School of Materials Science & Engineering

Associate Dean
(Strategic Industry Relations)
Faculty of Science

Director
Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology
(SMaRT@UNSW)

School of Materials Science and Engineering
University of New South Wales
NSW 2052, Australia

Tel +61 2 9385 4426
Fax +61 2 9385 5956
Email: veena@unsw.edu.au

Research Areas

Sustainable Processing of Materials
Recycling of Plastics in Steelmaking - Cover Story, Uniken, Nov/Dec 2006
Carbonaceous Materials & Iron / Steel Making Technologies

Qualifications

PhD, Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, US (1992)
MASc, Metals and Materials Engineering, University of British Columbia, Canada (1988)
BTech, Metallurgical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India (1986)

Appointments

Director, Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology, UNSW (since 2008)
Associate Dean (Strategic Industry Relations), Faculty of Science, UNSW (since 2007)
Professor (since 2004); Associate Professor (2001–04); Senior Lecturer (1996–2001); Lecturer (1994–96), UNSW
Research Scientist, Materials and Process Engineering, CSIRO, Melbourne (1992–94)
Research Engineer, Department of Metals and Materials Engineering, University of British Columbia (1988–89)

Memberships of Learned Academies

Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (2007), the premier national institution for the advancement of engineering and technology, for ‘achievements as an exceptional, innovative engineer with an established record of successful conversions of research to high-value products’.

http://www.unsw.edu.au/news/pad/articles/2007/nov/ATSE_Fellows.html

Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia (since 2005)

Honours, Awards and Prizes

The 2008 New South Wales Scientist of the Year Award in the category of Engineering Science.
The 2006 Environmental Technology Award, for best paper and presentation (‘Waste plastics – a resource for EAF steelmaking’), the Association of Iron & Steel Technology (AIST – US), the premier international professional society in iron and steel.
The 2006 Charles Briggs Award, for the best paper in electric steelmaking (‘Influence of carbonaceous materials on slag foaming behaviour during EAF steelmaking’), AIST.
The 2005 Eureka Prize for Scientific Research, for innovations in recycling waste plastics in steelmaking), Australian Museum.
The 2004 Fresh Innovators Award, for innovations in recycling waste plastics in steelmaking, supported by the National Innovation Awareness Strategy, an Australian Government initiative.
The 2003 Josef Kapitan Award, for the best ironmaking paper (‘Novel equations to establish influence of char structure on reactivity during PCI in a blast furnace’, Iron & Steel Society (ISS – US).
The 2003 Frank McKune Award, for the best paper on steelmaking practice, author under 40 years of age (‘Interfacial phenomena during interactions of graphite-alumina refractories with liquid steel’), ISS. This was the first time that the Award had been won by a single person in two successive years.
The 2002 Frank McKune Award for the best paper on steelmaking practice, author under 40 years of age) – ISS (‘Kinetic study of in-situ SiO2 reduction in carbon-bearing refractories’).
The 2000 John Chipman Award for excellence and originality in a publication on the production and processing of iron and steel. Best paper selected from the previous two years of papers in American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) refereed journals and conference proceedings.
Young Leader of the Iron and Steel Society Foundation, 1999–2000, the only academic among 15 chosen internationally.
Engineering Excellence Award (Category – Engineering R&D Training and Processes) from the Institution of Engineers Australia – Sydney Division, for new environmentally compatible iron/steel making technologies (1998).
The Distinguished Achievement Award (graduate, materials science and engineering), 1992, The University of Michigan.
The 1991 International Graduate Student Award, the Society for the Advancement of Material & Process Engineering, US.

Research Interests

Sustainable processing of materials based on fundamentals of high temperature reactions occurring in metallurgical processes include transforming existing industries and develop new materials processes to enhance sustainability by decreasing pollution, GHG emissions, energy consumption and improving eco-efficiency of materials processing. Projects underway include investigation of innovative lower temperature blast furnace process, utilisation of waste plastics in ironmaking and steelmaking technologies.

Recycling Waste Plastics in Electric Arc Furnace Steelmaking:

This project will make significant contributions towards innovative recycling of waste plastics in EAF steelmaking as a carbon resource. Focusing specifically on a crucial aspect of a novel recycling process, in-depth high temperature (1550-1650°C) investigations on plastics/slag interactions and slag foaming on a wide range of plastics will be followed by extensive industrial trials, to determine their optimum utilization in steelmaking. The new technology will have two significant advantages: it will be a major step towards tackling the global problem of disposing of waste plastics in an environmentally sustainable way; and it will reduce the industry’s reliance on coke, the production of which involves considerable harmful gas emissions.

