Last week, I had the great pleasure of attending the 7th European Steel Technology and Application Days (ESTAD2025) in Verona, Italy, organized by Associazione Italiana di Metallurgia (AIM), where I presented the first phase of my research within the HELIOS Project.
My presentation, titled “Hydrogen Plasma Smelting Reduction of Cr₂O₃ / Chromite: The First Step to Direct and Sustainable Production of Stainless Steel,” focused on developing a sustainable single-step process for producing high-grade ferrochromium via the HPSR process, paving the way for green stainless steel production.
It was an honor to engage in scientific discussions and knowledge exchange with both academic and industrial experts. Special thanks to K1-MET GmbH, Montanuniversität Leoben, and HELIOS – MSCA DN for making this experience possible.
I’m also deeply grateful to co-authors and colleagues — Michael Andreas Zarl, Daniel Ernst, and Susanne Michelic — for their guidance, collaboration, and valuable input throughout this project.
I’m pleased to share that the peer-reviewed draft of our conference paper with the same topic has also been submitted to the journal of Matériaux & Techniques and will soon be published as an open-access paper.
