Loredana Di Sante holds a degree in Chemistry from Sapienza University of Rome and has been with RINA Centro Sviluppo Materiali (RINA CSM) since 1988. She brings over 25 years of research experience in areas such as ironmaking processes, coal conversion and gasification, and oxide reduction, with a strong focus on environmental impact and pollution control. Over the past decade, her work has concentrated on developing processes for the valorization and reuse of industrial waste and by-products. She currently works as Head of the Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer Discipline at RINA CSM.

What is RINA CSM?
RINA CSM is a research centre originally created to support the Italian steel industry. It used to be government-owned, but since the privatization in 2013, we have become part of the RINA Group. Our headquarter is in Rome, and while our core expertise is in steel production and plant technologies, we have significantly expanded our work in recent years.
Today, we also support industries in the area of oil and gas, aerospace, special alloys and materials, plant engineering, and energy and the environment. We have advanced laboratories and pilot plants, which allow us to work on both industrial-scale processes and applied research. Within the HEPHAESTUS project, I work for HEPHAESTUS alongside Vincenzo Pepe, Filippo Cirilli, and Andrea Tropeoli.

What work are you doing for HEPHAESTUS?
My main task in HEPHAESTUS is to study and evaluate all the possible materials that can be used in the two pilot demonstrators, one in Greece and one in Italy. We focus on identifying and characterizing clusters of suitable materials, then use thermodynamic models to define the best possible mix of input materials for the Italian CleanTech pilot plant.
What kind of materials are these?
We are working with solid industrial waste that still contains valuable metal fractions. This includes scale, slag, and dust from steelmaking processes. However, it is not limited to steel waste. We also consider materials from the aluminium industry, cement production, and other sources that contain residual metals.
The expected outputs from the CleanTech furnace include a metal alloy that can be used as a raw material for stainless steel production, a dust rich in zinc oxide that can be processed using the patented EZINEX technology, and a slag that will be transformed into mineral wool.

How do you determine the best combination of materials?
We begin by sourcing waste materials, for example from steelmaking company in our consortium Acciai Speciali Terni (AST). We first analyze and characterize the materials. Then we use thermodynamic models to simulate mass and energy balances. This helps us identify the ideal composition of input materials, which is typically a mixture of various wastes, fluxes, and reducing agent like coal.
Once we have this mix, we perform melting tests in the furnace and analyze the resulting alloy and slag. We aim for high recovery efficiency: for iron around 98%, and for nickel and chromium over 70%. At the same time, we must ensure the slag has a very low metal content (less than 1% of Fe, Cr, Ni) to make it suitable for mineral wool production. These constraints are crucial, otherwise the process would not be economically or environmentally sustainable.

What are the main outcomes so far?
We have already shown that solid waste from steelmaking can definitely be reused in steel production. The project is progressing well, and I believe we will achieve all the results we set out in the original proposal. I also hope that this kind of technology can eventually be extended to other types of industrial waste, such as those from aluminium recycling.

What makes HEPHAESTUS particularly relevant today?
One of the key strengths of HEPHAESTUS is that it shows how we can use secondary raw materials instead of relying on mining. Many industrial wastes contain high-value elements like nickel, which is essential for stainless steel. Nickel is expensive, and if we can recover it from waste, we gain both economically and environmentally. We avoid landfill disposal and reduce the environmental impact linked to mining and primary extraction.

How do you envision the future of steel production?
I hope it will grow! Over the years, steel production has gone through many ups and downs. At the moment, we are facing a downturn again, partly due to the crisis in the automotive sector. Car production is falling, and many people are unable to afford electric vehicles, which are still very expensive. But I believe this is only temporary.
I am also optimistic that the situation in Ukraine will eventually improve. In fact, there has already been an agreement signed between an Italian engineering company and a Ukrainian steel producer to build a new steel plant in Italy to support the future reconstruction of Ukraine. Steel will play a crucial role in that effort.

What are you most proud of within HEPHAESTUS?
I am proud to contribute to proving that waste can truly be a resource. It is a real opportunity to shift from a linear to a circular industrial model, and I believe this project is a strong example of how that vision can be put into practice.