BAM is advancing green steel production with hydrogen

The Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) is working with partner institutions in the European ZEROSTEEL project to reduce CO₂ emissions in steel production. The use of hydrogen and renewable energies is intended to make steel production more sustainable. The project is funded by the EU as part of the Horizon Europe program.

The global steel industry is responsible for about eight percent of the world's CO₂ emissions. In view of the ever-increasing demand for steel and the need to achieve the EU's climate targets, the switch to green steel production is essential.

Hydrogen, which is used instead of carbon to reduce iron ore and thus drastically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of steel production, plays a crucial role in this. In contrast to the conventional method, the only by-product produced is water.

In the ZEROSTEEL project, BAM is conducting laboratory experiments on hydrogen-based direct reduction of iron ore to investigate how the process can be further optimized. It will test whether it also works on an industrial scale in a pilot plant. It will also investigate the smelting reduction of iron ore with hydrogen plasma as an alternative process. And it is testing the use of climate-neutral carbon carriers such as biochar to further reduce the CO₂ emissions of steel production.

The ZEROSTEEL project brings together a large number of international partners from industry and research in Europe, including the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg, the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique in France and the Technical University of Vienna.

This article was first published on 20 February by BAM.