Kerstin Forsberg

Kerstin Forsberg är professor i kemiteknik med expertis inom separationsprocesser, i synnerhet kristallisation. Kunskapen tillämpas ofta i projekt som syftar till att utvinna resurser från avfallsströmmar (t ex förbrukade batterier, betbadssyror och rödslam) eller för att undersöka fenomen kopplat till transport av föroreningar (t ex mobilitet av radionuklider).

Commissions of trust

• Chair, Hydrometallurgy and Electrometallurgy Committee, TMS, 2023.03 – 2025.03
• Deputy director, KTH Industrial Transformation Platform, 2019.05 – 2025.05
• Director for the strategic partnership between KTH and IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, 2022.07 –

News

In Oct we plan to advertise 2 postdoctoral researcher positions in industrial crystallization for 2 newly granted projects, that will start in 2024, connected to battery recycling and recovery of critical raw materials.

We are happy to participate in the newly granted CICERO project "MSA-based circular hydrometallurgy for sustainable, cost-effective production of NMC cathode materials", coordinated by KU Leuven, expected to start in 2024.

Check our special issue in Metals: Raw Material Supply for Lithium-Ion Batteries in the Circular Economy. (LINK)

Save the date for the Transformation day 2023: Industry transforms – towards circular economy, that we are organizing on October 19th, 2023. (LINK)

Looking forward to giving a talk at the Royal Society Scientific discussion meeting Sustainable metals: science and systems in London, February 5- 6, 2024. (LINK)

Happy to attend and organize the Rare Metal Extraction & Processing symposium at TMS in Orlando, March 3- 7, 2024. (LINK)

Happy to take part in the advisory committee for the International Conference on Sustainable Nanomaterials Integration & Organization for Energy and Environment ISNIOE2 in Delhi NCR, India, March 20- 23rd, 2024. (LINK)

Why is Swedish rare earth metals interesting only now? I was happy to discuss the topic in a podcast hosted by Sofie Pehrsson at SSF, June 2023. (LINK)

Check our new anthology on energy "Towards the energy of the future" released July 14th, 2022. A popular science book co-created by researchers from the KTH Energy Platform to share views on challenges and possibilities for the future energy system. (LINK)

Read about our event with Nate Hagens and Olivia Lazard. Finding knowledge and energy to deal with the meta-crisis, September 12th, 2023. (LINK)

The 28th International Workshop on Industrial Crystallization (BIWIC) was held in Stockholm, August 30- Sept. 1, 2023. (LINK) Thanks to all participants for excellent talks and discussions and hope to meet you soon again!

Projects

Project leader (at KTH)

STEM, Green Recycling of Battery Materials. Time: 2023.01- 2023.12.

EIT Raw Materials, Selective Vanadium recovery from ALumina Refinery (VALORE). Time: 2022.01- 2024.12.

EIT Raw Materials, Scaling up Scandium production from European Bauxite Residues (SCALE-Up). Time: 2022.01- 2024.12.

ERA-MIN2, Antisolvent precipitation to extract the value from end-of-life Nd-Fe-B magnets (ANTISOLVO). Time: 2021.01- 2023.12.

EIT Raw Materials, Raw Matter ambassadors at schools 4.0, RM@Schools 4.0. Time: 2021.01- 2023.12.

STEM, Green Recycling of Battery Materials by Deep Eutectic Solvents. Time: 2020.08- 2023.12.

Formas, Eutectic Freeze Crystallization for Recovery of Pure Salts and Water. Time: 2021.01- 2023.12

In collaboration

SKB, Sorption of Se, Mo and Tc to cement under reducing conditions. Time: 2023.09- 2025.12. (Mats Jonsson)

EIT Raw Materials, Sustainable REE, Co-Ni supply from magnet recycling: closing the loop (DysCovery). Time: 2022.01- 2024.12. (Michael Svärd)

Formas, Controlled crystallization of rare earth elements from deep eutectic solvents for recycling of permanent magnets. Time: 2023.01- 2025.12. (Michael Svärd)

Selected academic assignments

• Examination committee member/ opponent for PhD defenses at:
  Monash University (Australia), University of Queensland (Australia), University of Toronto (Canada), Cairo University (Egypt), Aalto University (Finland), Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT (Finland), University of Lorraine (France), RWTH Aachen (Germany), Indian Institute of Technology IIT (Indian School of Mines) in Dhanbad (India), Indian Institute of Technology IIT in Roorkee (India), Norwegian University of Science and Technology NTNU (Norway), University of Oslo (Norway), Stellenbosch University (South Africa), University of Cape Town (South Africa), Chalmers University (Sweden), KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), Luleå University of Technology (Sweden), Lund University (Sweden), Uppsala University (Sweden).

• Member of the organising committee for:
  The symposium Rare Metal Extraction & Processing in USA at TMS 2024 (Orlando), TMS 2023 (San Diego), TMS 2022 (Anaheim), TMS 2021 (on-line), TMS 2020 (San Diego), the 28th International Workshop on Industrial Crystallization, BIWIC 2023 (Stockholm) and the Recovering the Unrecoverable Symposium as part of REWAS 2022 (Anaheim).

• Member of the scientific committee for:
  The 28th International Workshop on Industrial Crystallization, BIWIC 2023 (Stockholm) and BIWIC 2022 (Espoo), the International Conference on Raw Materials and Circular Economy, RawMat 2023 (Athens) and RawMat 2021 (Athens), and the 3rd European Rare Earth Resource conference ERES 2020 (online).