Efthymios Balomenos

Dr. Efthymios Balomenos is a graduate of the School of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (2000) with a specialization in Metallurgy, he has prepared his doctoral thesis in thermodynamics in the Metallurgy laboratory of the School of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (2006) and was elected assistant professor at the same school in 2024 with a research subject in the Design and Development of Extractive Metallurgy Processes for the utilization of Metallurgical by-products and poor ores.

He is a member of the Laboratory of Metallurgy of  the School and participates in the Tesmet research group (https://tesmet.gr/)

His research interests focus on new processes of extractive metallurgy with the integration of innovative technologies and alternative energy sources as well as the use of alternative / secondary raw materials for the overall improvement of the environmental footprint of the production of metals and oxides.

He has extensive experience in the development of new processes aimed either at reducing carbon emissions or at the utilization of metallurgical by-products or poor ores. He has dealt with rare earths and their extraction from poor ores or metallurgical by-products and in particular with the creation of new Scandium production chains. On this subject, he has successfully organized 3 European conferences (ERES2014, ERES 2017, ERES2020), has participated as an invited speaker in various international panels and seminars, has been honored with a best paper award from the TMS conference (TMS Light Metals Subject Award – Alumina & Bauxite 2017) and in 2023 was on the organizing committee of the TMS2023 - LIGHT METALS: Scandium Extraction and Use in Aluminum Alloys symposium (March 2023).

He has also been involved in the primary production of alumina and aluminum as an external scientific collaborator of METLEN Energy & Metals at the "Aluminum of Greece" plant, on issues of research and development of technology and pilot tests thereof on an industrial scale. The bulk of his work concerns the valorization of bauxite residues, a subject on which he holds a patent, has published a chapter in a book by the JRC of the European Union (Recovery of critical and other raw materials from mining waste and landfills: State of play on existing practices, 2019) and has achieved international recognition as an organizational member of the International Bauxite Residue Valorisation and Best Practices Conference (ΒR2018, BR2021) and the International Committee for Study of Bauxite, Alumina and Aluminium (BR subject organizer: 2021 to date). He participates in the board of the International Committee for Study of Bauxite, Alumina and Aluminium (ΙCSOBA), the Bauxite and Alumina Committee of the International Aluminium Institute (IAI-BAC) and the European Aluminium Innovation Hub (EA-Innovation hub).

To date, he has published over 100 scientific publications as articles in peer-reviewed journals (44), as chapters in books and encyclopedias (5) and as articles from proceedings of Scientific Conferences, while he has participated in more than 25 European and national research programs.

Finally, during his undergraduate and doctoral studies at NTUA, he was a member of the NTUA theater group, acting and directing in many amateur performances. He has worked as an assistant director in professional performances at the Neos Kosmos Theater (2004-2006) and at the New Stage of the National Theater (2009) and has professionally directed three theatrical performances. Together with G. Rizopoulos, he has written 3 plays, having won the 2nd Prize for Outstanding Modern Greek Theatrical Work from the magazine Foyer in 2004 for the play "Theodoros, aged 33 AD".

• P. Davris, E. Balomenos , D. Panias, I. Paspaliaris , Leaching Rare Earth Elements from Bauxite Residue Using Brønsted Acidic Ionic Liquids,  Chapter 12 , pp.183-197  in book: Rare Earths Industry , eds Ismar Borges De Lima and Walter Leal Filho, 2015  https://doi.org/10.1016/C2014-0-01863-1


• E. Balomenos and D. Gerogiorgis, Carbothermic Reduction Methods for Alumina, In book: Encyclopedia of Aluminium and its Alloys, First Edition, Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group, 2018 10.1201/9781351045636-140000248


• Balomenos, Bauxite Residue as Resource in Europe, Chapter in Blengini, G.A et al. Recovery of critical and other raw materials from mining waste and landfills: State of play on existing practices, EUR 29744 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2019, ISBN 978-92-76-03391-2, doi:10.2760/494020, JRC116131


• Balomenos Ε., Davris P., Panias, D., Paspaliaris I. Recovering of REEs from unconventional resources – Bauxite Residue; Chapter in “Sustainable Recovery of Rare Earth Elements”” eds Karamalidis A., Eggert R, AGU-Wiley ISBN: 978-1-119-51503-6. December 2024


• E. Balomenos, D. Panias, I. Paspaliaris, Energy and Exergy Analysis of the Primary Aluminium Production Processes – A Review on Current and Future Sustainability, Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Review 01/2011; 32(2):69-89. https://doi.org/10.1080/08827508.2010.530721


• E. Balomenos, D. Panias, I. Paspaliaris, Theoretical Investigation of the Volatilization Phenomena Occurring in the Carbothermic Reduction of Alumina, World of Metallurgy - ERZMETALL 01/2011; 64(6):312-320.


