August 17-20, 2026 | metsoc@cim.org
We are happy to announce our keynote speakers. There will be many keynote speakers spread out over the 3 days of the conference.
Click on the (+) symbol to read their keynote presentation abstract or their biography.
More speakers to be announced.
The increased emphasis on climate change coupled with the 2050 emission reduction targets that most countries have committed to, means that operators of high temperature thermo-processing equipment are looking for solutions to substantially reduce their CO2 emissions. One potential method is the use renewable green hydrogen. Green hydrogen is and will remain an expensive fuel in the foreseeable future, so it makes sense to optimize its use in industrial process. One obvious route is the use of hydrogen fired oxyfuel combustion systems for high temperature industrial process that, for technical reasons, cannot be converted to direct electrical heating.
Linde has been investigating the use of hydrogen fired oxyfuel burner systems at their combustion technology centres in Stockholm (Sweden), Tonawanda (New York State, USA) and Unterschleissheim (close to Munich, Germany) since 2018, with the goal of ensuring that all Linde oxyfuel burners are Hydrogen Ready. Linde has been implementing oxyfuel solutions across a broad range of industries for more than 40 years.
In this paper Linde will present data and findings of the comparative tests performed with several commercially available Linde burners as well as results from full hydrogen combustion scale trials in a steel reheating furnace, aluminium remelter and a glass melter. The data presented will be for hydrogen, natural gas as well as selected blends of hydrogen in natural gas. Parameters like flame length and shape as well as NOx emissions and heat distribution within the test furnaces will be presented and compared for conventional as well as flameless oxyfuel burners. Heat transfer into aluminium and copper samples as well as measured peak flame temperatures will be presented, as well as real world data from an industrial scale REBOX® flameless oxyfuel burner installation operating with renewable hydrogen.
Hydrogen safety, production, supply, storage, a few challenges as well as hydrogen’s use as a reductant in the copper industry will also be discussed briefly.
Graduated with B. Science (Chemistry) from University of Cape Town in South Africa in 1983. Worked at Koeberg nuclear power station for 10 years, responsible for the steam water chemistry. Worked with industrial gases for 28 years, initially ozone applications in South Africa. Moved to Germany in 1999. Been working in the field of oxyfuel combustion since 2001. Developing, designing, testing, installing and commissioning oxyfuel burners. Joined Linde in Munich in 2009, worked in Shanghai 6 years supporting local colleagues. Since 2018 I have focused on hydrogen fired oxyfuel combustion in high temperature metallurgical processes.
A novel H2 based single stage reduction ironmaking technology named ZESTY (Zero Emissions Steel TechnologY) has been developed by Calix Ltd carrying out pilot plant testing at their Bacchus Marsh facility near Melbourne. Their process uses counter current flow of hydrogen and iron ore fines (less than 500 micron) in an electrically heated tubular reactor; residence time of particles are estimated to be 40 to 80s in the reactor depends on the particle size and gas flowrate. Initial pilot plant trials in 2023 established the general characteristics of the reactor and in 2024, Calix completed an extensive testing campaign in a fully electric pilot reactor for a range of Australian-sourced hematite/goethite and magnetite. Characterization of the products demonstrated that hematite goethite ores can achieve metallization levels above 95% operating below 1050 °C, the best results being achieved for particles less than 200 micron with highly porous structures. Particle size, mineralogy, ratio of hydrogen to reducible oxide, porosity and reactor temperature play a crucial role in determining the level of metallization achieved. Researchers at Swinburne University of Technology have developed a thermogravimetric technique using flow through fine samples on a wire mesh to study the kinetics of the process. A multi-zone thermodynamics and kinetic model have been developed to provide a basis by which to understand how key parameters affect reactor performance. Further fundamental work is underway to inform the development of a 30,000 tpa demonstration plant.
Professor Geoffrey Brooks is the Joint Swinburne/CSIRO Professor for Sustainable Minerals Processing. He has been a Proferssor at Swinburne for 20 years, previously being an Associate Professor at McMaster University and a Senior Lecturer at University of Wollongong. Geoff has worked extensively with the international metallurgical industry and published over 300 papers on fundamental aspects of steel and non-ferrous metallurgy. He and his coworkers has won prestigious awards from the IOM3, TMS, AIST and the ASM. In 2023 he was awarded the Bessemer Gold Medal for contribition to the international steel industry.
