About the author: Dr. Lieven Machiels

Dr. Lieven Machiels is a Research Manager in the SOLVOMET group (https://solvomet.eu/) within the SIM² KU Leuven Research Cluster (http://www.sim2.be). He has a PhD in Geology, worked 6 year as a Post-doctoral Fellow in Metallurgy and Materials Engineering and is now working as a Research Manager in the SOLVOMET group at the KU Leuven Department of Chemistry. He is a passionate researcher, with a research focus on sustainable development in the raw materials sector, among which is the mining, metallurgical and cement and building materials sector. Central in his research is "near-zero-waste metallurgy", i.e. closing material loops in the mining & metallurgical sector through enhancing metal recovery, concentrating hazardous components and valorisation of mineral by-products in metallurgical processes. Apart from research in Flanders and the E.U., he is very active in the research on sustainable solutions for the mining and metallurgical sector in Latin America. Within the SOLVOMET group, emphasis is on the use of organic molecules in metallurgy, or the so-called solvometallurgy. The mission of the SOLVOMET Industrial Service Centre is to support its industrial and RTD partners in the conceptual and practical development of more sustainable solvometallurgical and hydrometallurgical extraction processes, using in-house state-of-the-art lab-scale and (mini)-pilot-scale experimental facilities.