Top gathering

The TMS exhibition and conference, arranged by The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, runs from Feburary 16 to 19 at the Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco, drawing nearly 4,000 business leaders, engineers, scientists and others.

Jan Arve Haugan, head of Technology in Hydro's Aluminium Metal business area, will present the main talk on the company's behalf, on strategy, the financial crisis, the Qatalum aluminium project, aluminium and climate change, and of course, technology-driven advances such as the new HAL4e smelter technology.

Focus on technology

“Our message is that we, as a more dedicated, integrated aluminium company, would like to stand up and be recognized as even more focused on technology,” Haugan says.

“Even in this critical situation in the financial crisis, we are working to maintain our competitive edge with technological advances.

“We will be especially talking about how climate matters to Hydro, how our aluminium solutions and processes help address climate change. TMS is a great opportunity to tell the world.”

Here is an overview of Hydro's activities at TMS 2009:

Monday Feb. 16

• 11:25 – Jan Arve Haugan participates in the General Session with the presentation "Hydro's Agenda 2010: Technology Focus while Navigating in the Storm". Halvor Kvande, who is also a member of the TMS Light Metals committee, is chairing the panel discussion to follow.
• 14:00 – Lorents Petter Lossius receives the award for best Light Metal paper 2008.
• 14:45 – Holger Aretz: “Analytical Stress Field Modelling of Rolled Aluminium Strips Under Tensile Loading”
• 15:05 – Odd-Arne Lorentsen: “Handling CO2eq from an electrolysis cell”
• 14:00-17:25 – Nancy Jorunn Holt is Session Chair for the session “Aluminum Reduction Technology: Environment”.

Tuesday Feb. 17

• 09:55 – Kai Karhausen: “Profile Optimization on a Duo Hot Mill”
• 09:00-12:00 – Bjørn Moxnes participates in the roundtable session on electrolysis operation.
• 15:05-15:25 - Mark Badowski and Werner Droste: "Hydrogen Measurement Practices in Liquid Aluminium at Low Hydrogen Levels"

Wednesday Feb. 18

• 08:30 – Trond Erik Jentoftsen: “Correlation between anode properties and cell performance”
• 08:35 – Gerd Ulrich Gruen: “Improvements in the Molten Metal Process Chain in the Cast House Based on Modeling - Achievements So Far and Challenges” (Keynote)
• 11:30 – Asgeir Bardal: “HAL4e - Hydro's new generation cell technology”
• 14:30 – Bjørn Lillebuen: “Alumina Solubility and Current Efficiency”
• 15:40 – Bjørn Moxnes: “Redistribution of alumina feeding to electrolysis cells”

Thursday Feb. 19

• 08:35 – Kristin Vasshaug: “Formation and dissolution of aluminum carbide in cathode blocks”
• 11:10 – Anton Winkelmann: “Logistic Simulation of Discrete Material Flow and Processes in Smelters”