In the present work, we reduced high-grade iron ore pellets (Provided by VALE, Brazil) by employing different reducing atmospheres, namely pure hydrogen and MIDREX. The reduced pellets were then melted in electric arc furnace laboratory equipment. The pellets’ microstructure was characterized through SEM and XRD before and after each reduction experiment in TGA. During melting, optical emission spectroscopy analyses allowed to precisely measure the melt elements and evaluate the hydrogen content in the pellets. Both slag and steel composition and microstructure were revealed by SEM observations after the melting operations.
Bio coming soon.
Ironmaking is the most energy intensive and generates the majority of CO2 emissions associated with steelmaking. The most advanced and promising technology to reduce and eliminate CO2 emissions associated with Ironmaking is Direct Reduction with Natural Gas and Hydrogen. As the industry leader, Midrex Technologies Inc. been actively researching and developing technology solutions to adapt the MIDREX® process for both a stepped transition from Natural Gas to Hydrogen (MIDREX FlexTM) and for the ultimate carbon-neutral direct reduction process (MIDREX H2TM).
Dr. Chevrier is General Manager – Technical Sales and Marketing for Midrex Technologies Inc., and is based at the Headquarters in Charlotte, NC but spends a significant time in Europe. His role consists in promoting DRI and studying of long-term market trends and evolution, which includes the transition from carbon-based to fossil-free steelmaking.
He earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering at the Université de Technologie de Compiègne (France), a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech (USA) and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (USA).
Research and development activities to realize carbon-neutral iron- and steelmaking processes have been underway worldwide. It is considered that the use of hydrogen in steelmaking is a promising method, and various projects to industrialize hydrogen direct-reduction shaft furnaces have been carried out. However, due to the vast scale of the steelmaking industry, abruptly switching iron- and steelmaking processes to hydrogen-based processes is difficult. Therefore, it is essential to design pathways during the transition period. Reducing carbon dioxide emissions from ironmaking processes is indispensable, even on these pathways. For example, the GREINS (GREen INnovation in Steelmaking) project in Japan is taking a multi-track research approach that includes the hydrogen direct-reduction shaft furnace, hydrogen-enriched blast-furnace operation, and so on. It is known that the hydrogen reduction of iron ore proceeds faster than the carbon monoxide reduction and is an endothermic reaction. Therefore, the inner state of the blast furnace will change when hydrogen is used. Even under such conditions, the stable operation of the blast furnace must be achieved. To design and optimize the hydrogen-ironmaking process, the characteristics of hydrogen reduction and the in-furnace state must be quantitatively understood. For this purpose, a novel multi-scale numerical approach for iron ore reduction in a blast furnace under hydrogen-rich conditions was conducted. This approach includes three different scales, namely particle scale, furnace scale, and layer scale. In this presentation, the details of this approach, as well as the current state of Japanese research and development toward carbon-neutral steelmaking, will be introduced.
Bio coming soon.
Apollo-Clad Laser Cladding, an Edmonton-based division of Apollo Machine & Welding Ltd., applies wear and corrosion resistant coatings to downhole tool components using high-power laser cladding processes. Building on the successful completion of a multi-partner Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) project involving Canadian and German institutions, Apollo is advancing the integration of machine-learning (ML) based coating defect detection models into active production environments.
The project focuses on deploying trained ML models as an operator-assist recommendation engine, providing near real-time feedback during laser cladding operations. The intent is to identify process instabilities and defect precursors that are traditionally only observable during post-process inspection or via destructive metallurgical evaluation, which is not feasible for production components. The ML framework utilizes spatiotemporal thermal history data acquired in situ and correlates these signals with metallurgically validated outcomes, including defect classification and coating quality metrics. This approach has demonstrated strong performance for nickel–tungsten carbide abrasion-resistant coating systems.
