UNITECR 2023: Campaign launch in Chicago

The German Refractories Association (Deutsche Feuerfest-Industrie e.V., DFFI) is looking forward to hosting the Unified International Technical Conference on Refractories (UNITECR) in Germany next year.

At this year’s UNITECR in Chicago many friends and colleagues visited the small reception at the DFFI-booth. “We had originally expected around 50 people, and more than twice that number of people visited us," said Thomas Kaczmarek, Managing Director of the German Refractories Association, who is responsible for planning next year’s world congress. Together with the DFFI chairman Ulf Frohneberg and UNITECR 2023 President Dr. Andus Buhr more than 120 visitors could feel the enthusiasm with a clear indication of the excitement for UNITECR 2023.

In his welcome address Andus Buhr talked on the expected content of the planned conference. ‘The Carbon Challenge - steps and leaps to master the future’ is still immensely relevant as a motto. The roadmap to carbon neutrality is an issue that the refractory industry and its customers in the steel, glass, cement and chemicals sectors will be dealing with for many years to come. The transformation from fossil fuels to green hydrogen in high-temperature processes will have impacts on both material and lining concepts. This conference will deliver the first answers and proposed solutions, scientific results and practical examples.

Professor Christos G. Aneziris, Vice-President of UNITECR 2023 and Chairman of the Scientific Committee, was also involved in the definition of nine theme areas to be included in the congress programme.

“Now we have issued a call for papers to find speakers from academia, research & development, refractory companies, raw material suppliers or plant and kiln manufacturers,” explained Thomas Kaczmarek. They are being asked to share their insights on the state of the art in research and technology, as well as practical applications, with reference to climate protection, circular economy and carbon emissions reduction.

The assessment of the submissions to the Scientific Committee on each of the theme areas will be coordinated by the European Centre for Refractories (ECREF). The closing date for submissions is 30 November 2022. All abstracts must be submitted in English and electronically via the website. https://unitecr2023.org/call-for-papers/

A special newsletter service will keep anyone who is interested up to date on the event programme, speakers and planned events. Detailed information is published on the new UNITECR website at www.unitecr2023.org.

The DFFI will be attending numerous events and trade fairs promoting UNITECR 2023 in the first weeks, e.g. at the Freiberg Refractory Forum or at PRE congress in Vienna or at ceramitec fair in Munich with a small shared booth, and by hosting a Refractory Forum.