Recycling Alumina-Carbon Refractory Waste in Steelmaking:

Our research will make significant contributions towards developing novel and recycled alumina-carbon refractories through the innovative use of refractory waste. We will conduct an in-depth investigation on carbon dissolution, impurity reactions, refractory degradation and recycling, through high-temperature interactions of alumina-carbon refractories and molten steel. We will determine the optimum conditions for the recycling of waste refractories in steelmaking, based on the profound understanding that we will gain of material characteristics such as impurity content/composition, and their role in these interactions. This will be an essential step towards the development of the large-scale recycling of waste refractories in steelmaking.

Coal use in Blast Furnace –CRC for coal in Sustainable Development:

The project aims to contribute towards developing new ironmaking processes such as innovative Japanese Low Temperature Blast furnace operation and European N2 free BF process (ULCOS), which are expected to provide step change reduction in emissions, and hence lead to impact reduction on sustainable development. Both these innovative approaches aim to reduce significantly the energy and fuel consumption associated with ironmaking. Under innovative Japanese blast furnace operations, fuel rates are expected to be significantly reduced by accelerating the burden reactions including that of coke at relatively lower temperatures. Accordingly, accelerating the coke reactivity including gasification, carburisation and slag reduction kinetics at lower temperatures without compromising the coke strength is critical for the success of low temperature BF process. With similar aims of step change emission reduction, European steel industries propose to operate blast furnace recycling off gases through blast under ULCOS program. This project aims to study coke reactions with gas, metal and slag under a variety of reaction environments suitable for current and emerging blast furnace process conditions. Our project will deliver improved understanding of the reactions of coke made from Australian coals and hence will protect and extend the markets of the Australian coals used in current and future ironmaking industry. On the basis of advanced understanding of factors affecting coke reactivity, coal and coke performance will be characterised suitable for innovative blast furnace operations.

Kinetics and mechanisms of high temperature liquid/solid/gas reactions occurring in metallurgical processes of industrial importance. These include new ironmaking and steelmaking technologies and advancements in conventional technologies: sustainable iron and steel making, HIsmelt, DRI/HBI, Corex, near-net shape casting; pulverised coal injection (PCI) into blast furnaces, utilisation of waste materials for ironmaking using cupola furnace; EAF steelmaking. The techniques being used are: wettability, reactivity measurements, FESEM (Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy), XRD (X-Ray Diffraction), Monte Carlo simulations and mathematical modelling. Significant effort is devoted to investigating the reactions involving waste and carbonaceous materials in iron and steel making and the performance of these materials in actual operation. The reactions/phenomena under study are: carbon/gas, carbon/metal, carbon/slag, extent of residual char in blast furnace off-gases, slag foaming in EAF steelmaking, refractory reactions in steelmaking. These studies have led to the development of a new methodology to characterise the proportion of carbonaceous materials, coal and coke, which relates to the performance of PCI/BF operation. This methodology is based upon the establishment of the atomic structure of coal and coke, and their differences, which make it possible to ascertain the proportion of residual char in the waste materials.

Keynote/Invited Addresses - Highlights

Plenary address, International Symposium on Sustainable Materials, Malaysia, June 2007
The Harricks Address, the Institution of Engineers, Australia, Sydney, August 2006
‘Recycling materials’, the Visionary Address, to the Latin American Iron and Steel Institute, Mexico, May 2006
Keynote address at the World Scrap Metal Congress, Shanghai, December 2005
Invited sole presenter, four-day course Iron/steelmaking, Instituto Argentino De Siderurgia, San Nicolas, Argentina, July 2005
Invited speaker, The Royal Institution of Great Britain, London, May 2005
Invited speaker, International Conference on Process Development in Iron and Steelmaking, Luleå, Sweden, June 2004
Keynote speaker, International Ferro-Alloys Congress, Capetown, February 2004

Collaborative Research with Industry

Extensive collaboration with Australian-based companies:

