Speakers

Dr. Alessio Scarsella, is a Graduate of the University of Adelaide and holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering, PhD in Chemical Engineering and Master of Business Administration, and has been working in the mining, minerals, energy and chemical sectors for over 20 years. He started his career in the power generation sector in Australia then progressing with Rio Tinto, Outotec and Metso, holding several global leadership positions resulting in the establishment of several operations around the world that have contributed significantly to the global production of Aluminum. 

Dr. Scarsella now holds the position of Chief Operating Officer for the world’s largest Specialty Alumina Producer, Almatis, and oversees the global operations, of 8 sites world wide.  

Dr. Chris Bataille has been active in energy and climate policy analysis for 27 years as a researcher, energy systems and economic modeler, project manager and managing consultant/partner. He is focused on technology and policy pathways to net-zero GHG emissions for all sectors by 2050-‘70 to meet the Paris Agreement goals. He is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Columbia University Centre for Global Energy Policy and an Associate Researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI.org) in Paris. Chris was a Lead Author for the Industry Chapter of the 6th cycle of the IPCC Working Group III Assessment Report, as well as the Summary for Policy Makers and Technical Summary.  He manages an ongoing global project to review technology and policy options for net-zero decarbonization of heavy industrial sectors. 

Hiroshi Nogami is a professor at Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University. He studied Chemical Engineering and was graduated from the same university in 1987. He continued research on the mathematical modeling and numerical analysis of pulverized coal combustion and cokemaking and got the degree of Doctor of Engineering in 1992. He started his academic career at Research Institute of Mineral Dressing and Metallurgy, Tohoku University as Research Associate in 1992. He worked with Prof. Yagi for 13 years and developed kinetic based operation simulator of various high temperature processes, such as blast furnace, ultra-fine powder generation under arc plasma. He also worked with Prof. Guthrie at Department of Mining and Metallurgy, McGill University, Canada from 1997 to 1999. During this period, he developed a method of inverse-heat transfer analysis and applied it to the solidification process in the single-belt strip casting. He also contributed to the development of molten steel feeders for the same process. He was promoted to Associate Professor at Department of Chemical Engineering, Ichinoseki National College of Technology in 2006. Then promoted to Full Professor at Mechanical Science Unit, Muroran Institute of Technology in 2011. Finally, he moved back to Tohoku University in 2013. Three years from May of 2020, he took charge of Collaborative Research Division of Advanced Analysis of Iron and Steelmaking Processes between JFE steel Corporation and Tohoku University. His main research topics are on mathematical modeling of various industrial processes based on the multiphase thermal fluid engineering and reaction kinetics, and optimization of metallurgical and chemical processes through the operation analysis utilizing developed models from the viewpoints of energy, CO₂ and resource issues. He has published more than 100 papers in refereed journals.

Dr.Koji Saito, Senior Fellow, Research & Development, Nippon Steel Research Institute Corporation, holds M.S. and PhD degrees in Physical Chemistry from Nagoya Institute of Technology and Tohoku University, respectively.  His career on iron making technology including coal characterization using NMR, coking process research, and blast furnace technology started in Yawata works of Nippon Steel Corporation in 1984. Then, he worked for a national project to develop a new cokes process, called SCOPE21 process in Japan, after he stayed at RWTH-Aachen University in Germany, as a visiting researcher, in order to develop in-situ NMR imaging system in 1997.  He mainly clarified the mechanism of rapid heating effects using his original in-situ NMR imaging system in SCOPE21 projects. After this project, he started research management work as general manager of Iron making R&D division and also COURSE 50 projects as sub Project Leader. He was general manager in head of iron making technology division of Nippon Steel ＆ Sumitomo metal Corp. He was Project Leader of COURSE 50 until 2015. He has at least 120 papers and 95 patents. Now, he is project leader for “Innovative and Integrated High-Grade Steel Making Processes Coping with Inevitable Degradation of Iron Ore” (2019-2023 ; NEDO project). At the same moment he is one of the members of Science Council of Japan (SCJ) (2017-2028) and Chairman of the Japan Energy Society 2021-2023).

