The main objective of H2PlasmaRed is to develop hydrogen plasma smelting reduction (HPSR) technology for the reduction of iron ores and steelmaking sidestreams to meet the targets of the European Green Deal for reducing CO2 emissions and supporting the circular economy in the steel industry across Europe. Our ambition is to introduce a near CO2-free reduction process to support the goal of the Paris Agreement - a 90% reduction in the carbon intensity of steel production by 2050. To achieve this, H2PlasmaRed will develop HPSR from TRL5 to TRL7 by demonstrating the HPSR in a pilot-HPSR reactor (hundred-kilogram-scale) that is an integrated part of a steel plant, and in a pilot-scale DC electric arc furnace (5-ton scale) by retrofitting the existing furnace. The project's end goal is to establish a way to upscale the process from pilot-scale into industrial practice. To support this goal, the novel sensors and models developed and implemented in the project are used for HPSR process optimization from a reduction, resource, and energy efficiency standpoint.

Scrap-based production of Steel using Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) with possibility of 100 % scrap charges, offers a Circular Economy-based solution to reduce CO2 emissions when compared to the integrated Blast Furnace (BF) + Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) route (1.81 tCO2/tsteel for BOF vs 0.23tCO2/tsteel for EAF). However, EAF production of sheet steel is currently not a reality due to the effect of undesired residual elements in the scrap. The aim of CiSMA is to introduce scrap-based EAF steel products into mass-market sheet metal consumer goods with high-quality requirements, currently served with BOF steel (96 % of the market). First, by generating fundamental knowledge on how residual elements, and Copper in particular, interact with sheet Steel and its performance. This will be done combining state-of-the-art methodologies with specialized resources, such as Synchrotron, to design Steel grades and determine safe residual thresholds. Next, scrap as a raw material will be studied together with methodologies to improve its quality and maximize the use of low-quality scrap, through the use of techniques that separate undesired inclusions from the main stream of steel. Finally, by generating a toolbox of enabling technologies to introduce recycled sheet metal in the industry: 1) fast characterization tests for quality control, 2) online test methodologies that can be applied in the press floor, and 3) the development of Machine Learning-enhanced Finite Element Modelling and Digital Twin that allow adapting production processes to feedstock with high variability. These developments will be showcased in applying four steel compositions into two pilot trials for mass-market applications: automotive and white goods. These trials will ensure that the material and production route developed can be readily accepted by the market, demonstrate the developed toolset of enabling technologies, and quantify the environmental improvements achieved compare to the current product.

Each year the EU steel sector generates several million tons of metal and mineral containing residues that are currently largely under-exploited and are often sent to landfills with an enormous waste of resources that could replace virgin materials. ReMFra main objective is the development and validation of highly efficient pyrometallurgic melting and reduction demonstration plant at relevant industrial scale for recovering metals and minerals contained in a wide range of steelmaking residues. The ReMFra process will allow to valorise steelmaking residues, such as filter dust, scale, sludge and slags, to obtain pig iron, iron rich oxides, a highly concentrated zinc oxide and an inert slag. ReMFra comprises two main parts to be developed, improved and tested at industrial scale: Plasma Reactor and RecoDust. The first will be dedicated to recover the coarse residues (scale, sludge, slag), while the second will focus on fine-grained dusts. The project will allow the improvement of iron yield using recovered pig iron instead of new pig iron and replacing the iron ore with the iron rich oxide. The recovery of concentrated ZnO and inert slag as by-products will provide a significant source of income and will contribute to the overall carbon neutrality. To reach the full circularity, the process foresees the use, as reducing agent, of secondary carbon sources (i.e. waste plastics). Energy recovery solutions will also be integrated in the metal recovery process starting from enabling the use of molten pig iron. ReMFra consortium comprises: 5 steelmaking companies, 4 RTOs as technology providers with large experience in steel sector, 1 university and the European Steel Technology Platform. To conclude, ReMFra is expected not only to enable technological advances in the demonstrators involved but will also contribute to the development of new standards, training programmes, adaptation and certification of industrial processes thus facilitating the replication of the project.

The objective of the project PURESCRAP is to increase the use of low-quality scrap grades (post-consumer scrap) by deploying and applying best available technologies to reduce impurities. This is achieved through novel sensor combinations and analysis supported by artificial intelligence. A key part is the connection between scrap sorter and the steel industry which are the consumers of the scrap. This ensures that there is a demand for the enhanced purification and valorisation methods. The steel industry also enables the industrial scale verification of the PURESCRAP methods, where sorted scrap is used for steelmaking in semi-industrial and industrial scale. The shredding process is identified as the most promising method leading to impurity liberation and later removal, for which the site of the Swedish scrap supplier STENA is chosen for demonstration. With a better analysis of the scrap material after the sorting and preparation chain, appropriate material handling can be optimised for desired outputs. During the project, sensor stations will be integrated in the two separate processing chains for heavy (cut) and shredded scrap. The proposed innovation of PURESCRAP has the ambition to go far beyond industrial state-of-the-art to achieve a higher recycling rate of post-consumer scrap (increased share of low-quality scrap over the total scrap input by at least 40% or more) compared to the usual practice for a specific steel quality, whereas realistic grades are e.g., rail steel R260 (1.0623; EN13674) and engineering steel 42CrMo4 (1.7225; DIN EN10083). This clearly contributes to the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA ) of the Clean Steel Partnership, and to the achievement of the European Green Deal goals regarding circular economy as well as to the reduction of CO2 emissions. The outstanding performance of the proposed PURESCRAP sensor stations will be demonstrated through the implementation at industrial scale at a scrap supplier site.

H2-enriched direct reduction (DR) is the key decarbonisation technology for integrated steelworks mentioned in pathways of all major steel producers. Natural gas driven DR is established in industry mostly outside Europe but there are no experiences with high H2 enrichment > 80%. H2 based reduction is no principal issue but endothermic and the influences on morphology, diffusion and effective kinetics are not known. Also properties and movement of particles in the reactor are not know and issues like sticking cannot be excluded. Probably, temperature distribution and flow of solids and gas will be clearly different. No reliable prognosis is possible yet, in particular with regard to local permeability, process stability and product quality of industrial size furnaces with higher loads on the particles and larger local differences. Many activities are initiated for first industrial demonstration of H2-enriched DR but they will not close many of these knowledge gaps. MaxH2DR provides missing knowledge and data of reduction processes. A world-first test rig determines pellet properties at conditions of industrial H2 enriched DR furnaces and a physical demonstrator shows the linked solid and gas flow in shaft furnaces. This will be combined with digitals models including the key technology DEM-CFD to provide a hybrid demonstrator able to investigate scale-up and to optimise DR furnace design and operating point. This sound basis will be used to optimise the process integration into existing process chains. Simulation tools will be combined to a toolkits that covers impacts of product properties on downstream processes as well as impacts on gas and energy cycles. Thus, promising process chains, sustainable and flexible, will be achieved for different steps along the road to decarbonisation. The digital toolkits will support industrial demonstration and implementation and strengthen digitisation and competitiveness of the European steel industry.