Exchange in the scope of the bilateral project between the Republic of India and the Republic of Slovenia

16.01.2023

ZAG participates in a bilateral project between the Republic of India and the Republic of Slovenia (BI-IN/22-24-018) entitled “Green Sustainable Building Materials from Industrial Waste By-Products – Red Sludge and Synthetic Gypsum”.

As part of the project, Dr. Vesna Zalar Serjun visited the Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar (IIT Bhubaneswar), which is located in the state of Odisha and comprises the Faculty of Basic Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Bio-sciences), the Faculty of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences (Geology, Oceanography and Environment, Climate), the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, the Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Management (Economics, English, Management, Psychology), the Faculty of Infrastructure, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Faculty of Mineral, Metallurgical and Materials Sciences. The project partner, Dr B. Hanumantha Rao, is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Infrastructure.

The collaboration started in 2018 on the topic of red sludge recycling and we published a joint review article in this context (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12649-020-01089-z).

During the visit to IIT Bhubaneswar, between 21/11 and 21/12/2022, several familiarisation meetings were organised with teams from different faculties and some section heads in the beginning. We would like to highlight the meeting with Prof. Sumanta Haldar (Head, Faculty of Infrastructure), Prof. Syed Hilal Farooq (Head, Faculty of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences) and Prof. Shreepad Karmalkar, Director, IIT Bhubaneswar.

Discussions were held on the existing research of the two partner institutions and the possibilities and potential for further joint work. With Associate Prof. B. Hanumantha Rao, the concept of further work in the project was set up and the potential of applying for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships scheme for a PhD student from his department was discussed.

Dr Vesna Zalar Serjun actively participated in the study process as a visiting researcher. She was involved in the process of assessing the relevance of the PhD themes for several PhD students, attended lectures at several faculties and delivered four lectures herself.

She presented the following three papers at the Faculty of Infrastructure:
– Zalar Serjun V., Oprčka P., Mladenovič A. Red mud and paper ash as immobilization additive for geotechnical composites
– Zalar Serjun V., Mladenovič A., Štefančič M. Mineralogical characterization of ashes from different combustion processes and their hydration products
– Zalar Serjun V., Mladenovič A. Microstructural characterization of different industrial by-products.
At the Department of Geology I presented:
– Zalar Serjun V. Background, basics and principles of XRD analysis.

A visit to one of the leading aluminium production plants- Vedanta Alumina Refinery (Lanjigarh) was held for three days. The team visited the tailings and fly ash dumps.

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