New video features student effort to develop eco-friendly technologies

A PhD student from our Department of Chemistry has participated in a new video that promotes his environmental research – and highlights opportunities for fellow researchers.

Stylianos (Stelios) Spathariotis, a Mining and Metallurgical Engineer coming from Greece who did his Master’s in Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), is currently working for his PhD in Electrochemistry.

The PhD is funded by the Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions and the project he participates in is called Socrates. The aim is to develop eco-friendly and cost-effective technologies that are capable of extracting critical metals from the many European feedstocks.

Stelios said: “The ability to extract the critical metals from these residues means Europe is less dependent on the import of critical metals. At the same time, SOCRATES also recovers additional, economically important metals and converts the residual mineral matrices into low-carbon engineered products that can partially replace fossil-fuel-intensive products such as Portland cement.

“In order to develop these (near-)zero-waste valorisation schemes for industrial secondary-process residues, the project offers a unique training program for 15 researchers, EU-wide, in both universities and industries. This is presented in the video in a simple and understandable way by me and my colleague Christina Siakati.”

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 721385.

The video promoting environmental research is available below: