragica Marinič presented some systemic solutions that will help bridge the gap between science on the one hand and the economy on the other. In the end, dr. Mateja Košir presented and showed the premises of the SPL Cycle demonstration project (pilot on TRL 7). There was a lot of interest among the participants of the workshop regarding the discussed topic, as it represents a burning problem not only at the national but also at the European level.
3RD RILEM SPRING CONVENTION 2020
The RILEM Spring Convention (RILEM‐SC) is a recent RILEM initiative that occurs every year, during the spring. The third RILEM Spring Convention and Conference, RSCC2020, was organized by the University of Minho, in Guimarães, between the 10th and the 14th of March 2020. The same event combined the RILEM standing committee meetings (TAC, DAC, DEV, Bureau), several RILEM technical committee meetings (TC), a PhD Workshop, a Plenary RILEM Workshop and a Conference. Due to the Coronavirus, the conference activities were also live broadcasted through ZOOM application and on YouTube. Also, project FLOW was presented in a remote presentation entitled "Microstructural evaluation of fibre-reinforced slag-based foams" that you can find at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEDXC8HmMUI&feature=youtu.be
(time: 7:45:41)
More about the conference: https://www.rscc2020.civil.uminho.pt/
59TH HOME FAIR
Between 4th and 7th March 2020, the 59th Home Fair takes place in Ljubljana. Also project FLOW was presented to the public at ZAG's stand. The Fair featured 505 companies from 29 countries. Due to the appearance of coronavirus the fair was closed early on Sunday, March 8th. Nevertheless, the fair was attended by 37,800 people in four days.
More information available on: https://www.home-fair.si/
THE USE OF SECONDARY RAW MATERIALS AS CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
On November 28th, 2019 ZAG held a workshop entitled "The use of secondary raw materials as construction materials". The workshop was organised within Eit RawMaterials project "RIS-Alice". The purpose of the event was to present the aspects of the circular economy and the sustainable management of mineral secondary raw materials (waste, by-products), the challenges of their evaluation and the development in the field of innovative building materials or products that will further reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the production process in the future. Mark Češnovar had an oral presentation entitled: “Alkalijsko aktivirane pene” where also FLOW project was presented as well as alkali activated foams as potential isolation product. There was also a practical demonstration of AA foams preparation.
More about the programme: http://www.zag.si/si/novice/vabimo-vas-na-delavnico-o-uporabi-sekundarnih-surovin-v-gradbenih-materialih
JUB's CONFERENCE "Pot do tržne inovacije"
On November 21st, 2019 JUB held a conference entitled "Pot do tržne inovacije". JUB Group is successful international corporation with 144-year tradition in the production of paints which comprises twelve subsidiaries and operates in more than thirty markets. They held a conference, where new innovation ideas and potential final products were presented. Katja Traven had an oral presentation entitled: “Alkalijsko aktivirane pene” where also FLOW project was presented as well as alkali activated foams as potential isolation product.
2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TECHNOLOGIES & BUSINESS MODELS FOR CIRCULAR ECONOMY (TBMCE)
From 24th-25th of October the TBMCE conference in Portorož (Slovenia) was held. The conference was devoted to presentations of circular economy concepts, technologies and methodologies that contribute to the shift of business entities and society as a whole to a more responsible, circular management of resources. Also FLOW project and its results were presented at this conference by Mark Češnovar with poster presentation entitled: "The deformation of alkali activated materials at different curing temperature".
More about the conference: http://tbmce.um.si/
SEMINAR ON GEOPOLIMERS AND ALKALI ACTIVATED MATERIALS
Alongside the ECerS conference, the Seminar on geopolymers and alkali activated materials was held from 20th to 21st June 2019. The Seminar was organized by the Italian Working Group on Geopolymers of the Italian Ceramic Society, active since 2008 and gathering more than 80 members, one third coming from industry. The aim of the Seminar was to inform beginners from the ceramics field on the synthesis, activation, and properties of these materials so that to face the request of low-carbon foot-print materials and CO2 reduction, typically high for Ordinary Portland Cement and traditionally fired ceramics. Three members of the FLOW project team played a more prominent role in this seminar, Cristina Leonelli as head of the organizing committee and Isabella Lancelloti and Vilma Ducman with oral presentations entitled as: “Geopolymers for waste valorization and inertization” (I. Lancelloti) and “Geopolymers and AAM: standards and regulation” (V. Ducman).
More about the seminar: https://www.ecers2019.org/seminar-on-geopolymers-and-alkali-activated-materials-2/
XVI CONFERENCE OF THE EUROPEAN CERAMIC SOCIETY (ECerS)
From 16th to 20th June 2019, an international conference of the European Ceramic Society in Torino (Italy) was held. The ECerS Conference series showcase cutting-edge research and product developments in a wide range of ceramic-related areas, and the technical program provided an opportunity for scientists, researchers, engineers and industry leaders from around the world to present and exchange findings on recent advances in ceramic science and technology. The Conference included Plenary lectures, the ECerS Awards Ceremony, the ECerS Fellowships Ceremony and the Student Speech Contest. With this event we successfully present the part of project Flow’s research work with oral presentation titled: Potential of several wastes such as blast furnace and ladle slags for the formulation of alkali activated compositions presented by Isabella Lancelloti (all authors: Lancelloti, I.; Češnovar, M.; Traven, K.; Ciabocco, M.; Barbieri, L.; Berrettoni, M.; Ducman, V. and Leonelli, C.)
More about the conference: https://www.ecers2019.org
6th INTERNATIONAL SLAG VALORISATION SYMPOSIUM
From 1st to 5th April 2019, an international conference was held in Mechelen near Brussels with the emphasis on the use of metallurgical slag for the alkali-activated materials. Over 90 presentations from the field of slag, ore processing, steel industry and non-ferrous alloys and research on materials made on the basis of slag for the purpose of construction were presented at the conference. The conference program consisted of workshops and ten different sections. Mark Češnovar introduced the work of the FLOW project, with emphasis on AAM-based foams. There was a great interest for our project from foreign universities, research institutes as well as industry, as we are one of the few manufacturers of lightweight foam (for insulation purposes) made of slag from melting steel in electro-arc furnaces (electric arc furnace and ladle slags). These slags are impoverished with the elements necessary for alkaline activation (amorphous Si and Al) and it is more difficult to achieve good mechanical properties, which present the basis for potential use.
More about the conference: https://slag-valorisation-symposium.eu/
THIRD CONSORTIUM MEETING IN ROVINJ
Alongside with the SMSS (Sustainable Materials, Systems and Structures) conference in Rovinj on 20th March 2019, a third consortium meeting for the FLOW project took place. Partners presented the past work (M8 - M10) as well as the planes for the next period.
III EUROPEAN GEOPOLYMER NETWORK:
On November 30th, 2018, the 3rd European Geopolimer Network conference took place in Faenza, Italy. Vilma Ducman was invited to the conference as a keynote speaker and had introduced us to legislation enabling innovative building products to enter the market ("European and national legislation on geopolymers/alkali activated materials"). Isabella Lancellotti, Mark Česnovar and Katja Traven presented posters describing the work done within the first six months of the FLOW project:
"Characterization and reactivity of slags as precursors for alkali activate materials" (I. Lancellotti);
"Agening and curing of alkali-activated slag based materials" (M. Češnovar) and
"Influence of particle size on mechanical properties of slag based alkali activated materials" (K. Traven).
At the conference the FLOW project was also presented with the poster, and the present members of the consortium had a meeting where the work done was reported and the plans for the next period had been made.
For more information, see the EGN website (European Geopolymer Network) and the book of abstracts.
