CIRU

Centre for Industrial Residue Utilization studies and develops methods for utilizing residues arising from industrial processes. CIRU helps industrial enterprises to improve their competitiveness, and authorities to develop environmental legislation and to make the interpretation of the law more coherent in the EU. CIRU operates at the University of Oulu.

CIRU is the leading Finnish expert on the reuse of solid inorganic residue

As environmental legislation gets stricter, industrial enterprises have to think more carefully about what to do with by-products arising from industrial processes. Waste products, dusts, ashes and silt contain a lot of potential, however. By promoting the re-use of by-products it is possible to refine waste into products or raw materials for other processes. CIRU helps industrial enterprises to develop their processes and utilize the residue arising from them. CIRU's expertise is based on scientific research on thermodynamics, mineralogy, chemical analyses, reaction kinetics, and flow modeling.

Benefits of co-operation to industrial enterprises

More efficient utilisation of by-products from industrial processes can have significant cost effects. Hundreds of thousands of tons of various types of slag, silt and ashes are formed in industrial processes each year in Finland alone. Treatment of this waste causes considerable cost (and companies have to apply for environmental licenses for waste treatment). By developing processes it is possible to minimise the portion of the by-products that end up as waste, and maximise the portion that can be re-used. In practice this is done by separating detrimental substances from the residue by, for instance, vaporizing or dissolving, or by immobilizing the detrimental substance in such a way that it cannot be released into the environment.

http://cirucentre.fi/?set_language=en

CIRU Contacts

Mikko Angerman, mikko.angerman@oulu.fi, Tel +358 8 553 2555