Can you shortly introduce yourself and your role in the HyInHeat project?

Role of Researcher in the project, Category A – Top Grade Reseacher, Leading and Team member

Dr. Amaia Iza-Mendia Role: Project Leading at CEIT and Lead Researcher for the investigations on steel product quality activity in the project, Category A – Top Grade Reseacher.

Director and Principal Researcher in the Thermomechanical Processing Group of the Materials and Manufacturing Division at Ceit-BRTA research center (Basque Research & Technology Alliance). With Ceit since 1996. Associate Professor of the Materials Engineering Department at TECNUN, the School of Engineering of the University of Navarra. Professor, by the AQU Agència per la Qualitat del Sistema Universitari de Catalunya, Her main research and technological activity is carried out in the framework of research projects with the steel industry and it is focused on the physical metallurgy of steels, thermomechanical treatments, mechanical behavior and microstructure-process-property relationships. New processing routes and improvements in processing sequences for flat and long products, tubes, forged pieces, flat roll steel, etc. Improvements to heat and thermomechanical treatments and new solutions based on them. High-strength, advanced microalloyed, Stainless steels. The main research lines are: Hot Working; Phase Transformations and Texture development in steels; Continuous Annealing; Modelling of microstructural evolution during hot deformation and thermal treatments and mechanical property models based on microstructure; Mechanical Properties and Anisotropy; Thermal ageing/degradation Oxidation and Creep. Working in project for the development of new steel grades and alloys for extreme applications and in the study of their behavior under service conditions. A proven significant participation and management in competitive research project and in research and technology transfer contracts of special relevance with companies, national and international, of the steel industry. With a participation in more than 50 research projects, being the leader in 34. Number of doctoral theses supervised: 6 (1 in progress). Nonconfidential results have led to more than 90 papers being published in international and national journals and conference proceedings. 

Jon Etxeberria Role: Team member and Lead Researcher for the refractory materials activity in the project, Category A – Top Grade Reseacher.

He is currently a senior researcher in the Advanced Manufacturing Group in Powder Metallurgy and Laser of the CEIT Materials and Manufacturing Division. In parallel, he is an associate professor in Materials Science at Tecnun, Universidad de Navarra. He has participated and supervised numerous research projects, both national and international within public calls, as well as in direct contracts with the Industry. He is a specialist in the processing of advanced ceramic materials and refractories, covering each of the processing stages. This is: powder preparation (milling, mixing, kneading, colloidal suspensions), shaping (pressing, extrusion, slip-casting, dip-coating), curing heat treatments, sintering (Pressureless Sintering, Hot-Pressing, Hot-Isostatic- Pressing, Spark-Plasma-Sintering). Additionally, he is also focused on the Microstructural Characterisation by SEM, FESEM, AFM, Dual Beam FIB/SEM, and TEM), determination of Mechanical Properties and application of Heat Treatments under different atmospheres, including those related to the combustion of hydrogen with air/oxygen. In recent years, it has focused on the manufacture and characterization of ceramic membranes for filtration processes, insulating ceramic/refractory materials for applications in furnaces and combustion boilers, as well as the development of alumina, magnesia, dolomite-based refractory materials for applications in metallurgical processes. He is also the author or co-author of more than 50 international scientific articles and communications and director of several doctoral theses. It has a patent dated 05-19-2015: Ceramic Filtration Membrane, Application No.: 15157475.3-1356 for its application in Europe.