Students, faculty showcase steel innovation and decarbonization

Embracing its history that is deeply intertwined with the steel industry, Pittsburgh was the proud host of this year’s Association for Iron & Steel Technology annual conference, AISTech. Carnegie Mellon students and faculty were able to maximize their exposure to the topics explored throughout the meeting and to share their research with a global audience of industry leaders. 

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) faculty and student researchers from the departments of materials science and engineering (MSE) and engineering and public policy (EPP) presented at 13 technical sessions and participated in two panel discussions during the meeting, covering topics from decarbonization and sustainability to advanced metallurgy and digitalization.

The collaboration among the departments was highlighted in a follow up to last year’s decarbSTEEL presentation, exploring how iron ore pellet grade influences the production cost and CO₂ emissions intensity of direct reduced iron (DRI)-based steelmaking pathways. Led by postdoctoral researcher Elina Hoffmann and professors Valerie Karplus and Chris Pistorius, the project offers an open-source modeling framework that quantifies the impacts of pellet grade on DRI production and subsequent steelmaking in various furnace operations.  

“This research demonstrates the importance of including ore quality and beneficiation when comparing direct reduced iron production pathways,” said Karplus. “These aspects are necessary to correctly assess cost and emissions tradeoffs.”

Two materials science and engineering students were also recognized with awards for research publications during the meeting. Panwen Su received the AIME Rossiter W. Raymond Memorial Award for their paper entitled “Slag-Based Nitrogen Removal From Third-Generation Advanced High-Strength Steel,” which was published with professor Pistorius. The award recognizes the best paper published in AIME’s fields where the lead author is a member under 35 years of age. 

Merajul Haque Ansari received the Josef S. Kapitan Award – Ironmaking for their paper “Evaluating the Properties of Biomass as a Blast Furnace Injectant,” published along with professors Pistorius and Bryan Webler. This award is presented to the authors of a technical paper judged by a conference review committee. 

“Gathering with our colleagues in AIST provides our students with opportunities to build connections with experts in the iron and steel industry,” said Pistorius. “With the conference held in Pittsburgh this year, even more students were able to take advantage of this tremendous learning and networking opportunity.”