• Efthymios Balomenos, Ioanna Giannopoulou, Dimitrios Gerogiorgis, Dimitrios Panias, Ioannis Paspaliaris, Resource-efficient and economically viable pyrometallurgical processing of industrial ferrous by-products, Waste and Biomass Valorization 11/2013; https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-013-9280-5


• Georgios Kolliopoulos, Efthymios Balomenos, Ioanna Giannopoulou, Iakovos Yakoumis, Dimitrios Panias; Behavior of Platinum Group Metals during Their Pyrometallurgical Recovery from Spent Automotive Catalysts, OALib Journal Volume 1(e736) · August 2014; http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1100736


• P. M. Angelopoulos, E. Balomenos, M. Taxiarchou, Thin-Layer Modeling and Determination of Effective Moisture Diffusivity and Activation Energy for Drying of Red Mud from Filter Presses, J Sustain. Metall.,  April 2016; https://doi.org/10.1007/s40831-016-0055-7


• P. Davris, E. Balomenos, S. Stopic, D. Panias, I. Paspaliaris, B. Friedrich;  Leaching of rare earth elements from eudialyte concentrate by suppressing silica gel formation, Minerals Engineering 108 December 2016 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mineng.2016.12.011


• E. Balomenos et al., The EURARE Project: Development of a Sustainable Exploitation Scheme for Europe’s Rare Earth Ore Deposits, Johnson Matthey Technol. Rev., 2017, 61, (2), 142–153 April 2017;  https://doi.org/10.1595/205651317X695172


• Efthymios Balomenos, Panagiotis Davris, Yiannis Pontikes, Dimitrios Panias; Mud2Metal: Lessons Learned on the Path for Complete Utilization of Bauxite Residue Through Industrial Symbiosis, Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy, September 2017, Volume 3, Issue 3, pp 551–560, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40831-016-0110-4


• Panagiotis Davris, Danai Marinou, Efthymios Balomenos, Alexandra Alexandri, Maria Gregou, Dimitrios Panias, Ioannis Paspaliaris, Leaching of rare earth elements from ‘Rödberg’ ore of Fen carbonatite complex deposit, using the ionic liquid HbetTf2N, Hydrometallurgy, 2017 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hydromet.2017.10.031


• Toli, A., Mikeli E., Marinοs D., Balomenos E., Panias D., Assessing the Efficiency of Ion Exchange Resins for the Recovery of Scandium from Sulfuric Acid Leaching Solutions, Separations 2023, 10, 366. https://doi.org/10.3390/separations10070366


• Vafeias, M.; Bempelou, A.; Georgala, E.; Davris, P.; Balomenos, E.; Panias, D. Leaching of Ca-Rich Slags Produced from Reductive Smelting of Bauxite Residue with Na2CO3 Solutions for Alumina Extraction: Lab and Pilot Scale Experiments. Minerals 2021, 11, 896. https://doi.org/10.3390/min11080896


• Eirini Georgala, Michail Vafeias, Amalia Bempelou, Efthymios Balomenos, Dimitrios Panias, Aluminium extraction from a calcium aluminate slag using sodium carbonate based on the critical examination of the patented industrial Pedersen process, Hydrometallurgy, Volume 222, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hydromet.2023.106188.


• Hengevoss D. , Victor Misev, Viktória Feigl, Ildikó Fekete-Kertész, Mónika Molnár, Efthymios Balomenos, Panagiotis Davris, Christoph Hugi, Markus Lenz, Life cycle assessment of a novel production route for scandium recovery from bauxite residues, Cleaner Waste Systems, 2024, 100129, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clwas.2024.100129


• Sparis, D.; Lazou, A.; Balomenos, E.; Panias, D. Thermodynamics of Aluminothermic Processes for Ferrotitanium Alloy Production from Bauxite Residue and Ilmenite. Metals 2024, 14, 200. https://doi.org/10.3390/met14020200


• Arne Peys, Athina Preveniou, David Konlechner, Guilherme Rubio, Maria Georgiades, Rupert J. Myers, Natalia Pires Martins, Efthymios Balomenos, Panagiotis Davris, Ruben Snellings, Ken Evans, Co-calcination to produce a synergistic blend of bauxite residue and low-grade kaolinitic clay for use as a supplementary cementitious material, CEMENT, 2024, 100122, ISSN 2666-5492, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cement.2024.100122


• Bagani, M., Bempelou, A., Vafeias, M. et al. Alumina Production from Calcium Aluminate Slags with a Novel HCl-Based Metallurgical Process. Sustain. Metall. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40831-025-01100-8


• Balomenos, P. Diamantopoulos, D. Gerogiorgis, D. Panias, I. Paspaliaris, C. Kemper, L. Peters, B. Friedrich, I. Vishnevetsky, M. Epstein, M. Halmann, A. Haselbacher, Z. Jovanovic, A. Steinfeld, Investigations into innovative and sustainable processes for the carbothermic production of gaseous aluminium DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-48144-9_130, In book: Light Metals 2014, pp.771-776. TMS 2014, At San Diego USA, 2014


• Balomenos, D. Kastritis, D. Panias, I. Paspaliaris, D. Boufounos, The ENEXAL bauxite residue treatment process: Industrial scale pilot plant results, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-48144-9_25, In book: Light Metals 2014, pp.143-147 TMS 2014, At San Diego USA, 2014


• Manish Kar, Casper Eijk, Efthymios Balomenos, and Jafar Safarian, Hydrogen reduction of bauxite residue pellets and effect of calcite addition, Proceedings of EMC 2023, July 2023 E. Balomenos, et al.,

Undergraduate Courses

• 7225a - Thermodynamics (2nd Semester)


• 7274 - Principles of Transport Phenomena (4th Semester)


• 7035 - Metallurgy of Iron, Steel and Ferroalloys (7th Semester)

• 7012- High Temperature Processes (5th Semester with Prof. M. Taxiarchou)


• 7189- Metallurgy of Non-Ferrous Metals (8th Semester with Prof. D. Pania)