Lina Hockaday has 18 years of pyrometallurgical research experience in the non-ferrous industry. She joined Mintek in 2002 after obtaining her B. Chem.Eng. (Minerals Processing) and M.Sc. in Extractive Metallurgy at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. During 2002 to 2010, she worked in the commercial projects group on various projects including the recovery of precious metals in liquid iron and the smelting of ores to produce design specifications of an industrial ferrochrome DC arc furnace. From 2011 to late 2015, she took a break from work and had two delightful children, now aged 13 and 10. From 2015 till 2021, she has been involved in research of new technologies for titanium metal production, chlorination of titanium dioxides in a fluidized bed, and the applications of concentrating solar energy in mineral processing. In 2023, she obtained her PhD Mech Eng with the thesis entitled “Solar Thermal Treatment of Manganese Ores”. Dr Hockaday resigned from Mintek in June 2021 to move with her family to Perth, Australia. Since Oct 2022, she has been employed at Curtin University as a senior engineer and postdoctoral research fellow executing two HILT CRC projects involving the low-carbon upgrading of iron ores.

Dr Mark Pownceby is a Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO's Mineral Resources Business Unit (Sustainability Program) where he fulfils the role of Team Leader (Iron Ore Geometallurgy).

Mark has been awarded a:
• Bachelor of Science with First Class Honours from Monash University, Victoria, Australia in 1984

 • Doctor of Philosophy in Earth Sciences (Experimental Geochemistry) from Monash University, Victoria, Australia in 1990.

Mark's research expertise is in the field of solid state chemistry and mineralogy. He applies this expertise in research projects related to:
 • ilmenite characterisation and processing
 • characterisation of bulk iron ores and their sintered products
 • mineralogy of uranium ores
 • experimental phase equilibria

Background
Mark joined CSIRO in 1992 as a Research Scientist. Prior to joining CSIRO Process Science and Engineering he held a visiting research scientist position at the Bayerisches Geoinstitut, Germany, from 1989 to 1992.

Since joining CSIRO Mark has worked primarily in the Industrial Minerals Sector. He directs fundamental research to examine the influence of impurity elements and gangue minerals on processing minerals (ilmenite, rutile, zircon) found in heavy mineral sand concentrates. His work resulted in the development of electron microprobe-based techniques for characterising heavy mineral (HM) sands and their processed products. He has successfully applied this technique in the characterisation of mineral sands from Australian deposits in the Murray Basin, the Eucla Basin and southwest WA. He has also conducted extensive research on HM deposits from, Southern Africa, Indonesia, Bangladesh and South Korea. Mark also has considerable expertise in the processing of ilmenite-dominated HM sands using the Australian-developed Becher process. He has written a number of seminal reviews of existing operations and developed potential new processing approaches to existing hard-to-process ores.

Mark is currently a member of the Carbon Steel Futures Group where his major activities involve designing and completing an experimental program aimed at understanding the complex mineral assemblages formed during the sintering of Australian iron ores. He is also part of two projects investigating the formation of complex calcium ferrite sinter phases in processed Australian iron ores and the geometallurgy of uranium ores. Within the Carbon Steel Futures Group Mark pioneered an innovative in situ diffraction capability that has been extensively applied to examining phase formation in iron ore sinter. This work has generated significant scientific output (5 high impact papers in past 3 years) as well as provided a scientific knowledge-based set of criteria that underpins the commercially important pot-grate sinter testwork programme at Pullenvale. Impacts resulting from the work have been: a) a detailed understanding of the sequence and mechanism of bonding phase formation in iron ore sinters; b) the effects of impurities (Mg, Ti) in iron ore, additives (ironsands, millscale) and sinter operating parameters (T, pO2, basicity) on bonding phase stability; c) the first ever thermochemical data generated for the sinter bonding phases SFCA and SFCA-I (critically needed for modelling melting reactions in the blast furnace), and; d) quantification of the effects of alumina contaminants in different iron ores. This latter work will have a significant impact on Australia’s iron ore industry as it demonstrates and quantifies, for the first time, why alumina present in kaolinite (as is the case in Australian ores), is advantageous towards forming and stabilising phases that promote high quality sinter.

