SOLPART partner Naji Abdenouri (Cadi Ayyad University) took part in the conference on Scientific Cooperation between France and Morocco organized by the CNRS and gave a presentation about the project.

The celebration of the CNRS’ 80^th anniversary took place on Tuesday 1 October in Rabat, Morocco. This day highlighted the Scientific Cooperation between Morocco and France and, more specifically, the 80 years of collaboration between the CNRS and the CNRST (the Moroccan National Centre for Scientific and Technical Research). The event was attended by Alain Schuhl (CNRS deputy director for science), Mohamed Khalfaoui (CNRST director), university researchers and industry representatives from both Morocco and France.

Naji Abdenouri, Professor of Applied Physics at the Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech and SOLPART partner, was invited by the CNRST to participate in the conference. He took part in the round-table discussion about “The regional and multilateral dimension of scientific cooperation” where he gave a presentation on the objectives and expected results of SOLPART.

“The day was a great success!”, Naji Abdenouri says. “My intervention was scheduled during the session on the involvement of companies in Franco-Moroccan cooperation. During my intervention, I presented the SOLPART project, taking the case of phosphate particles and the calcination process. I stressed the importance of using a solar concentrator-based system as a parallel means to the existing system. Given the first tests and the progress of the project, it would be interesting to carry out tests at the El Youssoufia site where calcination is currently performed by a rotary furnace heated by the combustion of fuel oil.”

Since Morocco is one of the first producers of phosphate in the world, the innovation proposed as part of SOLPART, related to the decarbonisation of process industries, is highly relevant for this country. According to Naji Abdenouri, the subject aroused the interest of the audience and the discussion was relayed within CNRST for more information and clarification.

The conference was concluded over the signing ceremony of the CNRS-CNRST framework agreement.

For more information, you can download the presentation of Naji Abdenouri (SOLPART overview, objectives and expected results) here.

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