The AID4GREENEST project has celebrated its official kick off meeting earlier this week at Spain’s IMDEA Materials Institute.
All 10 of the project partners were in attendance at the event, marking the first time that the many researchers, industry experts and consultants behind the ambitious project have had the opportunity to meet under one roof.
The meeting was hosted by project coordinators IMDEA Materials and featured representatives from EurA AG, ePotentia, the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM, Ghent University, OCAS NV, Reinosa Forgins and Castings, the Spanish Association for Standardisation (UNE), the University of Oulu and the University of Liège.
The two-day event provided a platform to more clearly define the next steps forward for the three-year endeavour, which got underway earlier this month.
Over the next three years, AID4GREENEST will develop six new AI-based rapid characterisation methods and modelling tools for advanced and more sustainable ‘green steel’ production.
The project’s coordinator, Dr. Ilchat Sabirov from IMDEA Materials Institute, said that the meeting had served as an important milestone in AID4GREENEST’s research efforts.
“While we are only at the starting line of this particular project, the partners behind it bring many years of excellence in a variety of fields related to the steel manufacturing industry, and in the development of computational modelling and AI tools that will be crucial to AID4GREENEST’s success,” he said.
“Bringing everyone together for the first time highlighted both the challenges that the project will face moving forward, but also the incredible level of expertise, knowledge and know-how we will have available to meet, and overcome them.”
AID4GREENEST’s scope will cover the steel design (chemistry and microstructure), process design (processing parameters), product design (processing and heat treatments) and product performance (creep) stages of steel manufacture.
Developing new AI-powered characterisation and modelling techniques will help to reduce component rejection rates, and thus waste, by detecting inadvertent design flaws earlier in the production process.
This will allow steel producers to avoid the production of flawed steel pieces which must then be rejected and discarded. As well as limiting waste, this will also lead to major cost savings.
Additionally, the tools to be designed through AID4GREENEST will also enhance material quality by reducing defects, lower the industry’s carbon footprint and decrease dependence on key raw materials.
You can follow AID4GREENEST’s progress on social media at LinkedIn and YouTube.
AID4GREENEST is funded by the European Union through the Horizon Europe Framework Program (HORIZON) for the modelling and characterisation of advanced materials under grant agreement number 101091912.
