Tim C. Eisele Assistant Professor 524 M&ME Building 1400 Townsend Drive Houghton, MI 49931 (906) 487-2017 tceisele@mtu.edu

Education:
B.S. (Metallurgical Engineering), Michigan Technological University
M.S. (Metallurgical Engineering), Michigan Technological University
Ph.D. (Metallurgical and Materials Engineering), Michigan Technological University

Research and Teaching Interests:
Particulate processing, chemistry and thermodynamics of metals extraction; physical separation processes, sustainable raw materials production.

Large-scale processing and utilization of industrial wastes.
Materials such as fly-ashes, scrubber sludges, metallurgical slags, machining wastes, and many other similar materials present a significant disposal problem, which can be much reduced if commercial markets can be developed for them. I am developing technologies for converting these wastes into valuable materials at minimal cost by using separation technologies and agglomeration techniques.  This work has included pilot-scale studies of each of these processes.

Advanced processing techniques for particulate separations.
I have an interest in development of improved processing techniques, as requirements are increasing to deal with ever finer and more diverse particulate materials.  This includes advanced separation techniques such as column flotation, centrifugally-enhanced particle separators, and electromagnetic separations.  These technologies will also benefit from improvement of instrumentation, modeling, and control that can tolerate the abrasive, corrosive, noisy environment of particulate processing plants. 
I am also interested in improving the energy efficiency of particulate processing operations.  A particularly energy-intensive part of particulate  processing is the comminution step.  Crushing and grinding of material is widely used to prepare material for processing, but is generally considered to only be about 1-2% efficient compared to the theoretical energy requirement.  There is therefore a great deal of room for improvement, both by better modeling and control of existing technologies, and by development of new techniques that apply the energy more efficiently.

Biologially-assisted metals extraction.
Microorganisms can be used to improve the dissolution and extraction of metals, by catalyzing both the oxidation and reduction of metal species. They can also generate compounds that can complex metal ions, increasing their solubility.  I am using a novel approach with iron-reducing bacteria to develop a practical method to extract and recover metallic iron at ambient temperatures, which will have two primary benefits: (1) Reduce the total energy required for iron production; and (2) Allow iron production to use energy exclusively from renewable resources, rather than being absolutely dependent on coal and other fossil fuels as is the case with existing ironmaking technologies.

Selected Publications:

• Eisele, T. C., and Kawatra, S. K., Production of Iron using Environmentally-Benign Renewable or Recycled Reducing Agents, U. S. Patent No. 7,632,330, December 15, 2009. 
• Eisele, T. C., and Kawatra, S. K., “Reverse column flotation of iron ore”, Minerals and Metallurgical Processing, 2007, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 61-
• Eisele, T. C. and Kawatra, S. K., “Causes and Significance of Inflections in Hydrocyclone Efficiency Curves,” Chapter 9, Advances in Comminution, the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, Littleton, CO, 2006, pp. 131-147.
• Eisele, T. C. and Kawatra, S. K., “Design of Iron Comminution Circuits to Minimize Overgrinding, Chapter 22, Advances in Comminution, the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, Littleton, CO, 2006, pp. 309-320.
• Eisele, T. C., “Direct Biohydrometallurgical Extraction of Iron from Ore”, U. S. DOE, FG26-03NT41938, DOI 10.2172/877695, 2005
• Eisele, T.C., Ripke, S. J.,  and Kawatra, S.K., “Water Chemistry Effects in Iron Ore Concentrate Agglomeration Feed,” Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Review, Vol.26, No. 3-4, 2005, pp.295-305
• Eisele, T. C., Kawatra, S. K., and Nofal, A.,”Tensile Properties of Class C Fly-Ash as a Foundry Core Binder” Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Review, Vol.25, No. 4, 2004, pp. 279-286
• Eisele, T. C., Kawatra, S. K., and Nofal, A.,”Comparison of Class C and Class F Fly-Ashes as Foundry Sand Binders and the Effectiveness of Accelerators in Reducing Curing Time”, Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Review Vol.25, No. 4, 2004, 269-278
• Eisele, T.C., and Kawatra, S.K., “A review of binders in iron ore pelletization,” Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Review, Vol.24, No. 1, 2003, pp.1-90