Mark has previously led projects within CSIRO’s Light Metals Flagship to determine fundamental phase relations in solid-liquid systems designed to produce anhydrous magnesium chloride feedstock for the Australian Magnesium (AM) process and was Aluminium Cluster Leader for projects aimed at:
- developing new generation SiC refractory materials for sidewall linings of aluminium cells,
- the development of novel spinel materials for potential sidewall applications
Mark is currently the CSIRO/KIGAM Global Project manager responsible for developing joint projects, scientific exchanges, delivery of targeted training courses and an annual joint symposium. In this role he has developed training courses on Process Mineralogy (2013) and Mineral Sands Processing (2015)

Mark has authored and co-authored more than 170 technical papers in journals and conferences and more than 150 technical reports. He is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor at RMIT University and an Adjunct Professor at Swinburne University.

Prof Mercedes Maroto-Valer (FRSE, FIChemE, FRSC, FRSA, FEI) is Champion and Director of the UK Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC) that forms part of the UK Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge focused on accelerating the transition to net zero of industrial clusters and establishing the first world net-zero industrial cluster.

Prof Maroto-Valer is Deputy Principal (Global Sustainability) at Heriot-Watt University, leading the sustainability agenda, making a significant impact on achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and working with partners to achieve global carbon reduction targets through the development of university wide initiatives (UK, Dubai and Malaysia). She is director of the Research Centre for Carbon Solutions (RCCS) at Heriot-Watt University, where she holds the Robert Buchan Chair in Sustainable Energy Engineering. RCCS is a world leading multidisciplinary centre delivering innovation for the wider deployment of low-carbon energy systems required for meeting net-zero targets. Her internationally recognised track record covers energy systems, CCUS, integration of hydrogen technologies and low carbon fuels.

She has held academic appointments at the University of Kentucky (1997-1998), Pennsylvania State University (1998-2004) and University of Nottingham (2005-2012). She joined Heriot-Watt University in 2012 as the first Robert Buchan Chair in Sustainable Engineering and has been Director of the cross-university Energy Academy and Head of the Institute of Mechanical, Process and Energy Engineering and Assistant Deputy Principal (Research and Innovation).

She has over 575 publications and has received numerous international prizes and awards, including 2021 ACES-Margarita Salas Prize, 2021 Disruptors+Innovators Best Research Project Prize, 2019 Scottish Women Award-Services to Science and Technology, 2019 Honorary Doctorate TU Delft, 2018 SRUK/CERU Merit Award, 2013 Hong-Kong University Mong Distinguished Fellowship, 2011 RSC ESED Early Career Award, 2009 Philip Leverhulme Prize, 2005 US Dep. of Energy Award for Innovative Development, 1997 Ritchie Prize, 1996 Glenn Award-Fuel Chemistry American Chem. Soc., 1993 ICI Chemical & Polymers Group Andersonian Centenary Prize. Her portfolio includes a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Award.

Prof Maroto-Valer holds leading positions in professional societies/editorial boards, including her role in the Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition (CEET) under the auspices of the United Nations Secretary-General.

Michael Brear is the Director of the Melbourne Energy Institute at the University of Melbourne. He guides the Institute’s research on the technical, economic, environmental and social impacts of energy systems. His own research is collaborative with industry and government and focuses on:

• the technical, economic and environmental analysis of transport and energy systems;

• systems with reciprocating engines and gas turbines;

• and combustion of conventional and alternative fuels.

