Saif Hossain is a doctoral candidate at the Institute for Glass Science and Technology. This summer, he had the chance to attend the Summer School of the International Commission on Glass in Montpellier, France.

Your research topic briefly explained: What is it about and what makes it so exciting for you?

We need adequate resources to meet the demand for producing valuable products. Waste materials result as a by-product or end of lifetime of products. There is a lack of the use of these waste materials containing valuable resources and there is an environmental concern as well. To fulfill the shortage of resources, the valuable materials can be recovered from waste materials through a holistic approach.
In the VeHarstGlas project our aim is to produce glass products by exchanging basic raw materials with waste materials. The waste materials are pretreated and the remaining wastes contains silicates which are turned into glass products which contribute to zero waste, holistic approach and good economy. Our focus is to prepare sodium silicate liquid water glass and glass fibers from waste materials. We have different types of waste materials including metallurgical slags, ashes and sands from mine waste. Selecting the particular waste material to produce water glass and glass fibers is a challenge. To overcome this challenge, waste materials are sorted out depending on the chemical composition and qualitative phase analysis and based on that, a selection criteria is built individually to select waste materials for producing water glass and glass fibers. I am preparing the water glass and glass fibers from waste materials and comparing the properties of my produced water glass and glass fibers with the standard ones as well as optimizing parameters.

How did your time abroad contribute to your doctoral project?

As a beginner level researcher in the field of glass science & technology, I felt enthusiasm to participate in the summer school on glass at Montpellier, France, that provided me an opportunity with an understanding of both basic and advanced knowledge of glass, which can be effective in providing valuable input for completing my PhD study in the field of glass. The knowledge about the chemical analysis and furnace technology will be vital for my doctoral study as I am also dealing with high temperature experimentation to produce glass and chemical analysis of resulting glasses. Alongside lectures, the summer school also provided me a platform to connect with young researchers and experts from different cultures working in the relevant background through social gathering events, presentations and a case study which was provided as a task to doctoral students. Lastly, working in a group to present a case study helped me to gain new ideas in the field of glass recycling which will be effective for my PhD study which is also based on the recycling of waste materials to glass products.

 What did you gain personally?

Learning has no boundaries. From my side, the summer school provided me a platform to get both theoretical insights (by lectures) and knowledge on real life solving problems in recycling of glass (through case study in a group) within my comfort zone and expected level. Although, I did not understand all lectures but I got to know something relevant to my doctoral project. A case study was a new experience and challenging, as we had to finish it in three days and in a group we didn’t know each other from before. But within a short time, we overcame the challenges by successfully presenting our case study and answering questions, thus enriching our knowledge more in this background. Alongside this, a good communication and relation is also built among us which can be useful to overcome the challenges of tomorrow together in the field of glass.