In the general context of sustainable development and ecological concerns, Aperam, a stainless steel producer of world-wide reputation (plants in France, Belgium and Brazil), committed itself not to landfill waste anymore by the end of 2020. The production of stainless steels currently implies the use of acids in the several surface treatments undergone by the alloy. This induces the formation of sludges and degraded baths which are simply neutralized and landfilled because of the lack of efficient and cost effective way to revalorize them. It is often seen that the main obstacles to the treatment of these sludges are their content of F and S coming from the acids and other surface treatment baths used.
Francis Balestra (francis.balestra@grenoble-inp.fr) was born in Digne, France, in 1960.
He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electronics from the Institut Polytechnique, Grenoble, France, in 1982 and 1985, respectively. In 1989, he obtained the Habilitation diploma from Grenoble INP authorizing him to supervise PhD dissertations.