Michael is a Fellow of Engineers Australia and the Australian Institute of Energy and he previously established the University’s Master of Energy Systems. Prior to commencing at the University, he worked for ICI Australia (now Orica), then undertook graduate studies at Cambridge University and post-doctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr Sara Hornby, C.Eng., FIMMM, was the first woman to graduate from Sheffield Hallam University with a BSc Hons in Metallurgy and a PhD in Industrial Metallurgy. She spent her early career in the UK working for Firth Brown Tools Engineering and British Steel Corporation. Her initial North American Air Liquide roles, developing new technologies and bringing best available technologies to the metals industry (whilst managing multi-disciplinary, multi-location team members) coupled with other EAF steelmaking optimization positions (Tenova Goodfellow, Midrex, Linde, Intertech, TMS International), put her in good stead to set up her own Inc., which supplies consultancy and expert witness to the metals and related industries.

Sara holds five patents and has authored over 137 International papers, seminars and courses. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IoM3) and was their 2022 Hadfield Medal and Prize winner. In 2020, she was the recipient of the Benjamin Fairless Award (AIST/AIME) and the John Bell Award (AIST). In November 2023, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering by Sheffield Hallam University in recognition of outstanding contribution to the international steel industry and being an inspiration for ambitious women engineers.

Dr Shabnam Sabah is a Postdoctoral Research Engineer at Swinburne University of Technology. Presently, she is working on the HILT CRC projects “Prevention of sticking in H₂ fluidised bed DRI production” and “Testing of Australian Iron Ores in a hydrogen direct flash smelting process”. Dr Sabah has previously worked on HILT CRC research projects about the Impact of Hydrogen DRI on Melting in an Electric Furnace and hydrogen Ironmaking with a fluidised bed. She has expertise in steelmaking, ironmaking, and metallurgy.

Dr Sabah completed her PhD on the splashing behaviour of a Basic Oxygen Furnace at Swinburne. She has worked in process industries after finishing her bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).

Simon Nicholas is the Lead Energy Finance Analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) at the University of New South Wales. Simon is IEEFA’s Lead Analyst for the global steel sector, as well as Asian seaborne thermal and coking coal markets.

Simon’s focus is on the energy transition, the long-term outlooks for coal and steel as well as the need for emerging nations to establish financially sustainable power systems to support their development.

Before joining IEEFA in 2016, Simon had 16 years’ experience in the finance industry at ABN Amro, Macquarie Group and Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney and London.

Simon is a fellow (FCA) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, has a BSc in Zoology and a Master’s in Environmental Management, for which he was awarded the Orica Ronnie Harding Prize by the University of New South Wales.

Steve Schell is an engineer and entrepreneur who has driven the evolution of Heliogen’s concentrating solar thermal technology since 2018. Steve leverages a wide range of technology expertise as a research scientist, systems architect, and executive overseeing renewable energy technologies, image processing, simulation, robotics, and 3-D printing. 

Dr Tara Hosseini is a Senior Research Scientist in the Electrochemical Energy Systems Research Group in the Energy Business Unit of the CSIRO. She joined CSIRO in April 2022 and presently works on different aspects of hydrogen energy systems. Dr Hosseini has 15+ years of experience in process simulation and techno-economic analysis. She specialises in the development of sustainable and clean bio-energy technologies through thermochemical conversion methods. She also has a background in mineral processing technologies through both hydro and pyrometallurgical techniques. With the experience of work as a process engineer in the oil, gas and mineral industries in both Australia and overseas, Dr Hosseini has expertise in the design and development of different chemical and mineral processes, process simulation and modelling using Aspen Plus and HYSYS, techno-economic analysis and reactor design and kinetic modelling

Prior to joining CSIRO she worked as a Future Fuels CRC fellow and lecturer at the University of Adelaide (2019-2022), where she worked on different projects in the Future Fuels CRC and HILT CRC related to hydrogen production technologies. She also worked as research fellow at Monash University from 2016 to 2019. During her employment at Monash University she worked on a couple of industry-linked projects. Dr Hosseini has developed a patented process to produce high-purity magnesium oxide/metal from Victorian brown coal fly ash. The demonstration plant is going to be built in the near future in Latrobe Valley with an initial capacity of 10000 tpa of magnesium metal. She also developed a process flowsheet for utilisation of waste tyre char in a value-added way to upgrade Victorian brown coal upon the co-pyrolysis with waste tyre char. This process offers high-value derivatives with low emission outcomes.