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Powder Piloting Service

Material solutions, from powder to product.

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd

Circular economy - secondary raw materials

www.vtt.fi/powder

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Service for utilization of industrial by-products and side streams as

secondary raw materials

Evaluate potential and possibilities to utilize side stream and by-

products as raw material on different applications

Demonstration of suitability and performance of secondary raw

material based components

Circular economy and

secondary raw materials

www.vtt.fi/powder

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Application demands – determination of suitable secondary raw

material sources from databases

Particular side stream suitability – mapping of possible applications

Pi

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Secondary raw

materials and

applications

Processing &

modification

Processing parameters

for test components

Development steps from waste to value: Secondary raw materials

Side stream modification to convert it to usable secondary raw

material

Pre-evaluation of technical and economic feasibility against primary

raw materials

Determination of the most suitable processing routes

Design of experiment (DoE) for process parameter mapping

Production of test components for characterization and performance

testing

www.vtt.fi/powder

Design and

manufacturing of

demo component

Design and optimization of component production process

Production of components for demonstrations

Component performance testing lab and field testing in operation

conditions

Piloting

Piloting of production

Tecno-economic evaluation

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To show currently landfilled waste possibilities as a raw material asset

Robust energy efficient processes for utilizing mine tailings as raw material for porous ceramics

Wide applicability - porous ceramics are in added value applications such as filters, catalyst

supports, insulators, absorbents

Porous ceramics from mine tailings

www.vtt.fi/powder

Case1: Novel synthesis methods for

porous ceramics from mine tailings

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Development of novel product with industrial partner based on low

cost raw material

Mine tailings has been used to demonstrate the possibility to

produce ceramic materials by powder injection moulding (PIM)

The utilization of residue materials in line with circular economy

and sustainability

www.vtt.fi/powder

Serial production ceramics from mine tailings.

Case2: Ceramic materials by PIM

from mine tailings

PIM process starts with mixing of feedstock material (powder+binders) and continues with injection

molding, binder removal and sintering.

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Industrial pilot scale demonstration of processing

route for low energy intensive refractories based

on maximal utilization of secondary raw materials.

Develop alternative refractory materials with

mechanical and chemical resistance up to

1200°C in gaseous atmosphere with the goal to

maximize the use of waste material and reduce

the cost.

www.vtt.fi/powder

Case3: Slag as feedstock for

innovative Refractory Ceramics

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Metal powders for Additive Manufacturing has high prices,

which means that material efficiency should be maximised.

Waste stream consists of

1) support structures,

2) defected parts and

3) agglomerated sieve residue powder

In this case regeneration of residue powder was

demonstrated by jet milling.

SEM-images showing the particle morphology for

commercial powder (left) and for jet milled sieve

residue powder (right).

www.vtt.fi/powder

Case3: Regeneration of Additive

Manufacturing metal powder

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For more information

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Interested?

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd

www.vtt.fi/powder