Professor Neil Rowson BSc, PhD

Neil Rowson

School of Chemical Engineering
Emeritus Professor in Minerals Engineering

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0) 121 414 5298
Email
n.a.rowson@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
School of Chemical Engineering
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Neil Rowson is the Professor of Minerals Engineering in the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham. The courses Neil teaches include, Minerals Engineering, Sustainable Development, Process Formulation, Marketing and Project Management. Over the course of his 25 years within the field. Neil's research has focused on the primary and secondary recovery of metals and he has refereed in excess of 95 journal publications, many of which fall within the realms of recycling, critical and strategic metal recovery.

Qualifications

  • BSc Metallurgy - University of Sheffield - 1982
  • PhD - University of Leeds - 1986

Biography

Neil Rowson is the Professor of Minerals Engineering in the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham. Over the past 25 years, Neil's research has focused on the primary and secondary recovery of metals with his work centring on the use of physical separation technology (magnetic, electrostatic, gravity and optical sorting) and chemical/biochemical techniques, to treat and recover valuable metals from waste streams. This research has then led to Neil's contribution on over 95 journal publications.

He has extensive experience in working on a number of large UK and EU funded multi-partner projects. The projects range from novel bio-chemical recovery techniques for the recovery of lithium from industrial waste by - products through to Rare Earth Magnet recovery from motors, automobiles and hydrogen decrepitation. This has all been developed in house at the University of Birmingham. 

Teaching

  • Process and Project Management
  • 3PPM Processing for Formulation
  • 3PF Marketing and Total Quality Management
  • 4th Year option: Effective Project Management
  • MSc module: Modern Mineral Engineering
  • 4th year option: Sustainable Development
  • 2nd year option: Design Project Mineral Engineering

Postgraduate supervision

For PhD opportunities, please contact Professor Neil Rowson.

Research

RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Mineral Processing
  • Extractive Metallurgy
  • Bioleaching of metals/Development of Biosensors for heavy metal detection
  • Treatment of Acid Mine Drainage
  • Recycling of metals
  • Recovery of critical and strategic metals from primary and secondary sources
  • Formulation of added value materials for fast moving consumer goods e.g. paint, toothpaste and sunscreen.

RESEARCH ACTIVITY

  • EPSRC/EU Funding; recovery of pgms from Autocatalyst
  • Dti/Biowise Funding; recovery of gold from electrical components
  • EPRSC/ Rio Tinto: Microwave treatment of minerals for improved processing
  • EPSRC: Novels treatments for acid mine drainage

Publications

  • Keeley, P.M., Rowson, N.A., Johnson, T.P., Deegan, D.E. The effect of the extent of polymerisation of a slag structure on the strength of alkali-activated slag binders (2017) International Journal of Mineral Processing, 164, pp. 37-44.

  • Marion, C., Williams, H., Langlois, R., Kökkılıç, O., Coelho, F., Awais, M., Rowson, N.A., Waters, K.E.
    The potential for dense medium separation of mineral fines using a laboratory Falcon Concentrator
    (2017) Minerals Engineering, 105, pp. 7-9.

  • Yang, Y., Rowson, N.A., Tamblyn, R., Ingram, A.Effect of operating parameters on fine particle grinding in a vertically stirred media mill (2017) Separation Science and Technology (Philadelphia), 52 (6), pp. 1143-1152.

  • Blissett, R., Sommerville, R., Rowson, N., Jones, J., Laughlin, B. Valorisation of rice husks using a TORBED® combustion process (2017) Fuel Processing Technology, 159, pp. 247-255.

  • Jordens, A., Marion, C., Langlois, R., Grammatikopoulos, T., Rowson, N.A., Waters, K.E. Beneficiation of the Nechalacho rare earth deposit. Part 1: Gravity and magnetic separation (2016) Minerals Engineering, 99, pp. 111-122.

  • Jordens, A., Marion, C., Langlois, R., Grammatikopoulos, T., Sheridan, R.S., Teng, C., Demers, H., Gauvin, R., Rowson, N.A., Waters, K.E. Beneficiation of the Nechalacho rare earth deposit. Part 2: Characterisation of products from gravity and magnetic separation (2016) Minerals Engineering, 99, pp. 96-110.

  • Molea, A., Popescu, V., Rowson, N.A., Cojocaru, I., Dinescu, A., Dehelean, A., Lazər, M. Correlation of Physicochemical Properties with the Catalytic Performance of Fe-Doped Titanium Dioxide Powders (2015) Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, 54 (30), pp. 7346-7351.

  • Molea, A., Popescu, V., Rowson, N.A. A comparative study of the photo-catalytic performance of amorphous and nano-crystalline (2015) Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials, Rapid Communications, 9 (3-4), pp. 431-435.

  • Jafaripour, A., Rowson, N.A., Ghataora, G.S. Utilisation of residue gas sludge (BOS sludge) for removal of heavy metals from acid mine drainage (AMD) (2015) International Journal of Mineral Processing, 144, pp. 90-96.

  • Walton, A., Yi, H., Rowson, N.A., Speight, J.D., Mann, V.S.J., Sheridan, R.S., Bradshaw, A., Harris, I.R., Williams, A.J. The use of hydrogen to separate and recycle neodymium-iron-boron-type magnets from electronic waste (2015) Journal of Cleaner Production, 104, pp. 236-241.

  • Blissett, R.S., Smalley, N., Rowson, N.A. An investigation into six coal fly ashes from the United Kingdom and Poland to evaluate rare earth element content (2014) Fuel, 119, pp. 236-239.

  • Jordens, A., Sheridan, R.S., Rowson, N.A., Waters, K.E. Processing a rare earth mineral deposit using gravity and magnetic separation (2014) Minerals Engineering, 62, pp. 9-18.

  • Boucher, D., Langlois, R., Waters, K., Rowson, N. Particle motion observed inside a laboratory-scale Knelson Concentrator using positron emission particle tracking (2014) IMPC 2014 - 27th International Mineral Processing Congress.

  • Sommerville, R., Blissett, R., Rowson, N., Blackburn, S. Producing a synthetic zeolite from improved fly ash residue (2013) International Journal of Mineral Processing, 124, pp. 20-25.

  • Blissett, R.S., Rowson, N.A. An empirical model for the prediction of the viscosity of slurries of coal fly ash with varying concentration and shear rate at room temperature (2013) Fuel, 111, pp. 555-563.

  • Manchisi, J., Rowson, N.A., Simmons, M.J.H. Kinetics of metals adsorption in acid mine drainage treatment with blast furnace (2013) 23rd International Mining Congress and Exhibition of Turkey, IMCET 2013, 3, pp. 1803-1813.

  • Iqbal, Z., Rowson, N.A., Blackburn, S. Recovery of lithium rich mica from mineral waste (2013) 23rd International Mining Congress and Exhibition of Turkey, IMCET 2013, 2, pp. 887-891.

  • Blissett, R.S., Rowson, N.A. A review of the multi-component utilisation of coal fly ash (2012) Fuel, 97, pp. 1-23.

View all publications in research portal