14
2020
Research
Online resource boost for
students of recycling
The recycling sector now has the opportunity to join forces in educating young engineers and help secure growth for the
coming decades. TU Delft is experimenting with an electronic analog of the famous SME Handbook on Mineral Processing.
The basic concept is for hundreds of hands-on experts each to contribute a capsule of knowledge that can be updated by the
author at any time.
S
ometime after the Second World War,
when the economy was booming and
raw materials production needed to
grow at an unprecedented rate, the Society for
Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration launched a
striking initiative: the SME Mineral Process-
ing Handbook. Eventually, its editor Norman
L. Weiss and more than 200 experts in the
field produced a monumental overview of
practices, equipment, plant process data and
insights into the way we provide for our basic
raw materials.
When I checked several years ago, it was
selling for more than a thousand euro per vol-
ume on the second-hand book market.
It is true that Weiss copied the clever or-
ganisation and hands-on style in part from
the earlier work of Taggart. Yet, the number
and authority of the authors, the complete-
ness of the information and the large audi-
ence at once made earlier attempts to cover
the subject obsolete.
More challenging task
Today, recycling is experiencing a similar
boom and so, as with mineral processing in
the post-war era, there is an equally strong
need for knowledge transfer to new engi-
neers. This time, however, the task is more
challenging than expanding an existing, well-
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14-15_onderwijsinitiatief12paginaliggend.indd 14 12-09-19 13:58