Jamshedpur : The International Conference on Science and Technology of Ironmaking and Steelmaking STIS 2013 was concluded at CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory, Auditorium today.
The panel members of the Valedictory function were: Prof. Dick Dunstone, Director, Principal Consultant, Dunstone Coal Technology Pvt. Ltd., Australia; Prof. Paulo Santos Asssis from Brazil; Prof. G.S. Gupta from Indian Institute of Science Campus (IISc), Bangalore; Dr. T. Venugopalan, Chairman, STIS 2013 and Chief Technology Officer (New Project), Tata Steel; Professor Roderick I.L. Guthrie, Director, Mc Gill Metals Processing Centre, Mc Gill University, Canada; Prof. Dieter Senk from RWTH Aachen University and Prof. Deepak Majumder from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur.
The function was coordinated by Dr. T. Venugopalan. The proceedings of the conference were discussed wherein a number of eminent invited speakers from India and abroad; distinguished experts from Academic Institutes, Research Organizations; Steel Industries and students also took part.
The issues relating to the Iron and Steel Industry and measures to be taken to overcome them were deliberated.The output of the three day conference brought forth the key issues like continuous depletion and scarcity of raw material; recycling of the waste; infrastructure; non- availability of human resources; environmental problems and even the sustainability of Iron and Steel Industry in general.
Professor Roderick I.L. Guthrie said, ” The interaction of the students with the industries is very important.”. Prof.
Dick Dunstone said, “Though the iron making technology has advanced but the basic parameters of making coke in India is still the same .
Thus, new technologies should be employed for development of better coke quality”. Prof. Paulo Santos Asssis said, “In order to overcome environmental problems biogas can be used to replace the coke making fuel”. Prof. G.S. Gupta remarked, “A thorough understanding of the process is very important and critical in order to undertake any process modelling and its uniqueness result only the success”.
Citing the period of 1945-60, Prof. Dieter Senk mentioned that at one point of time Europe had an abundant presence of good quality coal and iron but now the time is such that we cannot go for mining operations as it is not cost effective and we have to import the iron ore from North America and coal from South America.
However, there are sufficient number of students and technical manpower. Prof. Deepak Mazumder said, “Science is meaningful only when it can benefit mankind and generate wealth.
Steel making is now at the mature stage. In order to produce 200 million tons of Steel by the year 2020 we need to have competent manpower.
Therefore, academic institutions have a major role to play but in most of the institutions there are paucity of senior faculties in our country”.