Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU) is a multi-disciplinary Swedish-language academic university in Turku (Åbo), Finland, contributing to society through general learning, education and new scientific knowledge.
ÅAU coordinates AgiFlex and participates in the project through the Process and Systems Engineering laboratory, which is part of the Faculty of Science and Engineering. The laboratory has for the past four decades undertaken research work focusing on the efficiency and sustainability of iron- and steelmaking. Many mathematical models have been developed to study process improvements, novel operation points and process layouts. Over the years the laboratory has participated in many national and European research projects and has also collaborated actively with international steel industry.
The staff of the laboratory holds relevant skills and expertise in process and energy systems modelling, simulation and optimization, including tools for first-principles modelling and machine learning. Many models of iron- and steelmaking have been developed, e.g., overall models of blast furnaces and models of specific parts or phenomena of the process, as well as flowsheet models of the steelmaking production chain.
ÅAU contributes to all tasks of AgiFlex, including the development of the agent-based simulation framework, the development of digital twins for the unit processes, the choice of future scenarios to explore and the evaluation of the arising system and its validation. ÅAU leads two work packages: Advanced ICT tool concept for agent-based site modelling (WP1) and Project Management (WP7). As the coordinator, ÅAU has the main responsibility for the progress and quality of the work to be undertaken, and as a university naturally also a key role with respect to the scientific output (journal and conference publications, doctoral theses).
People
Dr. Henrik Saxén is professor in Heat Engineering at ÅAU since 1997. He has held different positions at the university since 1983. His main research is on process modelling, simulation and optimization of industrial processes, with special emphasis on the iron- and steelmaking sector. He has published about 250 international journal papers and has given keynote lectures at many international conferences. He has supervised 20 PhD theses on iron- and steelmaking and has been a reviewer of numerous papers, for PhD theses, funding applications and academic positions.
M. Sc. Guanwei Zhou is a doctoral student at ÅAU since 2022. He has a M.Sc. degree in Metallurgical Engineering from Shanghai University in 2021. His present research is on the application of machine learning for interpretation and prediction of blast furnace variables. He is at the final stages of his doctoral work and will submit his thesis in 2025
M. Sc. Meng Li is a doctoral student at ÅAU since 2022. She has a M.Sc. degree in Metallurgical Engineering from Shanghai University in 2021. Her present research concerns particle motion and behavior in the top of the blast furnace. She is expected to finalize her doctoral work in 2025.
Dr. Carl Haikarainen is a postdoctoral fellow at ÅAU. He has a M.Sc. degree in chemical engineering from the same university with a thesis on blast furnace modelling and analysis carried out in cooperation with Tata Steel, Jamshedpur. His doctoral thesis from ÅAU in 2020 was on energy systems optimization. As a postdoctoral fellow he has participated in many research projects related to hydrogen-based ironmaking optimization and the green transition in the steelmaking industry, including national projects (Towards Fossil-Free Steel 1 & 2) and projects funded by Horizon Europe (MaxH2DR)
Docent Miko Helle is a senior lecturer in Process and Systems Engineering at ÅAU. He has a doctoral thesis from the same university in 2009 on data-driven analysis of conditions in the blast furnace high-temperature region, and a Docent position on Modeling and Optimization of Iron and Steelmaking at Aalto University, Helsinki. As a postdoctoral fellow he has participated in many national and European projects on iron- and steelmaking and with companies in the steelmaking sector, including SSAB, Tata Steel, POSCO and Danieli Corus. In 2019-2024 he was Key Account Manager of the Faculty of Science and Engineering at ÅAU