OneSteel Australia, on the recycling of plastics and rubber tyres in EAF steelmaking
Rio Tinto Aluminium, on the recycling of plastics as an auxiliary carbon resource in aluminium processing
Bluescope Steel, on novel refractories for continuous steel casting processes, and refractory/slag-steel interactions.
Anglo, on the PCI combustion mechanisms and the high-temperature behaviour of cokes.
Shinagawa Refractories Australasia, on the development of advanced refractories to enhance corrosion resistance, improving refractory life and efficiency of metal production

Research collaboration with overseas companies/institutions:

LKAB (Sweden), on reduction mechanisms of iron ore in blast furnace ironmaking processes
MEFOS (Sweden), on carbon reactions in blast furnace ironmaking
US Steel, on pulverised coal injection in blast furnace ironmaking
POSCO (Korea), on novel ironmaking technologies; reactions of iron ore and coal
Techint (now Tenova, Italy), on the recycling of slags

Other Evidence of Professional Leadership

Editorial board memberships

Member, Board of Review, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B (since 2004)
Member, Advisory Board, The Iron and Steel Institute of Japan International (since 2007)
Both are highly ranked international journals.

Conferences

Co-chair, International Conference, Sustainable Developments in Metals Processing, July 2005, Melbourne, an international symposium attracting international speakers
Co-chair, 1st International Symposium on Sustainable Ironmaking, March 2006, Sydney
Member, Organising Committee for Sustainable Materials in the Built Environment, Melbourne, February 2007
Member, International Advisory Board (representing Australia) at Scanmet III, Luleå, Sweden, June 2008;
Co-chair, 2nd International Symposium on Sustainable Ironmaking, September 2008, Sydney

Visiting Professor

Visiting Professor, University Malaysia Perlis (since 2006), through which I have forged strong ties with the research programs in the area of sustainability.

Visiting researchers

Two staff from University Malaysia Perlis are fully funded to conduct PhD at UNSW under my supervision (two academic staff members, PhDs current); I have attracted four staff members of POSCO, Korea (three Masters completed, one PhD current), exchange students from KTH (the Royal Institute in Sweden, PhD completed), the University of Toronto (Masters, completed), Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan (two Hons, completed) and exchange researchers from Sweden and Italy. I have also attracted further PhD students, fully-funded, to UNSW in 2008 from University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, Ghana (PhD current), Metals Technology Center, SABIC, Saudi Arabia (PhD current).

University research leadership

As the Associate Dean (Strategic Industry Relations) for the Faculty of Science, I developed the Industry Research Forums and Industry Partnerships Scholarships for the Faculty. I have been closely involved in negotiations to attract industry partners for two Linkage projects in the Faculty of Science (one of which has already committed for the November 2008 round).
Over the past five years, I have secured an annual average of six new industry-funded undergraduate scholarships from CSIRO, ANSTO, BHP Billiton, CCI Pope, Cochlear, Hanson Construction, OneSteel, Pilkinton, Rio Tinto, TipFast, Xstrata, and Weir Minerals. These scholarships have been taken up by talented students in the Schools of Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science and Engineering.
Served on numerous committees at university/faculty/school levels at UNSW, including the Academic Board, the University Committee for Promotion to Professor and A/Professor, the Faculty Higher Degree Committee, and the School’s Research Management Committee.

Media coverage

International and Australian media coverage of my research into recycling waste plastics in steelmaking since 2004, in The Financial Times, UK (2004), The Australian Financial Review (2006), the Higher Education Supplement of The Australian (2005); The Weekend Australian (2006 and 2007), ABC Radio National’s The Science Show (2004); Sydney Magazine (2005); ABC-TV’s Catalyst (2004, 2005 and 2008), and ABC-TV News (2005 and 2007), Ten’s Scope (2008)

Professional outreach

Guest speaker, Engineering Awards Night, Engineers Australia, Sydney, September 2007
Graduation speaker, Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, December 2006
Organisation of the workshop Sustainable materials in the new century as a part of the Scientia Program for Gifted Students, organised by GERRIC, UNSW, since 2005
One of the judges on ABC-TV’s, The New Inventors (since April 2005)

Teaching Areas

Fluid flow in materials processing
Air pollution control in the metallurgical industries
Solidification and casting
Introduction to materials industry

Scholarships Available

Undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships are available for candidates that meet the school's requirements, please contact us for further information.

Research Publications

For a full list of publications, please check here