This work examines the practical challenges associated with integrating ML decision-support tools into high-mix, low-volume production laser cladding operations, including data latency, operator interaction, and process variability. The implications of scaling the methodology to approximately 35 active production alloy systems and 11 production laser cladding cells are also discussed, with emphasis on model generalization, data requirements, and deployment robustness. The successful implementation of ML-enabled laser cladding operations establishes a foundational capability for the adoption of more complex metal additive manufacturing processes, supporting a key strategic growth area for both Apollo’s business and the broader Canadian advanced manufacturing sector.
Bio coming soon.
Supercritical CO2 (s-CO2) is moving from concept to infrastructure in carbon capture, transport, and geological storage. As this transition accelerates, a practical question keeps resurfacing: what actually controls corrosion in water-bearing s-CO2 environments, and why do alloy “rules of thumb” sometimes fail? In particular, operators and designers often expect corrosion resistance to improve steadily with increasing chromium, yet field-relevant s-CO₂ brines can show more complicated, non-monotonic behavior.
This work argues that the answer is frequently decided before the “usual” corrosion products even exist. In the first hours of exposure, steel surfaces are not covered by well-developed crystalline scales. Instead, they are dominated by ultrathin, disordered interfacial films, transient amorphous layers (TALs), that form rapidly and evolve continuously. Rather than treating these layers as short-lived precursors, this work will present a framework that treats TALs as the active interfacial state that steers the system’s subsequent electrochemical trajectory.
Drawing on a coordinated set of high-pressure corrosion experiments across steels spanning a broad chromium range, this study will show that TALs appear robustly at early times, but their dominant chemistry and bonding environment differ systematically with alloy composition and exposure evolution. The key implication is that “chromium content” is not the whole story: what matters is how chromium—and other alloying elements—partition into the disordered interfacial layer that is actually in contact with the electrolyte.
To connect this evolving interfacial chemistry to corrosion kinetics, we use atomistic modeling to probe how representative amorphous environments influence the surface steps that enable cathodic reactions and regulate carbonate/bicarbonate chemistry. The emerging picture is that TAL chemistry can strengthen or weaken these interfacial pathways in consistent ways, effectively setting the pace of early corrosion long before protective scales mature. Overall, we gain a clearer handle on the most critical period of materials performance in CCUS-relevant service: the moment when the interface is still forming, and the corrosion trajectory is being chosen.
Dr. Jing Liu received her Ph.D. in 2015 from UBC. After that, she worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at UBC for three years and worked as a metallurgist in Kemetco Research Inc for one year. Currently, she is an assistant professor at the U of A. Her research interests include corrosion and materials degradation, electrochemistry, high entropy alloys, and materials characterization.
Ultra-high strength press hardening steels (UHS-PHS) are finding increased use in automotive passenger safety applications such as roof beams, side impact beams, passenger cage beams and, ore recently, battery rack protection in electric vehicles (EVs). Currently, these steels frequently use an (Al-Si)-based coating system which transforms into a series of Fe-Al-Si intermetallics upon austenitization of the steel at 850-900℃ prior to direct die quenching to a fully martensitic microstructure. However, this coating system provides only barrier protection against corrosion of the underlying steel.
Zn-based coatings provide significantly potential to provide robust cathodic and barrier protection against aqueous corrosion, but present several challenges. The first of these is that of liquid metal embrittlement (LME), where press hardening of Zn-based coatings above the G‑Fe3Zn10 peritectic temperature of ~780℃ has potential to have significant residual Zn-based liquid being present during die quenching. Recently, the risk of LME during direct die quenching has been mitigated with the McDermid group development of a series of prototype Fe-xC-2Mn-ySi-0.003B substrates which can be direct die quench at 550℃ – 700℃ to yield LME immune steels with ultimate tensile strengths (UTS) of 1500 – 2000 MPa. Concurrently with austenization of the prototype PHS, the Zn-based coating transforms from nearly pure Zn to a coating comprising mixtures of G‑Fe3Zn10 and Zn-saturated ferrite (i.e. α‑Fe(Zn)), both of which have significantly different electrochemical properties and, therefore, different potentials to provide robust cathodic protection to the underlying steel. The present contribution will outline the development cycle for the Zn-coated UHS-PHS-coating systems, focussing on the microstructural and electrochemical properties of the Zn-based coating systems employed and how these fit within the overall process map required to provide a direct die quenching PHS with robust Zn-based cathodic protection.
Bio coming soon.
