Project HAlMan final webinar
Manganese production, reimagined: from HAlMan research to industrial reality
Four Years of Collaboration.
One Shared Vision.
What will it take to bring lower-carbon manganese production closer to industrial application? Join the HAlMan project team for the final webinar where we will bring together four years of collaborative research, testing and development.
This webinar will explore the project’s main achievements and challenges, assess the process’s environmental and economic performance, and examine promising pathways towards industrial use and market applications. From technical findings to customer requirements, participants will gain a connected picture of what HAlMan consortium has achieved, what remains to be addressed and where development could go next.
- 26 November 2026
- 14:00 CET (Webex)
- Free for everyone
Presentations and speakers
HAlMan: Four years of progress, results and the road ahead
The presentation by project coordinators will provide an overview of the HAlMan project, bringing together four years of work by the consortium partners. It will highlight key research results, tests and challenges, focusing on the consortium’s main achievements and possible ways forward after the project ends. Participants will gain a comprehensive picture of the project and learn where to explore its findings in greater detail through publications and other materials.
Dr. Maria Wallin
Project HAlMan coordinator
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Dr. Maria Wallin, a chemical engineer with a PhD in Material Science from Chalmers University (2014), has experience as a Product Developer at Promimic and as a Quality and Management consultant at Knightec. She joined NTNU in 2017, where she now works as a researcher focused on the production, recycling, and refining of metals from stable oxides. Dr. Wallin also serves as the administrative coordinator for three EU projects: SisAl Pilot, HAlMan, and HydroMetEC.
(NTNU) Project HAlMan
Prof. Jafar Safarian
Project HAlMan coordinator
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Jafar Safarian is a Professor in Extractive and Process Metallurgy at NTNU, with over 32 years of education and experience in the field. His research focuses on sustainable metal production, silicon production and recycling, hydrogen reduction processes, and waste valorisation. He supervises researchers and students and holds management roles in national and European research projects.
A life cycle perspective on environmental impacts of HAlMan process
This session will introduce the objectives and scope of our project’s Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), outlining the life cycle stages examined and the key environmental findings. It will highlight how LCA helps us better understand the project’s environmental impacts and supports informed decisions to improve its environmental sustainability.
Athina Preveniou
Chemical engineer and LCA analys
Admiris
Athina Preveniou works on process development and environmental sustainability across the mining, metallurgy, bio-based materials and energy sectors. Her expertise includes process simulation, mass and energy balances, life cycle assessment (LCA), and the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework. Through industry collaborations and EU-funded projects, she assesses innovative technologies, identifies environmental hotspots and evaluates greenhouse gas emissions avoidance potential, including for Innovation Fund projects.
Techno-economic assessment of HAlMan and the factors shaping its competitiveness
The HAlMan process combines hydrogen-based pre-reduction of manganese ore with aluminothermic smelting using aluminium waste. This presentation assesses the technical and economic performance of this route for ferromanganese production in South Africa, Greece and Norway. Drawing on process modelling, mass and energy balances, and equipment sizing, it compares capital and operating costs, break-even selling prices and economic uncertainty. It also examines how low-carbon electricity, aluminium-scrap availability, waste-heat recovery and carbon pricing influence the conditions under which the process could become competitive.
Behrouz Kiani
Research Associate in the Department of Chemical Engineering
Imperial College London
Behrouz Kiani is a Research Associate in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, working on process modelling and techno-economic assessment within the HAlMan project. His work includes process simulation, mass and energy balances, equipment sizing, cost estimation, and sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering, specialising in process control.
From HAlMan results to a competitive first application
HAlMan has investigated an integrated approach to lower-carbon manganese processing, with results spanning pre-reduction, smelting and potential product and co-product routes. This presentation considers how those results can move towards exploitation without assuming that every part of the original flowsheet must be commercialised together. It will explain why hydrogen pre-reduction has emerged as the leading near-term development pathway, what a competitive first offering might retain, simplify or introduce in stages, and what must be defined before progressing a focused industrial application.
Tom Hills
Innovation Manager
Leilac (part of the Calix group)
Tom Hills is Innovation Manager at Leilac (part of the Calix group) and leads HAlMan’s work on business models and commercial exploitation. He works across techno-economic analysis, innovation strategy and industrial project development, helping to translate technical results into focused development pathways and commercially relevant next steps.
Value to Customer: From HAlMan Results to Market Applications
Building on the exploitation pathways presented by Calix, this presentation focuses on the potential value of HAlMan’s products and co-products for different industrial applications. It will highlight the main findings of the Value-to-Customer analysis, the most promising applications identified and the remaining requirements for bringing these results closer to the market.
Paraskevi Efstathiou
Financial Sustainability Project Manager
Admiris
Paraskevi Efstathiou holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering and is a consultant at Admiris, specialising in techno-economic assessments, business models and exploitation strategies for European research and innovation projects. Her work focuses on evaluating the industrial and commercial potential of emerging technologies, particularly in the fields of raw materials, metallurgy and circular economy. Within HAlMan, she leads the Business Cases and Value-to-Customer analysis, linking the project’s technical results with potential market applications and customer requirements.
Explore the Future of Sustainable Manganese Production
Join us to discover HAlMan’s key achievements and the next steps towards industrial application.