METALLICO Young Researchers: Leyla Suanez Al-Zubaidi

Recovering valuable raw materials, demonstrating sustainable production or developing innovative technologies: Many young researchers are doing their part to achieve the goals of the METALLICO project. They are highly motivated and passionate about their work. One of our "METALLICO Young Researchers" is Leyla Suanez Al-Zubaidi. She is a PhD-Student at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). Currently, she is working on the PURGES process. She examines how to retrieve cobalt from mining purges and convert it into cobalt sulphate to be used in cathode manufacturing. Read more about Leyla and her motivation.

What is your motivation and what excites you the most about your work? 

Having the opportunity to work in a project that tries to recover valuable material from what until now was considered a residue is what motivates me the most. If there were more projects and more investment in this area of research, probably there would not be the need to destroy the environment looking for new ways of taking advantage of it, like projects in the deep-sea mining for cobalt and manganese gathering. Seeing how a residue could be converted at the end in a valuable gut for the industry is what excites me in my work.

 

Which impact do you think your research will have on the future? What do you hope to achieve with your research?

The idea we are developing could help the industry and the countries to generate less waste while generating a product that could be valuable for the battery of electric car manufacturing. We hope our project shows a success at pilot scale proving the economic viability of its scaling up to industrial level. If this were to be the case, this will contribute to make the European Union less dependent on other countries regarding cobalt.

 

What opportunities does the research project METALLICO offer you as a young researcher in your early career?

The fact that I am involved in an international project gives me the opportunity to exchange knowledge with other partners of the project and create a network that can impulse my future academic career.

 

What is the best thing about your job as a scientist in the METALLICO project? 

The best thing about my job is investigating possible solutions to a social problem and trying to implement them. Not only does this contribute to the community, it also expands your knowledge on a specific topic, which is the first step towards becoming an expert in that field.

 

Find Leyla on LinkedIn.