35th International Conference and Exhibition of ICSOBA successfully concludes in Hamburg, Germany

The International Committee for Study of Bauxite, Alumina & Aluminium (ICSOBA) successfully concluded its 35th International Conference and Exhibition of ICSOBA that was held in the Radisson Blu hotel in Hamburg, Germany from 2 to 5 October, 2017 in cooperation with TRIMET and DADCO.

ICSOBA is a well-recognized international non-profit association of members with the vision of being the “Technology Conference of the Aluminium Industries, for the Aluminium Industries”. The prime mission of ICSOBA Mission consists of  promoting the exchange of ideas and know-how from different fields of research related to bauxite exploration and mining, and alumina and aluminium production. To this objective they organize yearly Technology Conference with a scope of covering upstream Aluminium activities from Bauxite to Liquid Metal.

ICSOBA was formed in 1963 in Europe (Zagreb, Yugoslavia). During the first three decades a great majority of the events took place in Europe, with bauxite and alumina being the predominant subjects. Then ICSOBA begun to travel to other continents becoming global and internationally recognized.  The last ICSOBA conference in Europe was held in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 2004. Therefore, bringing the conference to Europe this year is like coming back home and to its roots. The selection of Hamburg, Germany for the 35th International Conference and Exhibition follows ICSOBA’s practice of rotating the venue of International Meetings to countries that play an important role in the global Aluminium industry.

The ICSOBA 2017 conference featured 125 international industry and academia speakers who covered topics including bauxite and bauxite resources, alumina production and bauxite residue solutions, primary aluminium production, carbon and carbon materials, as well as aluminium downstream processing.

Under the direction of Michel Reverdy and Vinko Potocnik the 2017 papers were published in the TRAVAUX vol. No. 46, which this year contains 1172 pages (a record for ICSOBA).

Other than the host sponsors Trimet Aluminium and DadCo, other sponsors and exhibitors in the event were Cytec Solvay Group, Outotec, Fives Solios, Hatch, AKW Apparate und Verfahren, Bruker, Claudius Peters Projects, Fives Solios, GEA Process Engineering SAS, GLAMA Maschinenbau, Cytec Solvay Group, Otto Markert & Gruppe, PANalytical and SysCAD.

During the Best Papers Award ceremony, selected papers from the conference were announced. The awards are dedicated to recognizing outstanding papers across the entire program. Four subjects were considered: bauxite & alumina, bauxite residue, carbon and electrolysis. The Subject Organizers of each stream: Steve Healy (bauxite and alumina), Yiannis Pontikes (bauxite residue), Mathieu Arlettaz (carbon) and Vinko Potocnik (electrolysis) made their selections, in association with Session Chairs.

During the gala dinner, two "ICSOBA Commemorative Medal" displaying portraits of industry pioneers Paul Héroult, Charles Martin Hall, Pierre Berthier and Karl Josef Bayer were presented. The medals were awarded to Dr Martin Iffert of Trimet Aluminium and Marco van der Werff of DadCo in recognition of welcoming ICSOBA in Hamburg in October 2017. Since 2013 medals are given each year to the visited plants as token of appreciation for hosting ICSOBA delegates. This year the DadCo alumina plant in Stade and the Trimet smelter in Hamburg were awarded medals during the plant visits. Altogether 106 delegates took part in both visits.

The 36th ICSOBA International Meeting & Exposition will be held October 29 – November 1, 2018, in Belem, Brazil in collaboration with Hydro with the theme "Bauxite, Alumina & Aluminium Industry in Brazil and New Global Developments".

For additional information on this year and past events please consult www.ICSOBA.org.