Research
Today’s 1.8 billion tonne steel industry contributes to about 8% of global CO2 emissions. Current efforts to decarbonize globally will impact the iron ore market and underpin Australia’s export economy. The future projection suggests that without upgrading Australia’s low-grade iron ore, around 213 million tonnes of iron ore production will exit the market by 2045. Together with CSIRO's green steel team, I am researching novel technologies and processes to enhance the quality of Australia's lean ores. I have developed a novel iron ore agglomeration process for Australia’s vastly unutilised magnetite ore reserves. The process is called Lime Magnetite Pellet (LMP) process and has the potential to reduce the current emission from traditional blast furnace ironmaking by up to 18 % without using expensive fuels like hydrogen gas. The process can potentially be suited for lean goethite-rich iron ores. Australia, being the largest exporter of iron ore, could play a significant role in reducing net CO2 emission from global steel-making industry by exporting premium quality and lower carbon footprint iron ore products such as the LMP.
Australia has abundant sunshine, and the government has set ambitious goals to increase the use of renewable energy sources including solar. Suneeti is among the few researchers who have accessed the feasibility of the direct use of solar energy in ironmaking by conducting fundamental research and modelling study. Suneeti is also working on high-temperature processing of rare earth minerals such as monazite, which is of great economic importance to Australia.
I have worked on CSIRO projects involving, FMG, Roy Hill, Liberty, as well as the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (DISER). My involvement in these projects was in (a) conducting emissions modelling to evaluate the net CO2 emissions across the steelmaking value chain and (b) accessing the impact of lower iron ore quality on future H2 steelmaking processes. This work identifies major opportunities for Scope-3 emission reduction from Australia’s iron ore industry.
Some other research projects include my doctoral, and master's research. During my PhD, I was involved in two research projects: (1) Solar Smelting of Composite Iron Ore Pellets and (2) Alternative Agglomeration Route of Magnetite Ores. Findings from both of these projects are published in peer-reviewed journal, conference papers as well as patents that can be found in my website. My master's research was conducted at the Institute of Nanotechnology, KIT, and was funded by the DAAD scholarship. During this time, I was involved with two research projects, 'Nanoglass and Their Mechanical Properties' and 'Flexible Electronics'. I was able to conduct impactful research in a very short time of 7 months, and the results were published in Nanotechnology (Impact Factor 3.55).
