A SEAS lab is partnering with a Brazilian mining company to figure out how the element niobium can be used to help the environment.
The mining company—the Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineração—is funding the partnership with a $150,000 grant. CBMM will work with the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s Combustion and Catalysis Laboratory on the research.
Niobium is an element used in metal production, and CBMM mines the largest amount of niobium in the world. Researchers hope it can replace rarer, more expensive elements in metals, and aid in processes like carbon dioxide reduction.
Earth and environmental engineering professor Marco Castaldi, the director of the Combustion and Catalysis Lab, wants to pursue “open-ended research” with CBMM.
“All of the research will happen here,” he said. “I think that the connection with earth and environmental engineering really helped give them a comfortable feel that we have a long history of mining. That connection really helps quite a bit.”
Ph.D. student Amanda Simson, one of the researchers in the combustion lab, noted that while many research projects are conducted through collaboration among universities, this partnership is unique because it combines the academic and business sectors.
“As a student, I get the benefit of understanding what industry and academia are like simultaneously and get to see the difference between the two, which is good for me when I graduate and have to think about what I want to do next,” she said.
Castaldi said he was excited to be working with CBMM because it has had a history of consistent environmental stewardship over the past several decades. CBMM was one of the first companies in the world to attain the highest level of environmental certification from the International Organization for Standardization, which it did only three months after the certifications were created.
“The fact that CBMM was able to be certified within three months showed that they had been doing all the right things,” Castaldi said.
Amrita Pal, a postdoctoral student at the Combustion and Catalysis Lab, has been investigating the properties of niobium for the partnership. The element has widely been used in an alloy for steel, but her lab is investigating whether it can be used to create alternative sources of energy, to reduce carbon dioxide levels, or to clean up exhaust pollution in the air.
“They want us to identify environmental applications,” Castaldi said. “We’re trying to find if this material can remediate air pollutants.”
Simson said that while the partnership is only slated to last one year, she hopes that year will be a productive one.
“It’s important to think about alternative metals,” she said. “We’re seeing if we can use niobium to replace another material that would be less environmental friendly.”
Castaldi added that while no future plans for the partnership have been decided, he hopes it will last.
“I understand how companies are cautious when they get started, so this one-year program will, I hope, turn into at least a three- to four-year program where I could support a student all the way through their Ph.D. and continue to renew it,” he said. “And that’s what they hope, too.”
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